I didn’t intend to bring up health this early in the dialogue, but yesterday I spent a couple hours with my parents, an aunt and uncle. The average age between the four of them was 90. They inspired me, because they haven’t stopped living independently. When I combine that with what I’m experiencing each day now on the health front, that’s what led to this.
Mobility. Do we take it for granted? I assure you those four I talked to yesterday aren’t anymore. The ability to safely drive- what happens when that goes away, and at what point do we say “I’m not safe to drive anymore.” ? Or do we wait until someone takes it away from us because we have a bad accident, or a near miss? How about walking without a walker? At some point we will not be able to walk 100% of the time without one, and it probably goes downhill from there. Even now I don’t lift my legs as high as I used to and end up stumbling more often these days.
Coordination/flexibility/dexterity/physical activity. I put these together mainly because I can see this post getting real long otherwise (and not really encouraging). I’m not nearly as nimble with my fingers as I used to be. The natural coordination isn’t what it used to be. This forces me to be much more deliberate with the basic functions. Can you still “swivel” your head left/right/up/down as well as you used to? And then there’s reaction time….
Observing my elders mentioned above, just going from one room to another (or one function to another) requires considerably more time and effort. Functions like reaching down to pick up something you dropped (which occurs more often) will eventually become undoable..
I do still run. Much slower, and much more carefully for all the reasons in the above paragraph. The stride is shorter. But the knees are holding out and I’m very thankful I can still run. But my days of being to run are numbered.
Diminished hearing or eyesight? Going to need to dedicate a post on options for hearing aid options and cataract surgery.
I hate ear hair. Where did that ever come from in the first place?
Diet and digestive systems. That’s an entire subject on its own and for a different set of posts.
Erectile dysfunction (not going there, at least not now).
And I haven’t even started talking about deteriorating cognitive skills- an issue for myself as well as my parents.
For many, all these things combined lead to a point where living independently is no longer possible (An update- for some basic insight into helping parents with the transition from independent living to assisted living, see post #92).
So we adjust. Our parents did. We have medical advances that impact each one of these, and more. In the next twenty years, think about what else is going to come out of the medical world. In the meantime, we can see what’s ahead of us, and there are things we can do now to put off “old age” stuff.
Thoughts?
Love the blog! When it comes to health I am a few years behind you and my wife has said to me for years what you put in your body now will determine how live post 70. I have not listened to her. Just now starting to. Selfish eating really can lead to serious problems.
Number one problem is weight. Easy to rationalize the weight because your taller and feel strong. That same weight at 50, 55, 60 really begins to take its toll. So either you exercise it off or change eating habits and at age 60 there is only one answer. You must do both. And so it begins. Strength, flexibility, and better muscle tone will come in working out. It is all meaningless without the change in eating habits. Without good health is is hard to enjoy retirement.
Hey! Confession time huh? Thanks for checking the blog out. It’s a work in progress. I’m trying add some features (like link to Facebook page) to put the word out and get some folks to weigh in and get me smarter. It’s a real slow process learning the features and figuring out how to execute.
New post coming up this weekend.