Getting old is not for sissies

glad you brought it up, CI.

While I'm here and (seemingly) chatting with you, allow me to extend my sincerest wishes for a healthy and happy New Year. I hope you continue with your recovery from prostate cancer. I hear great strides have been made with this type of cancer. I had a friend who also recovered 100% from it.

Lately, as and 'aging wonder' I've had some short-term memory problems. I wanted to attribute them to the distress over my financial worries; however, reality says that it could be from the aging process. I haven't been very disciplined about helping combat this and I'm trying to re-introduce more exercise into my routine.

One of the by-products of my 'brand' of getting older has been my arrhythmia. I was fortunate enough to live long enough to get this diagnosed as opposed to relatives who may have died of it and was undetected.

This discovery is still somewhat shocking to me that at age 57 that I have this sort of problem in my life as I was a fairly active in my past. Apparently a birth defect caught up with me when I was about 51 and as a precaution my cardiologist implanted a pacemaker/defib unit around 2003. All this was done after a routine physical showed up some scarey irregularities.

I feel lucky to be around and still leading a fairly active lifestyle. My g/f (seeing her for 9 months) and I are going on vacation to Sedona AZ January 8th-15th. She's 55 and has arrhythmia and is also is a breast cancer survivor (11 yrs w/ no problems). I feel that this is a golden age of medicine that we are living in at least for some us. We survive these assaults on our health due to some luck and also to our insistence on pushing for the right answers and getting good quality medical care. May socialized medicine NEVER hit here.

Financially, I'm coping, but barely. My financial reserve have been affected by many jobs changes over the decades and some setbacks due to upheaval with 2 divorces. I'm still trying to get some sort of job security with a new job (almost 6 months) at a highly profitable local div. of Goldman Sachs.

That's my story. Wish me luck as I do the same for you.

Hi Ragman, You should know by now you will always have my best wishes.

We can't do much about our genes, but we can do everything in our power to get good health care (routine health checks), know what to ask your doc, and exercise regularly - with good eating habits (everything in moderation).

As you say, medical advances have come a long way, and my prostate cancer was treated by putting gold seeds in my prostate to target the radiation. I was lucky, because I didn't have the "usual" side-effects from the treatment, except having to go pee more often. (The urge is strong and more frequent during treatment.)

It seems testosterone exacerbates the prostate cancer, so I had to get a couple of hormone shots (Lupron) to reduce it. Otherwise, all is well.

I'm planning on cutting back on my travels, because my energy level is not what it used to be.

Otherwise, have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY, HEALTHY, PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

By the grace of God, I have no serious ailments but i gotta tell you, as lame as it sounds, I look in the mirror or worse, see pictures of myself taken nowadays and I could just cry. It's so vain and ridiculous but I can't deny it.

After the age of 50, it's patch, patch, patch.

I am lucky. am in fairly good shape, a lot of stamina, and am looking like my business is on the upswing again. I make a living doing what I like and what I've always liked.

However, I have no zest for life at all anymore and feel I will grow old alone and die lonely.

Financially I'm crawling out of the hole and things are looking much brighter as long as I don't get sick.

No one really knows me though and I'm not really very happy these days.

I'm not navel gazing or wallowing in self pity before any unasked for bullshit comments come my way.... just answering your question in an honest manner.

I find myselkf searching for vocabulary words that used to come to me easily and tht's a bit disturbing.... but hell, I'm almost 59 and I can still out work most any young man I know and I am not even in the parking lot of the viagara stadium, so that's a blessing.

I guess my life is a mixture of good and bad like everyone elses. How do I manage my life? I believe in an after life and I believe it will be even worse.

I wish you good luck and good karma in handling your age and your illness.

I'm sorry c.i. about having to curtail your travels.

I'm 31 and my knees are pretty much shot. Well I can walk around and do my normal activities pain-free, but can't jump or run up stairs. I just started my own rehab program, so hopefully that works out.

And I'm recovering from tendinitis in my left bicep.

I'm old.

