Dunkirk NY -I visited my doctor this past Wednesday. He’s a very good doctor, and has been our family doctor for close to 30 years now. He’s a GP, and we found him when we first moved into the area. He’s a bit of a ride away, maybe 40 minutes, but he’s worth it. We’re at the point where I call him Robert, and he feels quite comfortable in using four-letter words around me. He has a routine where he greets me with quotes from the witches in MacBeth (“A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap”). I don’t mind going to the doctor, which I do about every three-four months under the guise of blood pressure screen. I take a small dose of a blood pressure medication. My three biggest health concerns are hypertension, a mild case of pigmentary glaucoma (eye drops), and obstructive sleep apnea (CPAP therapy).
What I have found out in going to the doctor so often, however, is that, now that I have reached 65, I get flagged for everything under the sun. So this time around, I had to give blood to check PSA rating, I was flagged for a shingles shot and a pneumonia shot, and I have to send in some stool samples via a pretty new process where you stain some small cardboard-like area with shitwater and send it through the mail. Next time I go in it will be for cholesterol screening. I now begin to see what keeps seniors so busy – medical issues. I get the terrible feeling that much of their day is spent receiving medical care.
I also got the talk on exercise again. I know I should be exercising, and I really want to get back into the walking habit. I think what keeps me from getting up and moving around is the continuing feeling that I have something else to do. I chalk this up to the continuing adjustment period I believe I am in right now. I know things are going on in the department and the college, and I still get the urge to participate, but staying away is really the only solution. I wish I had gotten some little pill from my doctor to make this transition a little easier.
Final note – today is my parent’s 66th wedding anniversary. They are in Puerto Rico, and I will be joining them there this coming weekend for about 5 days. A week in Puerto Rico in April – that will be different. -twl