Sometimes stuff just happens! Alas hindsight provides us with wonderful reasons why something happened but by then it is too late to mend our ways or be prepared for our fate! To quote my own mother, ‘Man proposes, the Good Lord disposes!’
However, perhaps my story may alert some amongst my readers to warning signs best not ignored or accepted as ‘just getting older!’
I am growing somewhat ‘LONG IN THE TOOTH’, as the old folks used to say, and had been feeling my age in a myriad small annoying creaks and groans in the old body for the past year or more. But, determined to be practical and self-sustaining, solutions were found!
Two neighborhood children were employed to shovel our driveway after and sometimes during snowstorms and they proved to be extremely prompt and efficient.
Cutting the big old cedar hedge which surrounds our garden has been a major fall job spread over several days for many years. Finally, last October I employed a landscaping company to do the deed. Two men with taller ladders and long handled gas-powered trimmers reduced my three-morning job to three hours and they even took away the trimmings!
Our old mower was on its last legs, to replace or not was the question? Since the cost of a new one would pay for an entire year of lawn service and the way I was going help would be required within the next couple of years anyway, the lawn service was hired and yet another job disappeared.
Chatting with the charming lady alongside me at the over 80 driving test led to a great find- a woman who did basic cleaning on an ad hoc basis and was happy to do windows, tops of cupboards etc. as well as a regular clean through. To my delight A. has become a regular fixture every couple of months taking care of all those extra jobs that seem to hover on the ‘must get around to that’ list that always nags the edge of our consciousness!
I was still walking about 5 k most days, playing Pickle Ball two or three times a week and skiing during the winter. I was happy to look after our shopping and meals and all the everyday functions of running our home and looking after my garden. True the stairs seemed steeper and groceries grew heavier but all in all I was not overweight and fairly active for an octogenarian. I considered myself healthy!!!!
Boy, was I in for a surprise! On Thursday May 25th the weather was cold and damp. As I dressed for my walk a rain jacket was essential but surely no under sweater – it was the end of May!
Alas, within a short distance my ‘arthritic shoulder’ started playing up and I had to slow my pace. I felt chilled to the bone as the pain spread to my back and chest but ploughed on slowly until, at the furthest point from home I sat in a bus shelter to determine what short cuts were available and began the slow crawl home!
From PLP (public leaning post) to PLP I crept homeward taking advantage of every tree trunk, electrical box and bus shelter seat! Reaching home at last, all my pains disappeared after a short rest in the warmth, but I did make an appointment to see the doctor ASAP. He referred me to the heart specialist who in turn ordered a battery of tests.
But four days later, I had another severe attack which refused to go away and my husband drove me to our local Emergency hospital. Coincidentally the hospital was running a campaign for funds to assist with women’s heart health since so many of women’s heart attacks were not diagnosed until it was too late.
I came home four days later after Angioplasty to place 3 large stents in my RCA and LAD as apparently, I had a 99% and 95% blockage respectively. I was lucky to be alive! Two months later, so many irritations have disappeared. I no longer wake up with indigestion during the night. My arthritic left shoulder and aching arm seems to be cured! Best of all, household chores have become almost pleasant versus dreaded tasks and I am able to enjoy gardening again!
So beware of ignoring all those ‘getting older’ aches and pains and get checked out occasionally by the experts!