It's a quote that most of us
have heard for decades, "Old age ain't no place for sissies". It has
been widely attributed to the legendary actress, Bette Davis, although it is
not really known if she did indeed say it. I'm going to choose to believe that
she did utter those prophetic words and that amazing old broad was one hundred percent
right!
Pretty much everyone who
passes the age of 65, especially women, has had occasion to recall that old age
ain't no place for sissies. It is common place to go to bed feeling pretty good
only to wake up with a myriad of aches and pains - a back, a shoulder, an arm or a neck.
What the hell? How did I simply sleep and hurt myself? Hey, it happens all the
time. And it only gets worse as you age. Not to mention that time speeds up
exponentially with each passing year. What seemed like six months ago was
actually two years. No way???
I've had a particularly rude
awakening these past few weeks as this phenomenon jumped up and bit me big
time. Just about a month ago we departed for a Caribbean cruise with my son and granddaughter. It had been cancelled twice due to the pandemic
but we were finally on our way looking forward to a wonderful adventure. My
"Travels Near & Far" blog has details and photos.
Lou and I met up with Darrin
and Charley at the Denver airport where we all
flew to Miami
together. Our flight left Sacramento at 5:05 AM and we had a long layover before their
flight arrived so we skipped breakfast at home knowing we'd have plenty of time
to eat in Denver. Here's where it gets kind of
stupid. I shoved a heavy chair back from the table to put our bags on it and was greeted with one of the worse pains I've ever experienced in my right upper arm. I
almost screamed in the airport restaurant and it took several minutes to settle
down. It hurt like hell but I had two strong guys and a pretty strong
granddaughter to help schlep all the bags around.
The next day as we boarded
the ship I notice a small bruise on my upper arm. Over the next couple days, it
spread to a 3 inch around, nasty, purple, ugly ass bruise. It freaked everyone
out. Fortunately, it no longer hurt like hell but sure looked awful.
By the time we got off the
ship, it had faded substantially but I had this "Popeye muscle" (which
I never had before) in its place. I saw my doctor who suspected a ruptured
tendon or muscle and ordered an ultrasound. The ultrasound didn't show enough
detail but the report says "a probable torn tendon" and ordered an
MRI (scheduled for next week) along with an orthopedic referral. What the fuck?
All this from pushing a chair back from a table?
I've been favoring my right
arm for a few weeks and now my left wrist is hurting so I'm wearing a brace on
it. I need my arms to negotiate the stairs due to my severe neuropathy and
total lack of balance.
And, just for the hell of
it, I woke up a week ago with a pain in my upper left back muscle. My whole
life I've had the occasional lower back issue but not the upper back. It was
killing me for a few days then inexplicably moved from the left side to the
right side. What? I've given up trying to figure it all out. Basically,
something, somewhere usually seems to hurt anymore.
Now I am done complaining
for awhile because even with all its problems, this old body has taken pretty
good care of me these past 72 years. And contrary to the content of this post, I really do try
NOT to complain too much. Just wanted to point out that Bette Davis was right
on the money, "Old age ain't no place for sissies".
Besides, the aches and pains
still beat the hell out of the alternative.
