Why does everything on or in your body start falling apart when you get to 50. If this isn't a clear indicator that living for "three score years and ten" was the absolute limit to what we could expect, then I don't know what is. I remember my Cambridgeshire GP making joking remarks to me as I approached my 50th birthday, that on that date things would really start to pack up and go wrong. What really upsets me is that it seems that he was right.
Since reaching that horrendous milestone, I have injured just about every muscle in my legs, I have had a couple of attacks of sciatica, one of which left me crawling around on my hands and knees as it was impossible to walk, I have had a couple of bouts of labyrinthitis which left me feeling seasick while still on dry land, a frozen shoulder from who knows where, and an emergency gall bladder operation a couple of days before I was due to go on holiday with my father (he died a couple of months later).
There can be no doubt that things really do not work so well when you get older. I have tried to remain as active as I can over the years, but just warming up to be ready to take some exercise can result in breathlessness and working up a sweat. I know that if we have a couple of dry days over the next week, I am going to get a really good dose of exercise. I'm going to have to cut the grass, and as the house is on a corner, there is a huge lawn at the side.
I shall wear my pedometer just to check how much walking I do backwards and forwards with the mower and emptying the grass into the bin.
I hate gardening!
3 comments:
Aww, you certainly have had a rubbishy time :(
Don't worry, 50 is not the beginning of the end, not even close. My great aunt is 91 and still globetrotting - she recently spent a couple of weeks in Ecuador having a "gentle trek" across the Amazon - I kid you not. There's hope yet.
Even though bits of me seem to be falling apart, I keerp on going because I know that there is a pretty good chance that I will live more than "three score years and ten". Both of my parents were well over 70 when they died, in fact Dad was 81, all his brothers and sisters, except one, lived into their 80s, and his twin sister is still alive and was 84 last week. My Mum's grandmother (my great-grandmother) was 81 when she died, her aunts and uncles almost all lived into their late 70s or 80s, and her mother, my grandmother, was 97 when she died.
I'm just wondering which of my bits will still be working if I live to that age! Hopefully my brain will still be going fine if I keep on studying and finding it things to do.
It is not when you die but what you do with your life that counts.
Live every day as if it would be your last. If you love someone, tell them that, tell them now.
Yep, I am well over 50.
Yep, bits do stop working as well as before.
Am fixing up a six month cycle and paddle from East to West Canada.
Shall I pencil in your name?
I have a big and warm sleeping bag.
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