No Way I’m Turning Seventy-five This Year

This year, 2015, I’ll turn seventy-five. And with that in mind I’ve been taking an assessment of how I’m doing.

Here are some negatives:

I recently made a comment that I seem to be losing it. I get tired mid afternoon and need a nap. I also am sleeping more at night, and I’m not as energetic when I get up.

I feel like my already poor hearing is failing some more. I listened to a phone message and could understand absolutely nothing of what was said. Luckily the caller followed up with an email. Later, when I replayed the message with my hearing aids in, I could hear and understand some of it but mostly it was still undecipherable. Maybe it was hard for me because the caller had a high voice – which I have the most trouble with – and she spoke so fast. I’m usually pretty good on the phone, so this incident gave me a reason to pause. Right now I have to admit I need my hearing aids adjusted up so I can hear normally again.

Another thing that never used to happen, I feel sore after particularly hard Pilates sessions.

Here’s another thing – that you can skip if you feel it’s too much information – I’m drying out inside. Yes, my 77-year old husband and I still make love, but unless both he and I are thoroughly lubricated I experience excruciating pain at the start, in spite of my daily hormone replacement therapy routine. So we’ve made a plan. Stay lubricated so we can enjoy these ever-decreasing times together.

I’ve complained about my dry eye in the past. It’s still a problem. I went to a new surgeon to talk about an operation to stretch my particularly skinny tear ducts, but I’ve decided not to go with it. I don’t want any surgery that will cut into my face – even if they are tiny cuts near my eyes. So I’m experimenting with eye drops and overnight salves. A friend suggested flaxseed oil capsule so I’m trying that as well.

And I still have tinnitus. Even with my acupuncture sessions and Chinese herbs the noise is there – though at times it does subside. I’ve begun to agree with what I heard at the outset – there is no cure for tinnitus. I just have to live with it (See my Aging Bodies piece on tinnitus.

Of course considering my age, I’ve found a lot of positives:

I work out every day as I’ve been doing for years. I get up at six in the morning to go to the gym, where I spend 45 minutes on the elliptical machine, lift 10 to 20 pound weights, and practice my Yoga stretches and balance poses. I also park in the farthest corner of the parking lot so I have a little warm-up and cool-down walk coming and going.

My tri-level house is not a problem yet. I’m able to go up and down the stairs without panting.I continue to take long walks along the beach near where we live

And I’m able to concentrate on my writing work for hours at a time every day.

Mostly I feel so lucky that I don’t have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and I haven’t added a lot of extra pounds as I age. So all in all it’s not too bad. I suspect this year will be like the others – I’ll keep busy and active and look forward to the many surprises life has in store.

Madeline is the author of Leaving the Hall Light On: A Mother’s Memoir of Living with Her Son’s Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide (Dream of Things) and Blue-Collar Women: Trailblazing Women Take on Men-Only Jobs (New Horizon Press). She co-edits The Great American Poetry Show anthology series and wrote the poetry for The Emerging Goddessphotography book. See more at http://www.MadelineSharples.com