getting old??
 

i'm 43, and have enjoyed really good health in all ways for this long. sure, the round with flu, tonsils taken out, a few other fun things like c-sections, but the worst has just come upon me....i think i need glasses!! argh!!

when i read, my eyes, or rather a spot on the back side of the eyeball, feels like a rope that's been pulled so hard its fraying. in lower light, or paler print, i am really struggling. for years i could read pertnear in the dark!! and tiny print from 100 yards was nothin!

and to top it off, i found GREY HAIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HA I used to say I was from good healthy peasant stock. Could work all day and still go home and cook supper for my family.
Than 6 weeks after I turned 40 I had my first heart cath and stent.

My Doctor told me that it was fine to be of good peasant stock, but to remember that those peasants normally dropped dead in the field in their 40's and 50's

I'm 46. I've had contacts since I was 20 and found my first gray hair at 28. I'm not old so you don't get to be! :) Wait'll you meet Peri!

Last year I had to get glasses, the magnifiers weren't working. I had to get the progressives in the trifocal (well they are 3 different transitions) I have had them 8 months and still not used to them. My beard is almost all white, hair just white in the front. I am not old just late middle age (54). Just had the hearing test and the dr. said at some point I had a perforated ear drum, one tone is real bad 60 percent loss. I've had health problems all my life but did alright until 48 and a bad leg and ankle break, been downhill since....James

In my childhood I had TB, rheumatic fever, pnemonia several times, a blind eye, injured bones in my back, anemia, a learning disability and extreme tiredness due to a enlarged heart. Through my teens and twenties I was sickly but managed to have four kids although having them tore my insides and depleted calcium in my bones. Thirties and forties were hard but I gradually improved as my diet improved. Although I suffered from muscle spasms and back problems. I also have an abnormal foot and need orthodics.Then I developed severe allergies to trees and all green things, flowers and many scents.

Turning 60 things improved. I have managed to hold diabetas and osteporosis at bay. Both were hereditary. I developed an inopperable cateract on my seeing eye but it hasn't gotten any worse. My spine fused so there is no more back pain. With special shoes I can walk up to four miles pain free and still ride a bike.

I don't take any medicine and can control my allergies by avoiding many things that bother me. I find learning easier now. Presently I am learning Spanish and sign language. I have peace in my life and love. If this is what getting old is like I say bring it on! I am 64 now and life is better than ever before and I am very happy!

The bad eyesight is supposed to help you NOT see the grey hair.

Thanks youall made me feel young again . :bow: Well i am almost blind in one eye can't see good out of the other . Can't hardly here myself break wind and a few heart troubles . Can't remember if i'm washing or hanging out but thank God i still got my drivers licenses :teehee::lookout:

I'm 66 and I'm loving this part of my life. I'm happy with who and where I am in life. I realize each day is a gift. Also, at this point in life I can say what I want to and younger people just roll their eyes as if to say, "oh, she's just senile". ;)

I'm 41 ... well, almost ... and I began finding grey hairs, and hearing about my senility from rolling-eyed young people, and seeing blurry things (especially up close!) about five years ago.

You're doing good, Chewie!

:gaptooth:

LOL!! Those who have had it good for so long......

I've been wearing hearing aids since I was 5yrs old. I've needed glasses since I was 14 years old. I noticed my first grey hair when I was 27yrs old!
I'm only 34 now! I say you've had it pretty darn good thus far so you better be thanking your lucky stars!! :)

I'm 42. That white streak through my hair has been there since I was 18....my daughter keeps telling me if I would just dye my hair, I'd look 10 years younger. I keep telling her that she is lucky that I *brush* my hair and she should be thankful for small favors.

A few years back, I went to my ophthalmologist, who told me I needed glasses. I asked him, "For what?"

"You are far sighted, " he told me. "Perscription glasses will help you see things close up, and read."

"Won't they also screw up my depth perception and give me headaches?" I asked. "And also, won't $5 reading glasses from the grocery store achieve the same end when I am reading?"

"Ummmm...." he said.

Doctors should flee in fear now that I am getting older and will need to see them more often. X-ray technicians tremble at the sound of my name.

