March 18, 2007
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Me, Myself and I….a short story
I am 60 years old. If I don’t look in the mirror, I don’t FEEL that old but life moves on, whether you want it to or not.
I am an optimist by nature, preferring to believe the best of everyone and tend to accept what happens and move on. I figure, it will either work itself out or not and there is no use getting an ulcer over things you cannot control. Do what you can but be ready to take whatever happens in the best possible way. One thing I HAVE had happen that I CAN control (thank goodness for Lady Clairol) is I developed Cruella DeVille gray streaks in my hair but no one can tell now. Ha, ha, ha!For most of my adult life, I have been fairly healthy. Oh, I developed Type 2 diabetes about 10 years ago but with oral medication, that was under control and hardly a bother at all. Then I got this great idea. I was fat (about 220 lbs) so I would go on a sensible diet, lose weight and live longer and healthier. Right? Another ha, ha, ha!
I DID lose weight. In fact, I lost 120 lbs. I went from *comfortable grandma* figure to skinny and ghastly looking. I developed wrinkles I had never seen before. Worse….they were EVERYWHERE! People tried to tell me I looked awful but I was so sure I was healthy. My doctor kept telling me I was in *good shape*. For what? An Etheopian? I was eating like a fiend but not gaining any of that lost weight back.
I finally went to a new, highly-recommended doctor and he found my diabetes out of control. I admit, I had stopped monitoring my blood sugar because of the high cost of the testing strips. But….it was over 300! Not to worry, the new doctor put me on two new medications instead of the old one but now I had to take them twice a day to get my diabetes back under control. It took almost two months. I test daily now, regardless of the cost of the test strips. Can you blame me?
Anyway, so my diabetes is under control but all of a sudden, I am in PAIN. I mean with a capitol P type pain. My new doctor is running all these tests to try to find the source. We discover I have some mild kidney damage and he puts me on medication for THAT. Still pain and it’s getting worse. I am finally driven to the emergency room one Sunday morning and the ER doctor gives me a morphine drip and takes xrays of my abdomen. Lo and behold, the end result is that my gall bladder is loaded with stones and that results in surgery a few days after my doctor gets the report.
Now, gall bladder surgery has come a long way since one of my sisters had hers 20 years ago. She has this big, nasty scar. Me? I have one that is maybe two inches long and two small ones. It is, however, still major surgery and the surgeon tells me 4-6 weeks to heal. In the meantime, I am STILL in pain. Oh sure, different now but PAIN. He did give me some pain pills but gave me a hard time about it. There are times I hate doctors and their total indifference to YOUR pain. Ask a nurse, and she will tell you horror stories about doctors who end up in the hospital or have surgery. They don’t want to feel ANY pain. But you? They say *tough it out* (sticking out tongue here).
When I saw my own doctor, he tells me that NORMAL people recover well in 4-6 weeks but diabetics don’t heal as fast so…………… I am still recovering and still in pain. It’s not as devastating as it was but it still interferes with my life as we are trying to pack and move. I have become a total fan of both Advil and Aleve. They help make life tolerable at least……most times.
I am also having a recurrence of an old pain problem. A muscle in my side that tightens up into a ball that’s about the size of a baseball. I spend time with heating pads or a hot bath to calm that one down. I can’t do much about that right now because I have to see a neurologist. That one is the result of an old injury that left a nerve bundle pinched in my thoracic area of the spine (mid-back). I obviously re-injured that since it was never *resolved*. It just kind of faded away. So old age IS overtaking me, whether I want it to or not. Then, hopefully, I will find some relief to the pain and be able to go on with my life.
In the meantime, I am still packing, sorting and putting stuff out by the curb that we won’t be needing at the new, smaller house. Amazing the stuff you accummulate over the years, isn’t it?
