The changes of age

[Mortblanc]

I just got back home from a long PT session.

For those who do not know about such things it must be pointed out that if you are under 50 PT means physical training,

if you are over 50 PT means physical therapy.

I had a dose of meds done by epidural injection into my spine yesterday and they had me in the torture chamber today.

When one gets into the late 60 year brackets these things become necessary just to keep going in daily life.

They read me the riot act. No more moving drill presses, sanders, table saws, hitching and unhitching trailers and pushing them around the garden by hand. No more kitchen appliance installations or climbing onto the roof carrying 20 liter buckets of roof sealer. I mentioned the rototiller and the therapist nearly had a spasm of his own.

I do not know who is going to do those things but they definitely said it would not be me.

I have lost almost half my range of motion in all areas due to injuries and degeneration of the spine, so now I am not dealing with returning to "normal", I am focusing interest in continuing to move in some degree with minimal/zero pain.

Truthfully, I am in better shape and less pain that I had expected when looking forward to this point 20 years ago.

[CharlesHarris]

MB,

I sympathize. I am 68.

I have come to appreciate that an advantage of retiring on the modest pension afforded a mid-level government boffin and moving away from the city into an economically depressed area, is that can afford to support the local economy without appearing patronizing. I seek out and hire honest, hard-working young men, who need the work to support their families and are both willing and eager to help out an old man.

I feel blessed to have made friends among some fine, self-reliant rural people. Sometimes it pays to swallow your pride and in the words of the young soldiers here who are adjusting to their return to civilian life, learn to "embrace the suck..."

[Straight Shooter]

Been cleaning my work shop today and had to move my work bench (timber) i made it about a year or two back , it was sat right at the back of the shop and a pile of shit was stacked on top ...i made it from 4" x 8" its like a rock ...could not budge it and i am not supposed too .....so out came tie belts 2" i wrapped this around the front legs run the belt out to the very obliging 4x4 onto the tow hitch and pulled to bugger to the front of the shop ..back to its position .....boring old farts ROCK ! MB.

[Mortblanc]

Yep, I am sure there will be much more innovative use of the winch on the front of the Jeep than has been in the past.

More use of the 4 wheel lawn cart than the wheelbarrow.

At least if this medicine and the PT works I will be back to roaming the woods more this summer. The pain had limited me some this past season.

[CharlesHarris]

Be careful of mobic http://www.rxlist.com/mobic-side-effects...center.htm they will try to Rx for you...

[Mortblanc]

Not on that one Charles.

It seems like every time you turn around there is a class action suit against some Rx over side effects or reactions.

A few years ago they had a big problem in my area over the very medicine I was having injected. They got a bad batch that was polluted in the labs that mix the formula and it killed several people. Hopefully they got that problem fixed, since I have heard of no more problems.

It is the same risk you take with anything from a flu shot to MARSA during a hispital stay.

Still beats old rates of death from not having the meds!

Also beats the constant debilitating pain.

[Skean Dhude]

Sympathies. I was reading something today about this old guy breaking a leg. I remember reading it and it said this guy, 60, was out climbing a wall and fell. He broke his leg and I remember thinking what was the silly old fart thinking then I thought it through a bit and then thought Ooops. Time catches up with us and you don't consider yourself getting older.

[Jonas]

Hey guys, I'll be 73 next month. Old age ain't for sissies!

[Mortblanc]

I am happy to report that the meds seem to have done their job.

I woke this morning without pain for the first time in a long while.

I am also free of the sudden shooting pains running across my sciatic nerve in the lower hip and was not wakened by pain during the night last night.

The last treatment I had lasted for several years, hopefully this one will also.

[CharlesHarris]

MB,

Outstanding! Thank you for the report! Cheers and Beers!