I am 67 and I am finding the hardest part for me to handle growing old is that my body is failing me in many ways and yet in my mind I am still 35 years old. It seems to be a constant battle between mind and body when I am trying to do the physical things I once enjoyed as a youngster.
I learned during my relapse while having to stay in the hospital for that 6 to 7 months that the wise technique is to slow down
all activities. Don't move so fast. Shorter steps, for example. Make an extra effort to do everything
much slower. I picked that up by watching some others that, like me, were early wakers, but they would use the huge hallway that wrapped around both wards' nurses station and the inside structures between, like the elevator systems; they'd use that long walking area for doing a kind of early morning exercise routine and I noticed that many were so exhausted after 5 or 6 laps or so and seemed to remain so for way beyond breakfast and I got to thinking that maybe doing everything slower was better. Even pacing/walking with shorter steps. Sort of lucky for me was that the hardcore chemicals they had to use for the relapse was what finally caused the remaining good parts of my spine to start going into spaghetti mode and that forced me to go even slower to reduce the pain and so I didn't want to use a walker or a cane and such. I finally came to the conclusion that part of the aging thing is to
think old. The sooner you think old, the sooner your system will adjust and help reduce pain and other oddities that come with this adventure. Also, keep your actual living space and work station really cluttered to cause slower steps as you move around and so as to have a place to quickly lean on as you start a bit of an uncontrolled tilt, which I have noticed can be trouble if you topple over in an uncrowded area. That is one reason we run two living quarters; mine is a super messy and crowded AO; my wife's is super neat and the usual open areas with much space and so easy for me to topple over, if I forget to be old and go slow. Plus my workstation right here is set up in a very weird way and I can keep my spine from causing trouble while working. And nobody is allowed into a certain part of this end of the building. Very restricted are the rules. Of course, I may have certain financial benefits/advantages that many don't have, but the go slow and short steps idea even works fine out in public. In other words, act old. To heck with what people think when they see the old fart. Plus all the locations, except some of the government locations/offices, everyone knows how to be sure I get seated quickly and safely once a meeting will be necessary. Sorry for such a long post that simply summarizes as;
you are old, act your age - slow down in all things.
That point you made.
Argent, seems the same thing I have experienced. My daughter here in Japan seems much less likely to show up at the complex where I reside, BUT an oddity for us during the relapse was the hospital was super strict about absolutely no visitors unless it is an emergency; not even family. It was smack in the middle of Covid and that was enough of a scare to allow very strict rules. But the hospital is also a sort of government employees style, so making strict rules is easy for retirees and civil servant types to accept. I guess. Kind of not a "normal" hospital, might be how to describe it. Only twice was my wife allowed to be on that ward and both cases were some bad situations and nobody was so sure I'd remain undead. BUT, I did get a special privilege starting about month three when I would be given a 2 to 3 day pass and be allowed out to go to this complex and take care of commercial work that had to be done. That was kind of the director breaking the rules, as it wasn't allowed to other folks. Kind of like a prison leave thing, I guess.
But, yes,
Argent, seems young folks seem uncomfortable to be around the older folks. Even younger staff members. But I'm kind of lucky as I have always made folks kind of nervous and maybe I have always been a kind of 'in-the-corner' type --- sort of keeping a low profile and keeping my mouth shut. I like hiding.
My fingers seems to like this typing stuff way too much, though. And you folks might be uncomfortable when you see it's a 'medi' post ---
OH CRAP, it's that 'medi' jerk again. I'll skip that post. --- But it is not my fault. It's my fingers. I can't control them. The don't understand the concept of old.
- It's a lonely proposition when you realize
