I want to take this opportunity to say that all this "golden years" stuff is a crock. I'm only 65 and I've got multiple myeloma; degraded hips that make it hard to walk; diabetes (almost); peripheral neuropathy; possibly prostate cancer;¹ moderate chronic depression; and now a very painful hemorrhoid.² Plus high blood pressure and high cholesterol, but that almost goes without saying.
ffs, this is ridiculous. I'd like to speak with the manager, please.
¹But probably not. It's just a high PSA result so far.
²I think. Whatever it is, it's in my rectum and hurts like hell.
DAMN!!!
Just one damned thing after another.
At 88 I have been there done that.
so how was your health at 65?
Kev, you have been a light in a tough time for me for more years than i can count. i appreciate your insight and wisdom, your charts, your photos, even your cats. As much as a dog guy can.
Keep a stoic attitude, and I hope you are inspired or at least willing to continue helping me sort out the bullshit from the good for a long time. A good friend died at 48, leaving three teenage boys. Somehow, you have gotten 17 years so far that he didn't get.
So there's that. Stay strong, you are a friend to so many of us.
In college Nixon's nickname was supposedly 'Iron Butt' because he could sit so long studying.
If it's any consolation, you are no Richard Nixon.
We seem to be designed for planned obsolescence at around 50-55 years. And for a few hundred years that worked fine, We mates, protected our young, passed on what little wisdom we managed to accumulate. At that point, we're sort of unnecessary.. In the more efficient past, either a large predator would eat us, or sepsis would quickly usher us of stage
Unintelligent design, as I think every time I have to go to physical therapy.
Actually, @paulgottlieb, our teeth indicate that we are designed to live to age 22 or so, and anything longer is gravy.
Teeth are hard to make, so the body isn't going to devote any more effort to making them than what is absolutely necessary for survival of the species. We first get a full set of baby teeth, then, we get a second full set of teeth to carry us through our teens, and then the body says, "This guy isn't going to last much longer. Just make some "wisdom" teeth in the back, to push the rest forward to compensate for our boy having lost his front teeth when they were kicked out while he was chasing something, and call it a day."
Twenty two years, and the rest is gravy.
Archaeology shows us that our hunter-gatherer ancestors generally did not have tooth problems. It was only after the dawn of agriculture and the shift to a very grain-heavy diet that cavities became common.
So, modern dentistry and dentists can be credited with much of our longevity! As George RR Martin observed in "Game of Thrones",
"A man shouldn't outlive his teeth."
Sorry to hear about all your health worries, Kevin. Hang in there.
Also a plug for keeping retirement age exactly where it is now. Not everybody gets decades of joyful golden years even though they too paid in for a half century or more. They deserve social security and Medicare just as much as the lucky duckies who live to their nineties and beyond do.
Kevin: sorry for your troubles. Have you considered Semaglutide for the diabetes? I'm on it for weight loss (my blood sugar is fine, thankfully) and have found it to be a huge help. I tolerate it well, and have lost thirteen pounds since mid January, pretty effortlessly. There's also evidence it helps with depression. Anyway, as I'm sure you're aware it's the drug was developed expressly for diabetes.
I don’t think the “golden” years are supposed to be referring to these years as our best years because they’re “golden” and gold is good. The “golden hour” is near sunset (as Kevin the photographer must know), so I figure the “golden” years are the years where we go “riding off into the sunset” and get off stage (unless our hemorrhoids are so painful we can’t even RIDE off into the sunset, but have to shuffle off). I’m 71, and I hear you, KD!
They're the golden years because you are going to pay out a lot of gold for each additional one.
Apparently, at death, most elderly people in their late 80s and 90s have cancerous tumors even if they died from something else.
Unless there's a way to stop the shortening of telomeres in the next decade, I don't want to live to 90. But if they find a way to restore telomere length, I'd want to live at least to see the end of the world.
There's no evidence that anyone dies of telomere insufficiency. And mouse telomeres are much longer than human telomeres, yet they only live a couple of years.
"We find that, in fact, there is no strong correlation between the life span of a species and initial telomere length. However, we find a strong correlation between the telomere shortening rate and the life span of a species." -- PNAS paper, 2019
Aging, it's not for the faint of heart.
Bette Davis put it this way: Growing old is not for sissies!
If you live to be one hundred, you've got it made. Very few people die past that age.
~George Burns
Kevin, after 65 you are allowed to whine. Go for it. My 92 year old uncle said getting old was painful. I am just over 80 and I must concur but, we have the tenacity. Hang in there, you have more years, ‘hammer heads’ and all.
Consider the alternative
Hang in there. At 65, you should have gas left in the tank. Keep the myeloma in check and great treatment for everything that ails you. Follow the Rx and PT orders, whatever they may be, and good luck.
great=get
Damn, you have challenges. On the 'rhoids front [sic] I've heard they can be tied off and die. Or if you are having surgery in that area (as I did once) or maybe a colonoscopy, you can have them sliced off. Chop chop.
