Aging Progression and Getting Old

[RE2Boys]

I got a kick out of this thread describing the ups and downs of letting older. May of the descriptions could have been written by me, a very active 70 year old. Just four months ago I did several 30+ mile bike rides in WV and PA along with hiking and camping. One particular week in Sept I did my typical week of activities…..20+ hilly ride on Monday, 1.5 hours pushing the lawn mower on Wednesday, easy 3 mile jog on forest trails on Friday. BP and cholesterol level just a bit over norms, had dropped it 20 point in previous year. Pulse always low, could stand to lose 10 pounds. Life was good!
But life happens! Sunday evening found me in the local ER, I had walked in from the parking lot and checked myself in Heart attack. Wednesday quad bypass open heart surgery, Saturday stroke, feeling on right side:gone. Left peripherals vision: gone, bad stutter to speech, ability to read and comprehended:gone.
Guess my obvious point is that no matter how well you maintain your fitness and health and take great pride in all the “good” things you are doing for yourself, sadly there are no assurances. Appreciate what you have, especially a loving family for support. And technology (I can no longer type without spell-check, and my phone can read news articles to me. And maybe luck…the vision, speech, and right side feeling all resolved on their own the first week after the stroke. Language skills, by self-assessment, returned to high grade school level. I sure miss being able to drive but vision to be evaluated tomorrow.

 

[Amethyst]

Based on my reading and conversations with doctors, I didn't suddenly "mess up" this joint/muscle or that. Over decades of use, they were slowly wearing out, but with other parts, and general fitness, trying to compensate. Finally, a tipping point was reached and I was in pain.

I've just turned 67. Until 64 I was in very good shape, but then messed up my back. .

 

[Chuckanut]

I try to avoid falling. I have a very healthy fear of falling. One thing I noticed is that older people who fall and break something (usually a hip) end up having a negative life changing experience. While modern medicine can keep them somewhat mobile and out of a wheelchair, a fall does seriously impact one's life.

While I have never been seriously overweight (a few extra pounds at the most, really) I am also trying to keep my weight down. I figure it's less wear and tear on the joints, including my new titanium knee, and if I do fall, less damage will be done. I also no longer do things that might injure me like lugging furniture upstairs, sweeping leaves off the roof, cleaning gutters, etc.

An older fellow I very much admired simply adjusted his life style as he aged and kept on going. He used to do long road trips. When that became a problem, he took the train if possible, and flew if had to do so. He mapped out routes around his home town that minimized making dangerous left turns. (In this he was ahead of UPS, FedEx an others.) The point is he adjusted to his aging and kept on living.

 

[pacergal]

I got a kick out of this thread describing the ups and downs of letting older. May of the descriptions could have been written by me, a very active 70 year old. Just four months ago I did several 30+ mile bike rides in WV and PA along with hiking and camping. One particular week in Sept I did my typical week of activities…..20+ hilly ride on Monday, 1.5 hours pushing the lawn mower on Wednesday, easy 3 mile jog on forest trails on Friday. BP and cholesterol level just a bit over norms, had dropped it 20 point in previous year. Pulse always low, could stand to lose 10 pounds. Life was good!
But life happens! Sunday evening found me in the local ER, I had walked in from the parking lot and checked myself in Heart attack. Wednesday quad bypass open heart surgery, Saturday stroke, feeling on right side:gone. Left peripherals vision: gone, bad stutter to speech, ability to read and comprehended:gone.
Guess my obvious point is that no matter how well you maintain your fitness and health and take great pride in all the “good” things you are doing for yourself, sadly there are no assurances. Appreciate what you have, especially a loving family for support. And technology (I can no longer type without spell-check, and my phone can read news articles to me. And maybe luck…the vision, speech, and right side feeling all resolved on their own the first week after the stroke. Language skills, by self-assessment, returned to high grade school level. I sure miss being able to drive but vision to be evaluated tomorrow.

Oh,my! Glad you are improving and prayers for continued healing. Take care.

 

[W2R]

My own experience since my knee surgery is that I am regaining a lot of abilities but slowly. Still it beats the heck out of going backwards.

Isn't it great? Every few days I suddenly notice that I can do something I haven't done for years, and never expected to do again, and that puts a big smile on my face, for sure.

I have no idea how long this recovery will continue but right now, "it's all gravy" to me. I never expected my knee to work this well again, but despite my low expectations, it just keeps improving and improving. It's been less than 4 months for me so who knows how much more recovery will (or won't?) happen between now and next summer.