I just turned 39. Luckily I don't have any serious health issues. I have minor bitches like brittle teeth, loosening knee tendons, a trick neck, sinus troubles, etc. I eat well, but I don't exercise regularly.

I am in a financial mess for my age. I've got effectively no retirement started for myself. This teaching will be the type of career to give me some, but not much by the time I hit retirement age. I'll have to do more for myself like start a CD or retirement account. I'm not likely to be having kids, so this financial black hole won't pertain to me.

CI, I would feel very grateful if I could travel just half the amount you have traveled already. You have wonderful memories, stories and photos to jog your memory.

I believe our attitude about life has much to do with our health. My wife was telling me today that singing increases dopamine in the brain, and makes one feel better. So sing a song...

At least you've got another 20+ years of working, it won't end up as bad as you think right now. I'm behind too, the first 5 years out of college I didn't save a dime...I have no discipline, so getting a 401K was crucial. Other than that, I don't save anything.

Contemplating one's own death increases dopamine in the brain as well..... or some other calming brain chemical.

If you ever read anything about Ahnold, he mentions the power of positive thinking a lot.

And the power of sticking a needle in your AHHHHSS.

I've had four surgeries in the past 18 years--two within the past two years. I have a bum knee and diminished lung capacity. I grunt when I stand up and when I sit down. I'm in dire financial straits. Words don't come to mind the way they used to. Not a good thing when you write and edit for a living. Memory is going too.

Otherwise, everything is fine.

There is one upside. Since my memory is going, I can watch some reruns on tv and not remember them. It's like watching a whole new show.

Roberta - Ha! I'm like that with books. I'll get one from the library, start reading it, realize it's familiar, but don't remember what it's all about, so happily read it through. Then I say, "Oh yeah, that's what happened!"

The only physical thing I've noticed is my eyesight (which was always 20/20) is a little worse. I bought some 150+ glasses for my one-year-younger sister's b'day last year as a joke and, when visiting her one time, realized to my horror that I needed them

CI, I would never have guessed that you were 72 and tiring. The way you sped around SF, you moved as if you were at least 10 yrs younger. I hate to think of what your energy level was before! You're amazing.

BPB - you're going through an awful lot right now and you know it'll get better. Just hang in there. I believe in an afterlife, too, but I am positive it'll be better This world doles out a lot of pain, even to lucky people.

The worst thing I've got to say about getting older is all the people you lose. In the last two years, we've had 7 family members and several good friends die. Ouch.

singing and laughter are great anti aging agents, along with sex. seriously.

I am 68. Organ wise, I am in pretty good shape, but my skeleton leaves something to be desired. I go to the gym and walk 3 miles at least a few days a week. Because of the bum back, I wear a Futuro brace when I walk, and that really helps. I also take my pain pills with me......just in case.

I was getting too many senior moments for my liking, and it was beginning to piss me off. Like Roberta, I could never remember a book that I was reading, after I put it down. I found, "The Better Brain Book", by David Perlmutter:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/24/earlyshow/health/main651062.shtml

He suggests numerous supplements. I was taking most of them already, but as an experiment, I added the more esoteric ones that he suggested. The difference is amazing. Once again I am enjoying reading, and can pick up where I left off in a book. The improvement isn't perfect, but it is a pleasure to no longer get stuck in the middle of a sentence while writing on A2K, when the right word used to elude me.

As an agnostic, I have no concerns about an afterlife. I plan to live out the life that I have now gracefully and happily.

When I read the Bible (King James Version) as far as I'm concerned, I'm reading literature, not literal fact.

A Biblical notion that gives me great satisfaction is that the traditional span of man's days is threescore and ten.

Seventy years.

I'll probably live longer--both my parents did. I may not--I've already had two bouts with cancer--and a dozen false alarms with happy endings.

Poetry is a matter of expressing a complicated thought in the fewest possible words.

I'm aiming to live the rest of my life as though I'm creating poetry, one day at a time.

And you do it Noddy, so well!!

Phoenix
Phoenix, thanks for the book info. I ordered it for a friend whose husband has the dreaded big A.

BBB