This, and things either don’t heal quickly or completely.
That’s the other thought, “so this is the new normal.”
Best advice of my life, best body of my life , from a Pilates teacher who joined the yoga studio. Ballet dancer with JP mentor, Colombian. Isolate the muscle groups. Go slow. Caroline stays in my prayers.
I Do want to talk about menopause. I’m 61. Yes, it’s wonderful not to have to worry about pregnancy anymore, but I don’t want to know what would happen if I didn’t use my astroglide. I am lucky enough to have a gyno who gives me hrt pills. I am worried about glaucoma, I get blurry at times and blinking with eyes wide helps. I have been told to get a colonoscopy for years but I don’t think I can fast. Oh yeah, I have five natural teeth left and don’t want to lose them.God, I sound fun😕
Not a day goes by where something doesn’t hurt.
mmm
Hmmm, when you know it’s not gonna get better.
Saw a specialist a few weeks ago on the foot. Yep, that is arthritis in the big toe. “We can cut it out once it is too bad to deal with”
Oh, and the inflamed nerves on the neighboring toe. “Well, might have been able to do something about that if you hadn’t gutted it out for two years first. Cortisone, might, and I stress, might help. Again, we can cut out the nerve but then you basically have a dead toe, so don’t want to do that until you can’t cope.”
And I saw a knee specialist a while back. “Hey, I’ve got great news for you, surgery won’t help. What, you don’t look pleased?”
“Doc, I was hoping you would say we can clean that up for ya, and you’ll be dancing a jig a week after the microscoptic surgery.”
Can’t complain. Snowboarding season starts tomorrow and I’m still up for that. “Dad, I’ll wait for you at the lift…”
suntanlotiontwo
“I have been told to get a colonoscopy for years but I don’t think I can fast”
It’s not hard to fast when you’re on the can all day, and you know if you eat something you’ll explode. There are some things you can have, warm clear broth, hard candies (not red or purple), vodka and water (not recommended actually, but helps - your doc will give you a list. You’re late for your colonoscopy, by 11 years. C’mon, you can do it. Ask for the pills rather than the poop juice, you need to do this.
It’s a quick, short fast of solids, but you can eat enough semi-solids that you truly won’t feel hungry. If I could do it, anyone could.
They’ll remove any polyps, which could eventually become malignant tumors. You’ll be grateful you had it done.
Teeth! That’s the thing I am suffering the most right now. Unlike America, a country that seems to obsess over having perfect teeth, I live in a place where any dental treatment is extremely painful and expensive, and so I neglect my dentist. Even though I try to take care of them, age inevitably takes a toll, and I am in the midst of a messy situation in there. I keep telling myself I’ll get it fixed when I have money, but I simply don’t have any money.
Wife has a long, painful, crummy past with her reproductive organs. She’s not using HRT…sex is painful for her, we make do.
I’m fortunate in that regard. My dentist keeps telling me that “Your teeth are like rocks. You’ll be buried with them!” I don’t do anything special, just brush twice a day.
Agree 100%. It probably depends on the prep you’re given, but in my case I only have to fast from the time I start taking the prep, which is 5pm the evening before the procedure. It was not a problem for me. And the last time I did it, I did not have to spend the night on the can, I got almost the usual amount of sleep.
If you get a clean bill of health (i.e. no polyps or other problems) they might let you go 10 years before the next one. Or they might let you substitute Cologuard or some other non-invasive testing for a few years.
Really, this is one you need to do.
Very old joke, I’m sure Qadgop’s heard it:
Doctor: So how have you been feeling since your last visit?
Patient: Oh, pretty good; not bad at all.
But if I’d felt this way when I was 25, I’d have thought I was awful sick!
Yeah.
When you go for a checkup, and instead of saying ‘You’re fine, come back in two years!’ or even ‘you’ve got walking pneumonia, take these meds and go home and go to bed till you’re over it’ they say ‘you’ve got this and this and that and the other, we might or might not be able to fix one of them with major surgery, expect to take meds for the rest of your life for another and just to live with the rest --’
My wife was just diagnosed with potential heart blockage. Depending on what happens this Thursday, she could end up in the hospital with heart surgery. Her doctor mentioned stents. I’m waiting for a doctor’s appointment in February to see if I am a candidate for knee replacement surgery. I am tired of my knees hurting all the time.
I have fallen three times in the past year, and all three had to do with balance. The second resulted in a deep gouge in my lower leg that still hasn’t healed, after more than 2 months. I have to go to the Wound Clinic every week and change the dressing every day. When I remove the dressing I can see the inside of my leg. It’s healing, but very, very slowly.
And yesterday morning I fell on my face, nearly broke my nose. And lost a tooth. Lots of blood.
And nobody has mentioned Type 2 Diabetes. It affects everything, and I mean everything.
I recommend that you join Hypochondriacs Anonymous. You may find that the hardest part is just admitting that you haven’t got a problem.
I’ve had Polymyalgia Rheumatica for years now. The first few “attacks” I just tolerated the pain for a year or so until it went away. The most recent occurrence was so bad I got a definitive diagnosis.
Good luck to her. I got my first stent in 1997, at age 39. I’ve got 7 in me now, but none new since about 14 years ago. Finally found the right combination of meds and other tx to keep my coronaries relatively open. That’s what comes from having a mutation causing my normal cholesterol to be over 400, and my LDL to be over 300. Thanks to new drugs my LDL is now about 55 and HDL is 58. New pharmacologics saved my live. They also saved my daughter’s life when a breakthrough treatment for CF was found.
This is something I’ve noticed lately. Left hip, left knee, left elbow, right shoulder, multiple fingers… Just this morning, I was thinking that I should talk to my doc (actually, she’s a PA-C) but one part of me feels like she has enough dealing with people with real problems. Yeah, I know, this could be real problems, but it feels petty to complain about it.
I’ve dealt with the frozen shoulder - lots of stretches seemed to do the trick. I had worse knee issues - losing some tonnage helped with that. I’ve always has lousy upper body strength, so I joined the county gym and I’m going to try to work on that.
Worst of all - my eyes. I’ve noticed floaters of various sizes over recent months. They come and go but I’m guessing they’re not good. I’ll be seeing my eye doc early in the year and I’ll ask him about it. I’ve also noticed problems with focus, especially distances - maybe my glasses need to change. And night driving is close to impossible because of astigmatism. If I’m on familiar roads, I’m OK, but if I don’t know the area, it’s too hard to see what’s what in the dark because of the glare. Stupid eyes…
Next to all that, the thinning hair is nothing. At least it’s not gray yet. Yet. I’ll be 68 in January - my dad died at 72 and he hardly had any gray. So I’ve got that going for me. I guess.
I still run several times a week, but I can’t run back-to-back days. If I run first thing in the morning, my back will ache after sitting at my desk all day. But frankly, it hurts whether I run or not.
I’m much more conscious of avoiding falling - I’m more conservative when I run, bike, or ski, but I continue to do all three. My goals for adventures are more modest, and we now take out travel insurance for any emergencies we might encounter.
After my wife’s latest knee surgery the PT was satisfied that she had full functional range motion, but not full range of motion that she used to have. That’s the first time the PT has lowered the goals of recovery and my wife is upset that she shouldn’t expect to get diminished range of motion anymore.