Getting Old Ain't for Sissies

I've heard or read this comment a thousand times since I turned 50. Believe me it's true.

In the mid-1990s I had a car wreck that ruined my body for the rest of my life. I had been fairly capable until then except for chronic insomnia and headaches that weren't migraines but every doctor thought they were. Therefore there was no treatment, only pain pills. I learned this is part of fibromyalgia. Google it and you'll find all kinds of things about it.

The wreck was on a side street I travel on my way home from work. A young woman, also coming home from work and going to pick up her baby, ran a stop sign and hit my right front wheel. The impact turned me completely around, hit a phone pole and landed against a tree in someone's yard. I seemed to be fine when I came to a stop but after 4 hours in the ER, the pain was enough to make me pass out. Some kind man, whose yard I had desecrated (I think) called my husband and he met me at the hospital, saw me through the exam and X-rays and took me home. Since the pain was building fast, I had to have a shot so I could stand in front of the X-ray machine. Husband took me home and with the help of a neighbor, poured me into bed. He slept on the floor beside my bed the whole night. I woke him at 6 a.m. to help me go to the bathroom.

Four years later I had breast cancer. Again, my husband was my lifesaver.

My mother died in 1963 and my dad in 1994. I don't miss my father. Wish I had some good memories.

Ten years after cancer, my heart started racing and I couldn't breathe. Atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure. Husband was a lifesaver again. (I think I'll keep him as long as I can.) I'm still dealing with that.

Meanwhile fibromyalgia has been a constant, along with blood pressure problems. Every now and then I have an episode of devastating pain or insomnia that nearly does me in. Husband DOES NOT approve of the pills I take for that.

Have I mentioned my two children have grown and left home? One is married and has given me the only granddaughter I'll probably ever have. A mixture of gloom and a bright spot.

Dealing with Medicare, a supplement, medicine, do I get a flu shot, in light of the probability that I'll have a reaction? Osteoporosis. Bad feet. Arthritis. Geez! it's enough to make me cry.

Stay young as long as you can.