~grinz~ I am looking forward to being a feisty old lady. When I turn 50, I am throwing out all of my bras and high-heeled shoes and wearing nothing that isn't comfortable.

I'll be that crazy woman who milks her goats wearing flannel pajamas and fluffy slippers with Scooby-Doo on them. ~nodsnodsnodsnodsnods~

Gosh, if needing glasses and having gray hairs were all that one needed to be "old" then I've been "old" since the 3rd grade...... and that was 5-6 life-times ago. :happy:

Wow...I'm impressed that you don't need glasses till now. I'm 57. I got my first grey hair when I was in 8th grade. (totally white now). As far as glasses, I've been wearing them for about 25 years. I'm well into the "bifocal" stage. At least you've got "hair to dye for"!

Yep, the blessed folks with good eyesight now get to know how the rest of us who needed glasses their whole lives feel. I need glasses to FIND my glasses. I recently had to get bifocals but I can still read fine print better by flipping up the glasses and putting the page at the end of my nose. lol

Going gray, too, and I considered the "natural look" but it's coming in as the "Lily Munster" stripe instead of salt and pepper, so I will keep coloring until it all turns white I guess.

At 35, I started going grey. Color is no longer, an option!!
At 40, I started going blind. Can't see without a light as bright as the sun, and my PROGRESSIVE LENS BIFOCALS. OMG for real?
At 45, I can't hear anything. I feel like I am 104....if there is back round noise, forget it, I can't hear.
WTFart.
Here's the kicker.
I still get carded now and again......and you have to look 40 and older.
So I don't look as ancient as I 'feel'. HA HA

Take from your elders, 40's just aren't too bad, 50's are okay, 60's get achey, 70's are challenging, if you make it farther, then you are just tough! The one thing that I've found that helps more than anything is good old-fashioned exercise. I know you don't want to hear it, but it's too true. Get up and exercise in any way your body will let you. And laugh at anything, even if it's not funny---people will just think you're eccentric.

About 10 years ago I started using magnifying glasses and eventually graduated to prescription glasses. ( I am 53) As people get older the eyes get less flexible and it becomes more difficult to focus. But as far as getting older my old boss used to say "getting old is the pits, I can't see without my glasses, can't hear worth a darn, and I don't smell so good either."
Happy Thanksgiving from us to y'all.

I noticed that a few weeks after turning 40, I started having eye problems.

At first it was the print on the medicine bottles. It slowly progressed to the newpaper print being "smaller than it had been". It has progressed to the point now, that I've gotten cheapie Walmart glasses for reading.

I had just read somewhere lastweek, that a 40 year old needs twice the amount of light to see than a 20 year old.

I'm 43 and I realize I'm not a Spring chicken anymore!

I'm 55 and had to have my drivers license renewed this year. I took extra care in fixing my hair so alot of the gray was covered (I've grayed from my crown forward). The examiner asked me color of hair I said brown. When I got home I looked at the license paper and she had put GRAY! My loving dh thought it was ever soooo funny. It bummed me out and then I decided maybe I really am that gray! My spirit doesn't feel old, but the body parts sure do remind me.

i am 72 and can work circles around my grown children, yes exercise is the secret, and laughter......

CaliannG I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. You are sooooo funny!

Well, my present years are truly blessed. I have my son with me and we owe nothing to anyone! This is quite different from past years.

When I was 6 yrs old I was standing on the back of my head with my whole body straight up into the air and gracefully...gracefully I say...moving my beautiful legs. I slipped and the "atlas" bone was out of place throughout my youth and young adulthood contributing to "cluster" migraines that lasted 24/7 three weeks out of every single month. In my early 30's I had "aplastic anemia" and was literally on my deathbed for over a month, each day thinking it would be my last. (I walked out and went shopping, thinking to myself, Since I'm going to die, I'm ---- sure going out in style. When I got back to the hospital with all my lovely gowns...and many bruises just from carrying them...my doctor "fell" into a chair!) With Scripture & a prayer, my life was changed!

