A Night Unremembered
13 years ago
Friday, February 19, 2016
Apparently Old Age Sucks
I'm old so I can say that with authority. It's a time in one's life filled with pills, medical procedures, and aches and pains. I can attest to the aches and pains. I don't take a lot of pills, just a generic, over-the counter, acid reducer which I take every night so I don't wake up in the middle of the night with heartburn. By the way, this acid reflux problem began for me in my early forties, not exactly "old age."
I took a friend to the hospital this morning so he could have a stent put in (they ended up giving him two so now he has10 all told). He'll be fine and he'll be back playing golf by Monday.
I have another friend who is 87 and has been suffering with Leukemia for the last 30 years, he's also doing fine and still plays golf occasionally. Leukemia used to be a death sentence but now it can be treated and cured or treated and maintained at a tolerable level.
When old guys get together, that's pretty much what we talk about: medical procedure and conditions, the pills we take, and the aches and pains we deal with. Many of us are on blood thinners or low dose aspirin which makes us bleed more than younger guys and clot less.
Another thing we do is talk about how much better we were at golf and other sports when we were younger. I was never very good at golf but I have gotten much worse the past three years... I like to blame that on an inner ear problem which is affecting my balance but that is assumption on my part, not confirmed by any doctors.
I hate doctors, by the way, and (like my father) avoid them as much as possible.
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4 comments:
Well you're right, getting old is no fun. But as they say, it's better than the alternative. As for me, I don't believe in much, but I do believe in modern medicine. I likely would have suffered a slow, painful and disgusting death by now were it not for the colonoscopy I had when I was 51, when the doctor removed a precancerous polyp.
"Well you're right, getting old is no fun. But as they say, it's better than the alternative."
And just how do you know?
Douglas, I didn't say I know; I said "as they say." And for now at least, I'll go with the majority!
Tom, it's become an almost natural comeback for me when someone says that about the logical alternative... even theists, maybe especially theists, since they maintain people that die are now in "a better place."
BTW, my former Father-in-law died from colon cancer and it wasn't a nice passing so I understand.
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