If I could restore anything it would be my hearing. I’m far from a worst-case scenario, but it’s getting hard for me to handle background noise. Fortunately, my friends are helpful with that (I was at a local fair earlier today and the food truck we were ordering from was near a noisy generator. I told the person taking my order I was going to have trouble hearing them, and I certainly did, but they were patient and my friend I was with helped out and we got the job done). And yes, I should get tested for hearing and probably get a hearing aid or two (if it turns out they could help) but for the past few months I’ve had to deal with a couple health problems that are objectively worse than middle-aged hearing loss. (I’ve taken to telling people my ears need bifocals because they keep missing the fine details).
The most annoying thing? My best and oldest friend, who remembers the days when I had Super Hearing (because I used to have better-than-average hearing) hasn’t quite got it into her head yet that no, I do NOT hear like I used to. The fact we live a couple hundred miles apart now and don’t spend as much time face-to-face anymore is a factor. But when we visit at least once during that time she’ll be mumbling while facing away from me or in the next room and get peeved when I don’t answer her. Well, sorry, I didn’t hear you. I usually find out when I overhear her husband reminding her I have some hearing loss. Well, she’s getting somewhat better about it. It really peeves me, though, because normally she’s very good and conscientious around people with hearing problems, she just hasn’t really absorbed that I’m one of them now. What with the first 40 years we knew each other I could hear a gnat cracking its knuckles upstairs and two rooms over from where I stood. I do miss those days.
You will find that more trouble than it’s worth if you can’t also restore her libido. Which the medical / pharmaceutical folks tell us is much the harder problem.
I’d have said “… much the tougher nut to crack.”, but certain metaphors just don’t belong used in certain situations. Ouch!
Another request for hearing. I have close to zero hearing in my right ear. I wear a hearing aid in my left ear which helps, but I still have poor comprehension.
Our healthcare system is so advanced that I could have cochlear implants that would allow me to hear very well. Our healthcare system is so stupid that I do not qualify for insurance covering the procedure.
I’d like to have the energy and flexibility of my younger days. I’m not even talking about in my 20s or 30s. Up until ten years ago (I turned 70 last year) I thought nothing of walking fairly long distances. While I didn’t have the strength to lift and carry very heavy things, I could do my grocery shopping on the bus with a rolling cart. Now between my anemia and bad knees I find myself tiring easily and never knowing from one day to the next whether I’ll be able to do my housework.
I have so many deficiencies, I wouldn’t know how to choose. One is good, but I have to come to prefer my e-reader where I can adjust the type size; the other is no good owing to a botched cataract operation whose correction led to a detached retina that led to an unsuccessful repair that led to an oil bubble permanently installed to keep the retina whole.
My hearing isn’t too bad, but not really good. I am watching a ball game right now and the announcers are utterly clear, but when I was zooming with my kids last night, could barely understand them, no matter how high I cranked the volume.
But I think that what I miss most is the ability to walk any distance. Six or seven years ago, I walked 4 miles to my office a couple times a week. Then I didn’t for most of a year and then could not bear to do that. Now it has come down to 1/4 mile walk being difficult.
I used to have excellent eyesight. My hobby is photography and without the development of autofocus I don’t think I’d still be able to do it with the way my eyesight has deteriorated over the years. So I’d like that back most.
This is really hard to say, because everything has deteriorated more or less similarly. I hate always needing glasses because I can’t find glasses that fit (and the ones I made out of wire and epoxy, which fit, look ridiculous). The constant tinnitus is a drag. So is constant joint pain. So is not being allowed to do anything during which I might fall (per my spinal surgeon).
But I think I’m going to have to go with restoring my breathing. I had chemical exposure in my 20s that left me with chronic bronchitis, and it is a constant consideration. At least the Worker Compensation Commission is covering the expenses.
I would like to restore my ability to sleep well. I have had very few nights of solid sleep over the past decade. I often muddle by on 4-5 hours of lousy shallow sleep per night.
I can barely even remember what a solid consecutive 8 hours of real sleep feels like.
I would like to have my energy back. Everything, even stuff I completely enjoy, is draining. Each effort, however minor it appears, will need a rest afterward, from walking the dogs to making lunch. I’m operating at about half power from what I could do in my forties.
I also find that things I was never any good at, I’ve almost totally lost. Such as remembering names, faces, simple math … I even used to be able to troubleshoot software problems. Not anymore, I no longer possess the patience and focus. Or maybe, the intelligence.
Please may I have my very strong back again? I’m small, but strong and wiry. I can now twist my back…in my sleep! Stretching and heating pads are seeing a lot of use the older I get.
But, yeah, sleeping well and late into the day would be awesome too!
This. I always wake up about an hour or two after I go to sleep, then again after four hours. While I usually don’t have any trouble getting back to sleep after the first time I wake up, sometimes after the second time I wake up I can’t get back to sleep for what seems like an hour.
It doesn’t help that my cat has decided that sometime around 6:30 he has to walk around my head and keep bumping and pawing at me. When I push him away sometimes he’ll get off the bed, then give me just enough time to go back to sleep before returning.
Eyesight. It started going at about age 7, glasses at 9YO, then the floaters began taking up residence in my mid-teens, and not the friendly kind, either. So, the vision of a 5 year old, if you please.
Now, now, let us not get greedy! As someone in his sixties, I’d be content to have the energy of someone in their thirties. And maybe their knees. And ankles. Lower back. Hips. Shoulders… .
Why doesn’t our generation have more mad scientists working on harvesting young people for more useful things than their money. We need to lean into that selfish Boomer rep.
