In the six and a bit decades of my life I have generally been blessed with robust good health. In my working days, years would pass by without me visiting a doctor. My body was a reliable vehicle in which I travelled in comfort and with utter confidence.
Fast forward to this week. On Monday evening I finally got round to seeing a doctor about my chest infection. I had coughed till I could cough no more and several nights when I should have been sleeping I was instead in the bathroom barking like a guard dog. You will be pleased to note that I have self-censored any lurid description of the stuff this coughing produced.
On Tuesday, I felt the first twinges of a new gout attack in my left big toe. On Wednesday, I hobbled down to work at Oxfam still feeling the knee pain I have endured for over two months with a physiotherapy appointment scheduled for later this month.. Yesterday I went for what was hopefully my final dental appointment for quite a while.
I am starting to feel like a wreck and I am just not used to this. I want to be striding miles across our lovely countryside singing "These Boots Are Made For Walking" and bending down to do garden jobs or sorting out our attic and the underhouse area. I keep telling myself - "Patience my lad! Patience! Everything will sort itself out and you'll be back to your usual self."
After the dental appointment I treated myself to a short drive in the Derbyshire countryside. It was a substitute for the invigorating ten mile walk I would have rather been doing. Out to Hathersage and Castleton then up Winnat's Pass and onward to Sparrowpit where I stopped to photograph a tumbledown farm building I first snapped in 2014.
In the upland village of Peak Forest I had a look round the graveyard of Charles, King and Martyr Church before travelling along Forest Lane near Little Hucklow where I stopped to take pictures of first cattle and then lambs. It was a lovely warm spring day and Nature was bright and alive. However, it remained frustrating not to be in tip-top good health to fully appreciate such a day. Oh woe is me!
I can truly sympathize because I feel many days that I too am on a downward slope, despite fighting to get back to what used to be normal. I hope your physio appointment is helpful. My latest experience with physio for my hip/back I began by limping into the clinic. It took several months but I eventually walked out without pain. Gout is a special hell all by itself, according to my late father, and after seeing him during a flare up I believe it. When I had my bronchial virus in March/April (I still had the cough at the six-week mark) I felt several times that I might prefer to die, if it meant avoiding any more coughing. That is not my usual outlook. I hope your doctor was able to pinpoint your trouble.
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are lovely. Everything is so green - your spring is well ahead of ours. I don't when I last saw a new calf or lamb, so thank you for those.
Insert *know* after *don't* in that last sentence, of course
DeleteThe doctor put me on a short course of antibiotics. They have certainly had a noticeable impact and I feel now that the chest infection is on its way out.
DeleteI also left a comment on deleting blogs on your most recent post. I didn't know if you would see it unless I mentioned it. It's a reply to another commenter's remarks.
ReplyDeleteI read it thanks Jenny.
DeleteWhy does all this stuff hit at the same time to make us miserable? I hope you have a speedy recovery.
ReplyDeleteThank you Red. One thing at a time would be easier to deal with and fairerr too.
DeleteThe dental work is finished, the gout will go, the physio will help with the knee and soon you will be your old self. If you have got this far with no real issues you will probably have a great quality of life into a grand old age
ReplyDeleteThank you for your positive encouragement Kylie.
DeleteYour chest infection seems to have been experienced by most of the country at some time over the last six months. I had my session back in November and like jenny was still coughing up to the six week mark but it does eventually go. I will be 70 in two months time and I can only say that the various aches and pains come with great regularity and rarely improve to any great deal. Within a year of retiring at 60 I developed arthritis in both feet and it has plagued me ever since and now also comes out in my neck at times - grin and bare it time I'm afraid.
ReplyDeleteDon't you mean "bear" it Derek? If I "bared" it I would get arrested and maidens would be running back into their homes screaming with terror. Thanks for the outlook prediction re health in senior years..
DeleteWell it might enliven your ageing life YP.
DeleteGood health is not something we can take for granted, especially as we get older. Sometimes it's hard to deal with when everything seems to go wrong at the same time. Take it easy, look after yourself, listen to your wife and everything will feel better soon.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are right Sue. I am getting sick of not feeling like myself.
DeleteStay clear of those graveyards for a while, Yorkie - that includes taking and posting pics of them, me lad!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI hope you're feeling fighting fit again soon...real soon! And I hope that barking cough has left you before it turns you (and Shirley) barking mad!
Get loads of fresh fruit and vegetables into you! Take good care.
Thanks for the advice Matron! I hear what you're saying about graveyard visits. Someone might lock me in!
DeleteGet out and about and do whatever walking you can while you can.
ReplyDeleteWe wear out you know.
The black and white lamb is beautiful.
Alphie
Even when I was walking miles every week, I was very conscious that this habit might not last forever. Make hay while the sun shines.
DeleteA lot of folk around here have dreadful coughs YP. A friend told me last week that a doctor had told her that the virus that has caused it is closely related to the whooping cough virus. Could that explain it?
