Menopause kicked my ass too, it was awful. If it’s any comfort, once you’re finally “done”, most, if not all, of those symptoms may disappear. They did for me, except for the memory thing.*
*Now that I’m older, I ponder the hereafter frequently. I keep walking into rooms and wondering what I’m in here after.
The only thing that truly makes me terrified is hearing loss. It seems like I’m replying “say again?” to every other thing people say. In just a few years it’s gotten much worse and if the deterioration continues at this rate I’ll be unable to hold a normal conversation in a decade.
I guess I better brush up on my sign language…
I’ve become invisible for the most part. When I do get attention it’s people treating me like an old person.
And time. It goes so fast. It’s like I’m flying down hill every day.
That sums it up perfectly. I am finally living the life I want to lead. If you don’t like it, too fucking bad. I’m in a wonderful celibate relationship with a 24 year old guy, and I’m happier than I have ever been
If anyone tells you menopause is a natural, easy time of life, kick their ass. It is hell. However, once it passes you feel better than you have since you started getting your periods.
I have to go along with you, at 65 I feel my quality of life is possibly better than ever because I am feeling fullfilled in nearly all aspects of my life. Maybe slowing down has forced me to take a better look at things as I am exposed to them.
I can deal with all the things mentioned here. But what makes me want to cry on a daily basis is my hands. When did they get all freckled and crepe-y skinned, with veins popping up like blue spaghetti? I know now why little old ladies used to wear mitts.
The worst part about getting older (not old! dammit!) is - wait, I have to take something out of the oven - OK back now, umm, what was I thinking off?
Not just inner ear hair, but ear growing from the ears themselves. All of a sudden, I had a two-inch hair growing out of the top my ear - where did that come from?
Another thing I didn’t expect: having to learn to act old. I read the Dope and the Giraffe board and other internet media, and IRL I tend to speak young and slang-y like we post here. I’ll also absent-mindedly observe how hot some young actor is before I remember I’m 57 and I’m not supposed to do that anymore. I’m supposed to say “My land” or “what a nice young boy!”.
In my mind, I’m forever 24 years old.
Now I’m scared of aging 
One of the great revelations of adulthood ( at least for me ) has been how little we really change mentally from when we were younger. Plenty of changes, sure - but not nearly as much as I imagined there would be when I was 14.
I’m about to turn 50, and the ear hair has started right on schedule. I’ve always had the ringing ears and floaters, so those are no big deal. On the plus size, I probably have less body fat than I have any time since my serious running days. I need more recovery time, but I can still go out and run five miles pretty easily.
I’d give up small advantages like that in an instant if I could be young again.
Even as a child, I knew I’d end up with ugly, gnarly fingers because both my grandmothers had arthritis. I assumed it would hurt; it doesn’t (so far). I figured I’d lose strength in my hands - I have. But it never occurred to me I would no longer be able to click my fingers along with Peggy Lee singing Fever.
I also forgot about the spots on the forehead. Don’t believe the fuckers who say it is sun-related. I have religiously avoided exposure to the sun for over 5 minutes without head covering since I was in my early 30s. (With a few backslidings every now and then.)
I have plenty of them, now, that just shriek “old man”.
Female, 53.
Holy shit, I get hot flashes day and night - in the winter I have gotten hot flashes sleeping with the damned window open and its nowing out and I still was wishing for an air conditioner. I turned the small table fan on me and used a bedsheet until I cooled off.
On the other hand, I hate trying to get ready to go out in a hurry - struggling into a damned front hook bra means I need to have mrAru pull the back of the bra down into place because I can’t bend around and reach up the middle of my back any longer. Thanks joint issues.
On the gripping hand, the whole lack of hormone thing means in a pinch as long as I don’t exert myself and get really sweaty, I can just do a rinse off [no soap] shower and not wash my hair so I don’t dry my skin and hair out so I am debating going back to the whole no shampoo thing. With butt length hair it would be beneficial.
I have noticed something interesting.
I knew my maternal Grandmother - she was born in 1899 and died in 1982. I only knew her as the stereotypical blue grey haired little old lady who sat there doing needlework - very fine boned, tiny little thing of 5’1" and more or less unchanging from my earliest memories of her [when I was 5] until her death.
I knew my mother - she didn’t really hit the sitting around birdlike little old lady phase until she started doing the Alzheimers thing about 12 years ago. She was born in 1923. She is now 90 [and unfortunately we had to place her in a full care facility back in December because she fell twice and it became impossible for my brother to really care for her properly.] but she never acted like a little old lady.
