AGING CAN BE THE PITS

I met with my doctor for the second time this week. The first meeting was a general check up on my diabetes and heart condition. Then I added some extra concerns concerns. I asked for a referral to a dietician. I have attended five classes on eating the right food. I did pretty well the first couple of classes. I learned to cook after my wife’s passing and enjoyed cooking when there were others to cook for. When I had the proctor kids they had no idea they were eating healthy. I also had a YMCA membership at the time and took my boys there to play for a couple of hours three times a week. I didn’t waste my time. I worked out and played racquetball even teaching some of the boys. I also walked the track. Running seemed to hurt my leg.

I suppose you wonder why I could play racquetball and not be able to run. If you didn’t wonder, you should have. As you get older and experienced, you play smarter. I ran some in racquetball, but in short spurts. I learned to play the middle and calculate each attempt for the ball as get or miss. I learned to let the ones I knew was going to miss and not waste my energy. Because I usually played younger guys, they went for everything and were often pretty beat up and exhausted by the end of the game. My only attempt at rubbing it in was “Do you want to go again?”

Besides the dietician I asked about the problems with my hip. I was having a hard time walking and experiencing increasingly great pain. He sent me for x-rays.

Today I learned the results. I know you think all old people do is talk about their diseases and compare mediation. Now you know that is actually true. But we also spend time complaining about the government and their plans to build furnaces for a quick retirement plan. Bad joke. I admit it and also in very poor taste, but it got a very big laugh a The Home.

Well I have osteoarthritis arthritis in both hips, but the worst is in the right hip. The cartilage is nearly gone and I am close to walking bone on bone. He confirmed what I already knew — I also have it in my lower back. It makes bending over a chore. I feel fatter than I am. Not true. I feel fat.

We always have multiple ways to respond to any situation. I went to grab a bite to eat and think and pray. I decided I have handled far worse things than this. I considered the options presented and rejected one – therapy. He said it would help. I said I could never afford it. Medicare pays very little for therapy. That would be a long-term commitment and more than I could handle. I then thought, this is the day the Lord has made and I will rejoice in it. And I would work the other suggestions.

I came home barbecued for our Thursday night BBQ – had a sausage dog and some ice tea. Cleaned up the grill, came home, got out my bag of cherries, dug into my book picked away at twelve of those magnificent juicy things, checked my blood sugar a couple of hours later and it was the highest it has ever been 267. I was somewhat shocked, so did it again and it came down only ten points. But I ended my night by saying. “I loved those cherries.” This too will pass,