ReplyDeleteIf it's anything like Australia, there are heaps of undiagnosed sufferers of whooping cough
DeleteDear Pat,
DeleteIt cErtainly could explain it. The persistent ticklish throat is not always a feature of colds and chest infections. A friend of mine has been suffering from something similar.
Hope you are feeling better soon. I too had " the cough" at the end of last year. It went on for about 6 weeks before I went to the doc for antibiotics and gradually went away after that. Look on the bright side..... Just think of all the exercise you are getting while you cough!!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah! Fitness through coughing! I could write a book about it.
DeleteI am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, and I truly am not trying to rain on your parade, but I think at "six decades and a bit" everything will not be sorting itself out and you can bid your old "usual self" adieu. Instead, begin welcoming your new usual self and it will make the transition into old age much easier. Accept the inevitable. Alphie soup is right; we do wear out. Walk five miles instead of ten, then three, then one, then sit in your chair and remember better times with fondness. And if you do decide to "bare it" the maidens may even run toward you instead of away from you and scream with delight instead of terror. This hasn't happened to me yet, but grocery clerks and restaurant servers do call me "sweetie" on occasion, so the tide is beginning to turn. Probably because they now view me, er, you as harmless, but do not dwell on this point at length (no pun intended).
ReplyDeleteThus spake Georgia's own Zarathustra.
Beneath the humour, I hear your point based upon your experience and it has been duly noted. Thank you Z!
DeleteI'm experiencing some novel aches and pains myself these days. I guess it's an inevitable part of aging, but it is discouraging! Give yourself some time to heal and then try not to cling to expectations about resuming your former activities. Be open to doing whatever you feel like doing -- no more, no less. The past is past, and now is what's real. Right?
ReplyDeleteThanks for considering my situation and returning a thoughtful and well-meaning reflection upon it. Much appreciated Steve.
DeleteI love the juxtaposition of the dilapidated farm building after the description of your poor health, followed by sweeping views of gravestones. Hope you are feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed soon. Alas, I fear, aches and pains are the by-products of an exciting active life!
ReplyDeleteBut..but...but I was meant to live forever as a suburban superhero!
DeleteAnd yes...I can also see some symbolism in my chosen pictures. The communication mast on Tides Low symbolises this blogpost sending out a health bulletin to the world.
Come on YP, look on the bright side - you've finished at the dentists, the physio. should sort out your knee, and hopefully the gout will go too. Then you can get back to being that super hero and living forever !
ReplyDeleteThe lamb is beautiful - a photo to gladden the heart on a sunny Spring day.
I hope your positive comment is infectious CG!
DeleteFirst of all, I love that little lamb. Big Bear and I would love to have chickens or goats or lamas here on our mountain top but the wild animals around would mean we would have to build a barn for them for their safety and that would not be fair to animals that should be allowed to roam free.
ReplyDeleteNow for the problems that you are having with your health. So sorry for you but if you just relax and do what the professionals say to do and just "putter" around instead of trying to do everything all at once, you will recover. It just takes a little longer when the years start piling up on us.
As an aside, I will tell you that I will be 70 years old this week. I have told Big Bear that when I die, he is to give my body to some medical school to study because I will have died of some disease or syndrome that nobody ever heard of before!!! It has not been a great year-and-a-half for me, medically speaking, but with my sunny outlook on life, I am sure this year will be great!! (It would be outstanding if we could get rid of Donald, somehow!)
As I write this response, I guess you must now be seventy Donna. I want to wish you a very happy birthday and to say thank you for being one of my most special blogging friends! Also thank you for your thoughtful reflection upon my ailments.
DeleteWhen you were young in years, I guess you never really imagined being seventy. Well done for getting there.
By the way, I suspect that The Donald will get rid of himself before too long. The hole he's digging is deeper than The Grand Canyon.
xxxx
I'm so sorry to hear that you've been dealing with so many health issues at once. I'm sure that once your chest infection clears up and you get that knee taken care of, you'll be back to your cheerful, active, usual self. Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind support Jennifer.
DeleteI'm trying to wean myself back into Blogland after my 'enforced' absence. So I started reading your recent posts this morning. I was sorry to get to your current one and read of your present predicament. May I make a rather brutal suggestion? At 15 I had a life-threatening disease and had most of a lung removed. In 1998 I was diagnosed with cancer, was operated upon and have been and am still being treated for it. I had a new knee last year. I might well have missed the last six decades. I might well have missed the last two decades. I'm one of the lucky ones. I'm still alive and I don't have MS or Parkinsons or one of a million other life-ending diseases. The last 15 years have been amongst the best in my life. Every day I play the Glad Game and am thankful.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your salutary reminder Graham. Over the years, I have tried to be true in this blog and in this blogpost I felt an urge to let visitors know that all was not well - as if I had been hiding something. I shall try to play The Glad Game as best I can.
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