Growing Old(er)

Growing old - it's for the birds. Now you might be wondering what do you consider old? Well, hang onto your hats because I'm afraid some of you are going to realize that I consider you old.

I have always thought that anyone who made it to age 60 was old - sorry this does mean that my oldest brother Steve is old. No offense meant Steve. I myself am getting up there - won't be long. I've never hesitated to tell anyone how old I am -- I turned 55 last month. I think I look okay for my age. But 55 means I will soon be old. My brother Wayne at 58 will soon be old. I have lots of old and older friends.

Why do I think of 60 as old? Has to do with the fact that I never saw my parents grow old. My mom died at the age of 48 -- I was 19. Six years later at the age of 51 my dad died. I didn't think my dad was old. Sure when I came home to visit I could see his hair was getting grayer but he wasn't old. Then my parents are both gone before the age of 60. So anyone who lived to be 60 I thought was getting old. 70's and 80's - very old. I was only 24 - what did I know?

I give myself to age 65 - I feel this is reasonable considering my family history. I set a goal to see all my grandkids graduate from high school (my mom never even got see any of her grandkids). Seemed like a reasonable goal to me. Lily's in second grade this year -- I may have to change my goal to 66. I could do it -- I don't smoke (my parents were both heavy smokers) I don't drink. 65 is very doable. I moved to Tulsa and had to change doctors. Oh how I hated this - having to leave Dr. Hall. First time I went to see my new doctor here in Tulsa his remark was: "Let's see if we can tweak that blood pressure just a little bit more and you might live to be 65". Sad thing is = he wasn't joking after hearing my family history.

Getting old starts early - for me about age 40. I was in bad shape - unable to function because I had no energy, could not stay awake. Diagnosis? High blood pressure. So high that I was sent to a cardiologist. After sleeping in his waiting room for an hour I saw the cardiologist. He said that he needed to do a stress test but was afraid it would kill me as my blood pressure was 200/120 -- go home and rest. It's been down hill since then. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, bad knees, carpal tunnel, knee replacement, arthritis (even in my jaw so I am told). You name it - it hurts.

Now as I mentioned earlier - I have old friends and I have older friends. I'm not giving away their ages -- I love all of them. But I watch my friends in their 70's and wonder how do they do it? I even have some in the 80's. Then I think - I wish they would slow down - they are setting standards that I have trouble living up to now!! How do they do it? How do they do everything they do? I don't think I'll be able to.

But since I don't plan on being older - only old - maybe it won't be an issue for me. So for now - I will just continue along, doing what I do do and getting old. If I am fortunate enough to be "older" I will worry about keeping up then.