I still need to build up strength in my legs and maybe then I can walk long distances like you have been doing. That would be so cool. So we have resumed our regular gym days just like before my knee got so messed up.

 

[W2R]

But life happens! Sunday evening found me in the local ER, I had walked in from the parking lot and checked myself in Heart attack. Wednesday quad bypass open heart surgery, Saturday stroke, feeling on right side:gone. Left peripherals vision: gone, bad stutter to speech, ability to read and comprehended:gone. [...]the vision, speech, and right side feeling all resolved on their own the first week after the stroke. Language skills, by self-assessment, returned to high grade school level. I sure miss being able to drive but vision to be evaluated tomorrow.

Oh gosh!! I am so glad you are recovering. What a scary sequence of events. A heart attack is bad enough, much less a bad stroke like that too. Good luck and hoping for the best for you.

 

[Rianne]

Wish I had the experience and common sense at 22 that I do now, at 62. I'd have a 40 year jump on bad decisions. Although, ignorance is bliss. I might be too cautious now.

 

[11522914]

I also think it depends on your attitude. If you think you are old, it is a self fulfilling prophecy.

+100

 

[Walt34]

Motorcycle is still in the garage. My intention was to keep it until 80, but now I'm not so sure. I've gone from seeing a light turn yellow 100 yards away, saying "I've got this", to saying goodbye to my beloved motorcycle. Yeah, it's fast.

Same thing happened to me. I had every intention of being the only guy in the CCRC riding a touring bike, but then I ended up with two stents, followed up by afib, and then being on an anticoagulant because of that. I kept the bike for about another 18 months, but finally faced reality and sold it.

 

[ls99]

At 72 am NOT looking forward to all the problems of ageing described in this thread. So far so good. I do fall a lot.... intentionally, as in practicing falling techniques.
Gotten fairly good at figure skating, in the last two years only fell once on the ice, falling technique saced me from injury. A benefit of 40+years of JuJutsu practice.
I find that on crappy overcast rainy days I don't feel like working out, but do it anyway, feel much better about halfway through, then into the saune as a reward.
Will see next summer how I feel about kayaking, I will likely resume, it is meditative to paddle around on 90+ acre lake.
Today In spite of crappy weather went figure skating, rink was nearly empty, I put on Argentine Tango music to skate to. Sure improved my mood.
Oh yeah, I sold my motorcycle some years ago, after nearly being run down by a bimbo on cellphone while I was stopped at a stop sign.

 

[aja8888]

One of my best friends lost his life on his motorcycle three years ago. He got cut off by a female driver in a Honda Civic who was on her cell phone on I-45 in Houston rush hour traffic. He didn't die instantly, but suffered for a few days in the hospital and bled out internally from a undiagnosed injury. He was in his early 60's and still working. Sad deal.

RE2Boys - good luck with the recovery and keep us posted. You were lucky!

 

[Calico]

I got a kick out of this thread describing the ups and downs of letting older. May of the descriptions could have been written by me, a very active 70 year old. Just four months ago I did several 30+ mile bike rides in WV and PA along with hiking and camping. One particular week in Sept I did my typical week of activities…..20+ hilly ride on Monday, 1.5 hours pushing the lawn mower on Wednesday, easy 3 mile jog on forest trails on Friday. BP and cholesterol level just a bit over norms, had dropped it 20 point in previous year. Pulse always low, could stand to lose 10 pounds. Life was good!
But life happens! Sunday evening found me in the local ER, I had walked in from the parking lot and checked myself in Heart attack. Wednesday quad bypass open heart surgery, Saturday stroke, feeling on right side:gone. Left peripherals vision: gone, bad stutter to speech, ability to read and comprehended:gone.
Guess my obvious point is that no matter how well you maintain your fitness and health and take great pride in all the “good” things you are doing for yourself, sadly there are no assurances. Appreciate what you have, especially a loving family for support. And technology (I can no longer type without spell-check, and my phone can read news articles to me. And maybe luck…the vision, speech, and right side feeling all resolved on their own the first week after the stroke. Language skills, by self-assessment, returned to high grade school level. I sure miss being able to drive but vision to be evaluated tomorrow.

Wow, sorry to hear about all of these challenges, but glad to hear of the recovery you have made so far. I hope you continue to improve and see more progress. A fellow I w#rk with had a serious stroke 15 months ago, and he is still improving and making progress, both with the return of physical abilities and speech improvement.

