And you start feeling old. You wake up some days with assorted aches and pains and you haven't even done anything yet. You get nervous when you have to get up on a step stool to get something off a high shelf because the idea of falling is getting scarier and scarier. You can feel yourself sliding into that broken hip demographic. It's hitting you more and more than you're not just old, you're elderly. And then you walk into the waiting room at the geriatrician's office.
Holy wah, I'm young again. No walker, no cane, no oxygen bottle in tow, no one hovering by my side making sure I don't fall over . . . suddenly I am apparently the healthiest person in the room. It felt . . . odd.
As for why I went seeking a new PCP, among other things the doctor I had been seeing had mentioned that she's not happy with the weather here on the tundra. I got the distinct impression that as soon as her contract with the local clinic is up, she was going to disappear over the horizon to a warmer climate. I was due for an annual check-up so decided it was a good time to make the switch. I've got to drive farther, but I think it's going to be worth it.
The doctor, incidentally, affirmed I am in good shape in general, although (no surprise) I should establish a formal exercise routine. I figure that if I've gotten to the age I am now without incorporating a formal exercise routine into my daily schedule, it's not likely to happen in the future, but you never know.
Getting old is a pain in the ass if you ask me. I was fine until about five years ago but now I'm 71 things are going to hell on me. Part of that may be my fault cuz I don't stay as active as I always was and piss away to much time at a computer.
ReplyDeleteI'm new to the Vets care system but I must admit that because of some recent negative coverage they are trying pretty hard to prove they can do better.
They gave me an appointment for a procedure at the hospital in Seattle on the 16th @ 7:30 AM but our vets van doesn't have a driver for that day to get me there, and it doesn't get there that early anyway.
So the great folks at the vets resource center here made some phone calls and a Fort Lewis taxi is going to come clear out here to take me there.
And because I'll be sedated after they are going to bring me home in a town car, this sure is a strange planet.
And Ray should get over his obsession with pot smoking granny's and put up a new post. There is a new pot sales outlet two blocks away from me.
We are having "old man" weather here in Ukraine: dull, grey, cold to touch and at day's end damp in places.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking we can judge the advancement of our age by how much we drool on the pillow. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe bought a recumbent exercise bike for $160 on e-bay. We have a calendar on the refrigerator with our appointments etc and each day we spend ten minutes on the bike we put a sticker on the calendar... such as it is it keeps us focused.
ReplyDeleteI am seventy five and I honestly believe that staying active is the best way to age. I bowl weekly, do my own maintenance around the home, heat with firewood and ride a motorcycle in the summer. I am not getting younger but I look at people my age and younger are practically immobile and it gives me incentive.
I will post a link to that bike.
the Ol'Buzzard
Thanks for the offer on the link, but I have one exercise bike serving as a clothes rack now, don't need another.
ReplyDelete