By the way, the tying-off thing is known as "rubber band ligation."
https://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/gastrointestinal-disorders/anorectal-disorders/hemorrhoids
Painful hemorrhoids are external hemorrhoids. They don't tie those off. If they are relatively fresh they can be opened and the clot removed, but after a couple of days that's not helpful.
Internal hemorrhoids get tied off (rubber band ligation) but not painful. So not for Kevin.
Other things cause pain down there, like fissures and abscesses. Kevin, you might want to get a professional to look at things instead of "ass"uming and suffering.
Every person who says "age is just a number" should get a pie to the face Moe Howard Style.
When I was retiring the younger people in my office would tell me how lucky I was. I told them I would gladly trade my retirement for their youth. It amused me that the reaction was to kind of mutter, look down, and walk away.
At least your mind is still sharp. Hang in there, Kevin.
Getting old sucks! But not as much as the alternative……
At 70, I’ve a spinal stenosis that periodically acts up, but can be controlled with a back brace, hemorrhoids that need intervention every 6 or 7 years, chronic IBS that was defeated by the complete removal of alcohol from my life and yet we still are keepin’ on.
Currently we are traveling in Vietnam on a trip that began in May of 22 after we sold or disposed of nearly all our possessions leaving us homeless, but without any bills or responsibilities. If you want it badly enough, you will find a way to get there. Carpe Diem!
BTW, my rhoids were treated by injecting the vein that fed them thus cutting off the blood supply that inflates them. Banding is the old way of treatment …..
Well, at least you are entering peak well-rested age!
https://flowingdata.com/2024/02/23/feeling-rested-with-age/
Not sure this is helpful, though...
This book may be helpful:
https://www.amazon.com/How-Not-Die-Discover-Scientifically/dp/1250066115
And his follow-on: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=how+not+to+age&i=stripbooks&crid=2EGR6R07JVWQX&sprefix=how+not+t%2Cstripbooks%2C161&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_9
I have wondered if the (as I'm pretty sure I recall) self-described meat lover Kevin has ever considered a plant-based diet. I had a thought of him maybe doing the John McDougall residential program and of course blogging about it. But apparently they aren't doing the residential version anymore.
(this kind of thing)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4209065/
"I'd like to speak with the manager, please."
"If there’s a God, we’re all it." - John Lennon's explanation of his "the dream is over" lyric.
Translation: you are speaking to the manager.
Being human is hard. That's what makes it great. You want easy? Be a flat worm.
I hope you're feeling better soon.
A long time ago, one of my bosses used to say that "life's a bitch and then you die"
Almost 40 years later, and I realize how true that is.
Thrombosed hemorrhoid, anal fissure, peri anal abscess. All treatable with great relief.
Make an appointment
Disquieting reality: if you're over 65 and male, you've probably already got prostate cancer. Fortunately, most of the time it won't do anything interesting during your lifetime.
Yeah, don't let them convince you to do anything about it without good evidence. I don't even get the PSA test because it leads to too many bad outcomes.
Wow! I'll take your situation into consideration the next time I whine about my macular degeneration. (And that's about it. Plus, it's being held at bay.) Fwiw, I just turned 71 last weekend, and my mother expired a month short of 102.
So I envision many health annoyances in my future.Hang in there, Mr D!
The biggest surprise for me is that getting old gave me some new allergies that I never had before. This was a highly unpleasant surprise.
Best of luck to you, Kevin
Kevin, I'm 71 now and I'm feeling pretty good, but when I was 65, I felt like I resembled you more that I can say. Including the pain in the ass, and add to that the feeling that I had no good reason to get out of bed in the morning.
My remedy was to stop drinking (I never smoked), change to a vegetarian diet, eat one meal a day with no snacks (instead of five), cut out sugar, take my meds, and exercise as much as I can. For me, this means walking, and even after my knees gave out for really long walks, I still try to get some exercise in every day.
The hemorrhoids are long gone, I've lost weight, I feel great and I look forward to every day now.
I wish you the very best in health.
The "Golden Years" conception is so, so, so much the result of advertising. In great shape, playing tennis, BMI of 20, full head of hair, going hither and yon, packing for that vacation on a cruise ship, and of course ... smiling like crazy.
It stinks.
Beset by a variety of health issues and frequent hospitalizations, my dad came to call them "The Rusty Years" as opposed to "The Golden Years" and certainly not "the Salad Days".
Hemorrhoids suck. I'd ask about dilTIAZem Ointment. It's a less common treatment; but like surgery, works on the blood flow and muscle contractions which create hemorrhoid or fissure.
You can also use things like plain zinc ointment (low concentration) or a base ointment to salve the injured spot and make it easier for stuff to pass without aggravating the injury.
I recently gave birth, and all the pushing gave me hemorrhoids so bad that it was impossible to poop. Preparation H suppositories and cream, plus stool softeners for a while, eventually fixed it.
congratulations! hopefully your recovery continues to go well
childbirth really pushes the limits of what a person's body is capable of
it's surprising to me that any woman would choose to do it more than once