Edited to add: this guy is also a rabid cyclist, and one of his motivations for improving is his goal of biking again one day. He's not there yet, but he IS playing guitar again, which is his other passion, and which many thought he would never be able to do.

 

[friar1610]

I got a kick out of this thread describing the ups and downs of letting older. May of the descriptions could have been written by me, a very active 70 year old. Just four months ago I did several 30+ mile bike rides in WV and PA along with hiking and camping. One particular week in Sept I did my typical week of activities…..20+ hilly ride on Monday, 1.5 hours pushing the lawn mower on Wednesday, easy 3 mile jog on forest trails on Friday. BP and cholesterol level just a bit over norms, had dropped it 20 point in previous year. Pulse always low, could stand to lose 10 pounds. Life was good!
But life happens! Sunday evening found me in the local ER, I had walked in from the parking lot and checked myself in Heart attack. Wednesday quad bypass open heart surgery, Saturday stroke, feeling on right side:gone. Left peripherals vision: gone, bad stutter to speech, ability to read and comprehended:gone.
Guess my obvious point is that no matter how well you maintain your fitness and health and take great pride in all the “good” things you are doing for yourself, sadly there are no assurances. Appreciate what you have, especially a loving family for support. And technology (I can no longer type without spell-check, and my phone can read news articles to me. And maybe luck…the vision, speech, and right side feeling all resolved on their own the first week after the stroke. Language skills, by self-assessment, returned to high grade school level. I sure miss being able to drive but vision to be evaluated tomorrow.

Wow! When I read this I thought "what an eye-opener!" I'm sorry you've had to endure all this - best wishes for a speedy and continuing recovery.

Then the more I thought about it I began to wonder...Maybe the fact that you appear to be recovering so nicely is because you've been so fit and active and have taken your health so seriously. Perhaps if you hadn't you would have suffered these issues much earlier and with more disastrous outcomes?

 

[razztazz]

Wow! When I read this I thought "what an eye-opener!" I'm sorry you've had to endure all this - best wishes for a speedy and continuing recovery.

Then the more I thought about it I began to wonder...Maybe the fact that you appear to be recovering so nicely is because you've been so fit and active and have taken your health so seriously. Perhaps if you hadn't you would have suffered these issues much earlier and with more disastrous outcomes?

Or all that excessive exercise caused the problems. Excessive exercise causes inflammatory processes which the body reacts to by slapping all that gunk onto arteries to protect from the damage. That's been mentioned here before I think. In one of those exercise threads from long ago.


I know I was totally healthy until I let my doctors treat me for diseases I did not actually have but which they swore I did. That cost me & the insurance 100's of thousand of dollars and has me on medication for the rest of my life.
I know I lost heart and lung function from aerobic exercise. Two different cardio docs told me that. I just hope I didn't sustain too much damage from those inflammatory processes. Ya never know. I don't subscribe to the theory that I did everything "right" (whatever that is) and still suffered therefore I would have suffered even more if I had done less. That's called a coping mechanism

 

[Lsbcal]

Or all that excessive exercise caused the problems. Excessive exercise causes inflammatory processes which the body reacts to by slapping all that gunk onto arteries to protect from the damage. That's been mentioned here before I think. In one of those exercise threads from long ago.
...

Have not heard this one before. Do you have a reputable source for this?

 

[friar1610]

Or all that excessive exercise caused the problems. Excessive exercise causes inflammatory processes which the body reacts to by slapping all that gunk onto arteries to protect from the damage. That's been mentioned here before I think. In one of those exercise threads from long ago.

I've personally never heard that (which doesn't mean it's not true). But as I read the exercise examples that RE2Boys cited, they struck me as vigorous but not excessive, particularly since it looked like there was a day off between exercise days. But I suppose excessive is in the eyes (or the muscles) of the beholder.

 

[Calico]

I've personally never heard that (which doesn't mean it's not true). But as I read the exercise examples that RE2Boys cited, they struck me as vigorous but not excessive, particularly since it looked like there was a day off between exercise days. But I suppose excessive is in the eyes (or the muscles) of the beholder.

None of it sounded excessive to me either.

 

[nancyfrank232]

This thread is great for inspiring people to FIRE

 

[razztazz]

I've personally never heard that (which doesn't mean it's not true). But as I read the exercise examples that RE2Boys cited, they struck me as vigorous but not excessive, particularly since it looked like there was a day off between exercise days. But I suppose excessive is in the eyes (or the muscles) of the beholder.

