All this mention of plantar fasciitis has given me this earworm:
or thinking of Mussolini with a straw hat and rubber boots
The good: perspective, insight and the shining promise of Medicare
The bad: insomnia, arthritis, no short-term whatsis and bones like breadsticks
The ugly: loss
It’s a hell of a lot harder to lose weight than it used to be, even when I do everything “right.” Or maybe my everything right has changed?
Speaking of, I can’t eat unhealthy foods without consequences anymore. Headaches, stomach aches, bloating and nausea - I feel disgusting and sluggish after junk food, and I never used to when I was in my 20s. So I find myself eating healthy not always to lose weight, but because the consequences are far more uncomfortable than they used to be.
Also, all the fat in my body seems to be migrating into my ass, probably as a result of childbirth.
Inside I still feel the same as I did in my 20s, so I’m trying not to let on to my body that I’m almost 40.
I figure when I go totally grey then I will do neat shit like ombre hair without having to bleach the hell out of my hair first.
[URL=“http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/extension/”]
I’ve struggled with my weight all my adult life. Yo-yo dieting from 16 to ~58. I’ll be 61 next month and this time I’ve had better, and longer lasting (fingers crossed) success than ever before. Low carb.
</hijack>
re: falling, unable to get up:
The first time this happens, I go for the pills.
There was a story of a woman who fell - she and hubby were old and alone. They couldn’t afford the $500 the fire department would charge to lift her, so he but a blanket over her and she stayed on the floor for the rest of her life - a week or so.
That scares the shit out of me. NO way that it going to be me.
I just got down on hands ind knees (chair on one side, shelves on the other) - no problem getting up other than I can no longer bring my knee all the way up, so I lean forward a bit.
My gray hair has a totally different texture than it did when it was brown, and it really won’t hold color, so you may not get he results you wanted.
You know you’re getting old when your actions creak louder than your words.
The worst thing to me is: when you have some new malady, and you can’t decide if it is a disease that requires a doctor visit, or if it is just the slow decay of age and there’s nothing to be done about it.
Also - when all your doctors are retiring. Or dying. And you end up with some young whippersnapper that you feel more like his babysitter than his patient.
Eh? (age 59 1/2).
Get off my lawn.
I’ll soon be 70. Yikes. The machine is slowly breaking down, but I’m still mobile, quite active and generally feel great.
The most surprising thing, as a female, is the invisibility. I can wander unnoticed and ignored just about anywhere. As Marisa Tomei told Joe Pesci in that movie (what WAS that movie?) “Yeah. You blend.” I probably could shoplift with wild abandon if I wasn’t so paranoid.
I’m only 43, but I’m starting to experience little things that are a real pain.
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Failing eyesight. Used to be practically 20/20. Then for 13 years I used computers almost exclusively at jobs. Just to screw myself further, I picked up needlework as a hobby. Since age 37 I’ve needed computer/reading glasses for close work. Recently it hasn’t been good enough. Now it looks like I’m going to have to get an eye exam. :rolleyes:
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Gray hair. I started to go gray when I was 27-28 (I specifically remember an ex-boyfriend assuring me that my grays were “highlights”). Now I am 40% gray, with brown hair so dark it may as well be black. Dye doesn’t take in my hair for longer than 2 weeks, so I’m stuck with it for now.
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Having to worry about my damn bowels. A little blood will do that to you. I have to take fiber tablets, and Colace, and still have the occasional issue. My doctor said if we can’t get it sorted out I’m looking at a colonoscopy. I’m too young for this! :mad:
Three things:
- Killer acid reflux. I have literally thought I was dying during one of these attacks.
- The drooling. Gotta watch that I don’t fall asleep in the wrong position or I end up with a cold, wet shoulder.
- When any Doctor prefaces his sentence with “Well, you’re getting close to that age.” I hate that phrase especially when they want to shove all kinds of things in you.
I actually started noticing this in my 30’s, about 20 years ago: When I was together with a group of people around my age, at some point the conversation would turn to a discussion about this or that malady. That pretty much never happened earlier in my life. Now that my peers and I range from mid-50’s to early '60s, health issues crop up in conversation with alarming frequency.
Over the last decade, I have lost two good friends to cancer (ovarian, pancreatic), have known several people who have been treated for cancer and are OK (for now), and just last week found out that I guy I dated for a while two years ago and am still friendly with, is undergoing tests to figure out what sort of cancer he has. That’s scary, because these are all formerly healthy and for the most part clean-living people around my age.
Oh, and allergies that crop up later in life. For most of my life I thought that people who complained about seasonal allergies were wusses, or making shit up. Over the last several years however, I’ve been plagued with seasonal allergies that come and go from early spring, through fall. Now I get it. Ugh. I asked my doctor and he said, basically “yes, it’s not unusual to develop allergies as you age.” Great.
Oh well. Aging isn’t for sissies. 
I’m 60 and have had too much luck, got the ear hair thing but don’t ever get sick or go to the Dr, still work a 10 hour day repairing and installing irrigation systems, knock back 3-4 shots of good blanco Cien De Agave Tequila every night, eat wonderfully, lust heartily after women of all shapes and sizes and ages and some men, pitch a tent every night, and my only memory problem is wondering where I put my damn readers…
This thread, of course is an appropriate forum. But one line in the sand I drew was that I was not going to become a old bore like my elders were, and dragoon every conversation into a litany of ailments and procedures and prognoses.
A memorable line from a medical textbook was once quoted here on the boards: “The afflictions of the elderly, while often serious, are seldom interesting.”
I guess I had the easiest menopause ever, I had about 6 hot flashes and that was pretty much it. I have to say though I was embarrassed by the fact that I would often cry at “sad” commercials.
Cats have a habit of walking into a room and forgetting why they did it, so they sit down and wash.
Male, age 47.
They never told you how you will end up responsible for everything - your kids are too young to take care of themselves at the same time as your parents are getting too old to take care of themselves. So guess what, you have to do both. While concentrating on your career, because you are now in your peak career years as well.
Just as you are starting to get tired …
I just turned 53. Stupid menopause was not a problem, a very few hot flashes and it seemed done. But after about 18 months without a period, thinking I was home free, BAM! digging through drawers looking for tampons. That’s just not fair.
I can’t do as much around the farm as I used to, but I still bushhog my own fields and muck out my own stalls and haul my own feed. I do find that I can’t pound T posts all day like before. I try to accommodate by doing a little every day, rather than put a whole day into a task. And when the guy at the feedstore offers to load feed, or my hay guy starts stacking hay, I let them do it, rather than pitch in.
I’ve been hard of hearing most of my life, but now I realize that I don’t much care what other people are saying, anyway.
It took a long time, but I learned to say “It’s not my problem” when people come to me whining and wanting me to fix their lives.
I’m more or less the weight I’ve always been but I think my metabolism is slowing down. I’ve recently cut back on my Coke consumption to one 12-oz can per day.
I’m less likely to take in young animals. If I bought a yearling horse now, there’s every chance that the horse would outlive me. I’ve made arrangements for my animals, but I don’t want them to be too big a burden on someone else.
StG
Me and my poker buddies are all in our fifties, and we have been playing together since college. When we noticed that medical maladies were getting more and more frequent in the poker banter, we instituted a rule: Five minute limit on medical complaints, then we have to go back to talking about pussy.
If we can remember what that is.