title explained

Onward and upward! something that you say in order to encourage someone to forget an unpleasant experience or failure and to think about the future instead and move forward.

My e-mail: jjmiller6213@comcast.net

Tuesday, March 6, 2018

What is this?

My sister came down.  My microwave had died and she had one she wasn't using, so she brought it down for me.  Her hubs Chuck is recovering from double hernia surgery, but Susan and I managed to get the heavy thing in the house, and my dead one in the back of the pick-up truck so she can take it back for their spring recycling thingie.

She said, "It's like I woke up one morning and every thing was different than the day before.  I look different, I feel different, everything I have to do, seems to be such a big effort!"

I told her that I had experienced the same thing, but I found it happens about every five years with me.

At 60, I noticed that my body was changing its shape.  I hadn't gained or lost weight, but was becoming thicker in the middle.  My backside was flattening out.  My skin losing tone and becoming crepey.  My bust getting larger.

Something changed when I hit 65.  All of a sudden, I couldn't work in the gardens, as hard as I had the year before.  All of a sudden, my hips went out.  All of a sudden--it seemed.

Then, those things stayed that way for about 5 years.

Then at 70, all of a sudden I couldn't walk as far as I used too.  My back hurt all the time.

Then 75 and I found I had lost the strength in my arms.  I couldn't lift or carry heavy things anymore.  I tended to walk "crooked", my balance was off.  I had to walk up steps, one step at a time.  I was getting age spots on my hands and the thick skin thingies (Keratinitis) all over my back. 

Now, I am going through changes again...and it hasn't even been five years.  I look in the mirror and I look much older than I did even last summer.  My "apron", that roll of skin under my stomach that wants to lay on the tops of my thighs, seem to have gotten bigger. I notice when I walk, my left foot tends to turn out.  I haven't gained weight, but I had to buy a new bra--one size larger.

Emotionally, every thing is an effort.  I don't want to go anywhere--even family functions are an effort to get ready for, drive too and participate in.  Too noisy.  Too tiring.  I am sooooo dreading my grandson's wedding this summer.   A year ago, I had no problem with getting all dressed, with heels and the whole thing to attend my great granddaughter's christening.  I had a great time.

My sister will turn 66 in two weeks.  I told her, "The changes are going to continue.  Plus all the changes you are feeling right now aren't going to go away.  They just stay with you and in a few years, more changes are going to pile on top of them!  It just keeps piling on until you are so tired you won't want to get outta your chair!"

I wondered if any of you have noticed this?  One day you wake up and things are different than the day before.  You get it figured out and go along with less things you can do and then, in a few years you wake up one morning and notice, there are new changes.

The good thing, we usually can adjust our lives to these changes.  It just shocks me when the new ones pile on.

23 comments:

  1. Well, this was so cheerful to read. LOL Signs of aging might seem like they come on all of a sudden, but they don't. Well, except for my brother-in-law. He looked 50 for 30 years and then I saw him last winter and I didn't even know who he was from a distance.

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    1. Scary when we see someone (or ourselves) and realize,"WOW, old!"

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  2. Hello Judy. You are describing my life. I never thought of changes in five year increments but after reading your words that is what is happening. Maybe they don't come all at once because we couldn't stand the shock. First to go was my gardening, could not lift, bend, or keep up with the garden. Recently I looked at a photo of my garden years ago...lots and lots of petunias, pansie, sweet peas, how beautiful it was. Now just a few pots of geraniums. Weight the same but in different places. Most disturbing are the changes in health. At 75 the back is full of arthritis, bone spurs and slipped discs. Hard to accept that I can no longer do what I use to plus spend much too much time in bed or sitting down. Plus 83 year old husband failing and I worry about his health all the time and worry how I can take care of him in coming years. No children or other family around. Not a cheerful subject but it is reality. Your blog and others like it make me feel less alone and that I am not the only one wondering "when did I get old". Love your blog which brings smiles and sunshine into my life

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    1. My back is the same as yours--almost constant ache. Funny, how after a few years of it, we take it for granted, or get used to living with the pain and often I don't even think of the pain, unless I strain my back--then it reminds me.

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  3. I'm thinking many of my elderly friends must be feeling the same as you. Things are changing and it's just gotten difficult to do what they want to do.

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    1. Keep living and you too can enjoy these years. LOL

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  4. You have hit the nail on the head! It's crazy. Thank you for sharing your nice slow slide into the Golden Years. It's a full time job just accommodating all of these things. So many physical things keep sneaking their way in ... and I think the emotional (noise, not wanting to socialize, and in my case, a bit of depression over these things) stuff is very real as well.

    Thanks for keeping it REAL ... onward and upward!

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    1. I wonder if it would be easier if we had a husband--someone we had to keep doing for? Nah--they would just be another added worry/pain!

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  5. Yes, I feel big changes in aging too. I don't do any kneeling to pull weeds and using a shovel to dig so my garden looks different now, plus I need to not trigger vertigo.

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    1. Last fall was a shock for me when I tried to plant Tulips and realized, I no longer have the leg strength to even push the shovel into the dirt! ARGGH!!!!!!

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  6. I guess working physically on the farm helps keep a few things at bay for me. When I tell someone I take no medication at all, they find it hard to believe. Next time they ask I'll say, "No, but I do wear a bladder control pad!" ;) I'm less than a month away from being 77.

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    1. Yes that does help! You have to keep moving to keep moving. If you took a winter off, and just stayed inside, watched TV, quilted--by spring time you wouldn't be able to do the chores as easily as you do now. Don't sit down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  7. You made me laugh about telling your sister what's coming down the line. My sister used to do that, too. She was nine years older than me. She loved scaring me to death. LOL

    Judy, I have to go private on my blog again. Just wanted you to know. Hope you will still visit.

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  8. While after menopause I had slow changes here and there I literally woke up one morning a few years ago to new eyelids, like overnight :) It took me awhile to get over it lol ( Understatement )

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    1. Happened to me too Deb--around 73. Looked fine, the next morning, added a new fold above my eye lid. ARGGH!!!

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  9. I noticed that when my dear friends, a married couple, turned 80, overnight they seemed to have been hit by the old age stick. He more so than she did, but she'd seemed older than he for all the time I've known them. Some of his aging, I think, comes from him slowing down to accommodate his wife. He walks as slowly as she does now, and he is becoming stooped because he stoops over so much to hear her well and talk to her. I wondered if this would happen to me. I've slowly been losing my battle against age, but I do fight it. Some things are much harder for me to do. I struggle to stand up again after being down on the floor. I don't have strength in my hands or arms as I did, but in quite a few ways, I'm still ticking. But I keep thinking, "No one beats Father Time." There are things I have to accept. I have a cleaning lady come in once a week to do things that are now too hard for me.

    Keep fighting it, --as long as possible!

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    1. Yes--that is happening to Merle and Pearl. She is dragging him down.

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  10. oh judy, if we could just live life backwards...it would be better to start out old and end it young!!!

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  11. I'm not there yet, and I am thankful for that. I turned 61 last week and aside from my arthritic hip (which will be fixed this coming Monday), I feel younger than I did at age 50. I know it's coming, but I will enjoy every moment that I don't "feel old." I do know what you mean by dreading events that take a lot of mental and physical energy. I need time to mentally prepare for such things, but then they just sweep you up and you have to go with it. It's a happy thing when you can take off those heels, put on your comfies, and rest in the chair with a snack. xoxo

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  12. Yes, oh yes, yes, yes.Depressing!

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