I’m so sorry to hear about the gout, Airman - I’ve heard gout is incredibly painful. I hope it gets better very, very soon.
I feel like when I hit maybe 42 the doors just started falling off (for what it’s worth I’m now 46). Suddenly I can’t eat after 8 p.m. or I can’t sleep. I have to exercise every day or what I believe is arthritis starts flaring in my left hip, knees and ankles (I haven’t had it diagnosed, but it burns like fire if I don’t work out every day). I get brain fog when I eat poorly and my hair is thinner than it used to be which is unacceptable because I’m a woman and that’s the one damn thing I still had.
I should probably have a primary care physician, get some bloodwork done and all that noise, but so far I’m avoiding it because the only medical advice I’ve gotten so far is, “Have you thought about losing some weight?” “Why, NO! That has never, ever occurred to me ever!” Like yeah, I get it, that would really help. I work out five to six days a week and try hard not to eat crap. That’s about what I can manage right now.
All that to say, I totally sympathize. Getting older is good in that I’ve got more experience and bad in that there are certain things that are just breaking down and it takes more and more effort to slow that down or stop it. Youth really is wasted on the young, isn’t it?
You bet. Sometimes I see the question, “Would you like to be sixteen again?”
My answer is, “If you put my fifty-nine year old brain into that body, sure!”
I hear you about the hair. Mine was thick and glorious years ago. Thanks to menopause, it’s a mere approximation of the texture now, and not a good approximation at that.
I’m older that @Airman_Doors_USAF by a decade and a half, and while I haven’t had gout, nor a terrifying motorcycle accident (and I should thank you for pushing my interest in them even further down the priority list), but there’s always something aching. Lately it’s the knees - and for no reason (no injuries or other changes).
I definitely can’t burn the midnight oil the way I could 30+ years ago. Maybe that’s part of why we evolved menopause: older women couldn’t deal with the sleeplessness of having a young baby!
Ugh, I’m dealing with old ACL surgery pain in my right knee. I’ve had it before, and it feels like there’s a chunk of scar tissue floating around in there. That’s in addition to all the regular pains of now being 50+.