I threw it out only because some people, as I said, myself included, THINK we're just keepin' in shape. Just keepin' the nuts'n'bolts lubed. Just keepin' the crank shaft crankin'. And if less is more of course more would be even better because it's more. But we're overdoing it. How it might "feel" to the body doing it is perhaps a good general indicator but too much is too much and you won't always KNOW what it is until something pretty drastic and almost always unexpected happens. In the above reference his pipes were clogged beyond his ability to conceive or suspect. And I would bet almost any doctor familiar with his lifestyle would feel the same way. He would have been considered "low risk." And we know what "low risk" means. It means the chances of an event are 100% for somebody. In my case it was a physiological maladaptation to the constant aerobic exercise Took years to recover to near normal. But my doctor kept saying I needed more exercise to cure the increasing shortness of breath because exercise is always good. (He became and Ex-doctor)



As far as a ref, sorry I don't walk around with a rolodex of everything I have learned but the --high-end aerobic exercise causing inflammatory processes leading to heart disease-- thing is not exotic medicine. It's not something real new (Latest studies show...) nor is it 1950's "your heart has only so many beats so don't overdo it" - kind of medical advice.
It's around to be looked up like all the other exercise and diet advice that meets-up here and elsewhere. I've seen discussions of it, probably on You Tube.

 

[Dreamer]

Wow! When I read this I thought "what an eye-opener!" I'm sorry you've had to endure all this - best wishes for a speedy and continuing recovery.

Then the more I thought about it I began to wonder...Maybe the fact that you appear to be recovering so nicely is because you've been so fit and active and have taken your health so seriously. Perhaps if you hadn't you would have suffered these issues much earlier and with more disastrous outcomes?

I thought that the nice recovery might be due to how healthy and how well he took care of himself, before all of this.

I hope that you continue your recovery quickly.

 

[ejman]

Or all that excessive exercise caused the problems. Excessive exercise causes inflammatory processes which the body reacts to by slapping all that gunk onto arteries to protect from the damage. That's been mentioned here before I think. In one of those exercise threads from long ago.


I know I was totally healthy until I let my doctors treat me for diseases I did not actually have but which they swore I did. That cost me & the insurance 100's of thousand of dollars and has me on medication for the rest of my life.
I know I lost heart and lung function from aerobic exercise. Two different cardio docs told me that. I just hope I didn't sustain too much damage from those inflammatory processes. Ya never know. I don't subscribe to the theory that I did everything "right" (whatever that is) and still suffered therefore I would have suffered even more if I had done less. That's called a coping mechanism

A devotee of Mark Twain I see "Whenever I get the urge to exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes away." Also attributed to many others.

 

[Ronstar]

.... nor is it 1950's "your heart has only so many beats so don't overdo it" - kind of medical advice......

DW's 95 yo uncle has been getting the "your heart has only so many beats" and "everything in moderation" advice from his doc for decades. It's working for him so far.

 

[Amethyst]

He may be thinking of rhabdomyolysis, the breakdown of muscles due to inflammation/injury. Fortunately it is rare. https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/news/20180222/exercising-yourself-to-death-the-risk-of-rhabdo

I've personally never heard that (which doesn't mean it's not true). But as I read the exercise examples that RE2Boys cited, they struck me as vigorous but not excessive, particularly since it looked like there was a day off between exercise days. But I suppose excessive is in the eyes (or the muscles) of the beholder.

 

[Chuckanut]

I threw it out only because some people, as I said, myself included, THINK we're just keepin' in shape. Just keepin' the nuts'n'bolts lubed. Just keepin' the crank shaft crankin'. And if less is more of course more would be even better because it's more. But we're overdoing it. How it might "feel" to the body doing it is perhaps a good general indicator but too much is too much and you won't always KNOW what it is until something pretty drastic and almost always unexpected happens.
<snip>

I think there is a good deal of truth in what you say. My time in the gym was filled with gym rats always urging me on to greater and greater feats of strength and endurance. Nothing was good enough. Feel the Burn! Shred that body! Take these supplements to survive being burnt and shredded! What nonsense for a guy in his 60's.

I look at videos of parks in China where dozens if not hundreds of older folks are doing Tai-Chi, Quidong, and other such slow moving routines. They build and maintain strength, help keep us flexible, improve balance (important since falling is a big No No for older people) and sharpen the mind.

There is a lot of space for health improving/maintaining activities between being a couch potato and 'shredding' your body.

 

[ckelly78z]

It sounds like the excercise regimin that RE2Boys was practicing is what actually saved his life.