I am 53. I am not entirely certain what it means to be 53. Other than aches and pains, I don’t feel any different mentally than I was when I was 20. I held a management position fairly young, held 2 jobs at various times, and worked from the time I was 15 even while in high school and college. Most of the kids I play MMORPGs with online don’t realize I am not a kid [and many of them do not realize I am female.] Am I supposed to become the little old lady? Do I have to change? I mean I don’t do a lot of the whole Gen X Millennial thing, I act more like a Boomer [obviously] but … why do I still feel like I am 20 inside?
[URL=“http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/”]
One day last winter, I was carrying groceries from the garage to the house. Somehow, I landed on my hands and knees in the middle of the back yard, in 2 feet of snow. I didn’t trip over anything, I didn’t slip on the ice, I just lost my balance and wound up on my hands and knees in 2 feet of snow. The problem was: I couldn’t get up. My legs were too weak, and so was everything else. I had to crawl through the snow until I reached the A/C unit, then pulled myself up by it.
That wouldn’t have happened just a few years ago. I wouldn’t have lost my balance in the first place, and if I did I would have been able to get back up again.
Oh, and I can’t still do simple math in my head. I can’t remember anyone’s name. I’m always reminded that everyone on my father’s side had Alzheimers. I’m overweight. I have diabetic nerve pain in my feet, and my hands itch. I’ve gone from simple reading glasses to bifocals to bifocals plus computer glasses. I’m afraid I might lose my left foot. I need two knee replacements. I need an upper denture. My hearing is shot to hell. I remember to put things on the shopping list, but forget to take it with me. My prescription copay is over $500 per month. I used to be a great speller, but now I have to look up every other word. I have to wear compression stockings, which I hate. My doctors keep telling me to walk, but how can I walk with all this knee and foot pain? I have to take a handful of prescription pills and supplements every day. There’s only one pair of shoes (Merrell) that I can wear, and I don’t know what’ll happen when they wear out. I’m at the age when everything either dries out or leaks.
And all that fucking ear hair!
And one nose hair . . . not the ones in the nostrils, but the one that sprouts from the bridge of my nose. I keep pulling it out, and it always grows back.
In 3 weeks I’ll be 69. Next year I’ll be . . . :eek:
I was just in a Walgreens with the customary music playing.
Then I noticed: These songs are older than the people behind the pharmacy window (early ‘60’ girl groups, for the most part - no Beatles (McCartney probably won’t license them, the prick. It’s not like you are producing anything new, so you aren’t going to be competing with yourself - Asshole!)).
Tinnitus for over 10 years, a list of drugs without which I’m in deep doo-doo, ugly hands. Otherwise, I credit CA living and life-long single, no kids - both they and I are happy about that. I used to say “Somewhere out there is an absolutely wonderful woman who doesn’t know it, but I’m doing her a tremendous favor by not being married to her” . Still applies, with an extra exclamation point) to being wrinkle free at 65. I actually have to remind myself of my age before I do something rash, like trying to lift anything.
I have given up googling old acquaintances - the one who got away died 6 months and 1 week after her 50th (no typo) birthday - of the only disease indigenous to N. America which scares the living shit out of me. The one I got away from died at 61. Found dead in her home - cause not listed in the rather lengthy obit in her (pop 9000) (no typo) town newspaper. She had just moved from the town (about 20 miles) to take a better job. That town was her life support. I suspect suicide. She was an RN with access to the good stuff, and the knowledge to make sure she didn’t screw up and awake on a gurney.
The hot MBA who had the world at his feet is now teaching at some third-rate school in TX - he was an E.Coast Jew who ventured to SF, then went back east to sell Junk Bonds. Last time I saw him, he was staying at one of the world-class hotels in SF. Not a third-rate TX boy.
Only one name I tried came back without an obit or job assignment. I don’t know her married name, so maybe the obit did not list her maiden name.
Depressing. So I now ignore it. As with a shitty childhood, the lesson learned is : so much for that; turn the page.
And Annette Funicello is dead. Damn, that is way too much.
And has been dead for over a year.
WHY DON’T PEOPLE TELL ME THESE THINGS!!
[/grandpa Simpson)
From my 73yo mother re my 9yo nephew:
“I told the kids I am always in slow mode in the mornings, and your nephew answered ‘Grandma, you are always in slow mode :D!’:mad:”