The following years were "growing years". All through university programs and professional work I was more "plastic" than flesh, making my own expensive cloths from imported materials and my own jewlry. Then I started reflecting with a poem I wrote:

["I am what I am!
Can you not see beyond your biases?
I am one who seeks, yearning for a beauty that rarely can be found; for beauty is truth!
Yet truth is for the courageous!
Oh who is brave? Let him stand that I might see and have hope!
Yet, truth is in me! Need I another?"]

So as I aged physically, I also aged emotionally & spiritually!

Now I will be 70 next March. I have not worn makeup nor fancy clothes & jewlry for nearly 20 yrs; threw away my bras & let age do what it wanted to my red hair (looks like mucho dollars was spent highlighting it...my avatar in these forums was taken last year). I have high cholestrol "only when I don't drink goat milk regularly" and high blood pressure "only when I drink too many code red soda pops" or get extra nervous about something. Sinus problems, slight osteoporoses and joint aches keep me mindful when I work; otherwise I am quite healthy!

Funny in looking back! In my youth I was always surprised not to see an 80 yr old woman looking back at me in the mirror. Now I am surprised to see how well I still look!

I truly love being the age I am, where I am, with whom I am! I cannot recall ever being more happy! (Strange because I "was" happier than I had ever been way back in 1972 when I was at Mayo Clinic thinking each day would be my last on this earth. Being curious about this is actually what started me down the educational field of psychology. Now I am happy being alive! Strange indeed!)

Heck, I'm 68 years young. Got pretty near everything wrong with me, but who cares. I'm still breathing and laughing. I'm too young to be my age!

I just had my second cataract surgery done this week. It went well. I can see distances for the first time in 60 years. Am using store bought glasses for close up stuff until my eyes are all healed!

Between the two surgeries, I ran around half focused and now I see how dirty the floors are. Oy vey!

Now, if the only thing I was missing was seeing the dirty floors, I'd never have the surgery! ~grinz~

My mother is 65, and her BFF just sent her a T-shirt that says: "Stitchin', Bi***in', and Bra-less...a Quilter's life is good!"

motdaugrnds, I wore a dress for my daughter's wedding, but not make-up. :) The only time I wear jewelry besides my wedding rings is if I am distracted at the computer, or at the table reading, my daughter will sometimes brush my hair (which I haven't dyed OR cut in who knows when), or get her earring bag out and fill every piercing she can find that I ever put in my ears.

What is funny is that way back in the late 70's and then into the 80's, I was into punk, and my ears have a LOT of holes...and my daughter has never YET managed to find them all. It's almost a game. "Mom, did I get them all THIS time?"

"Nope," I say. "Now take them all out; they itch."

Do you think my daughter would faint if she knew that there is a hole in my nose that she has never noticed?

She does try to get me to, as she puts it, "take care of myself". I would happily do so if "taking care of myself" didn't involve taking hours every week to apply mounds of moisturizing, age-defying, anti-wrinkle, goop to my face...and spending time every morning applying colored goop to my face....then in the evening washing off the colored goop so that I can apply oily goop to sleep in...

:confused: Who the heck CARES if I have wrinkles or if my eye lids are a different color than nature gave me? The goats? The horses? The chickens? Are my cats suddenly going to appreciate all this extra effort?

Cuz I KNOW my DH doesn't care. :) If he did, he would have left me long, long ago.

Hey, Chewie, you are doing great. I am 60,( 61 in Feb.) and my hair is white, has been since my 30's, got glasses when I was 40, but hey, the Lord has blessed me and my health is good. I take no medication, no high blood pressure, no heart problems, no cholestrol problems, no diabetes.............so my white hair and glasses just make me the person I am. Look up..it's ALL GOOD!

In order:

Whooping cough.
Chicken Pox.
Mumps.
Hepatitis B,
Viral Meningitis.
Lyme's Disease.

Each tried to kill me but only made me stronger to resist the next attack on my life.

First gray whisker in beard at about 40.

Rifle scope needed at 55 due to inability to focus on rear sight, front sight, and target. (Arms no longer long enough to read the newspaper about the same time.)

Then there is the serious need for something to prevent simple hills from growing into mountains by 65. Missed it in the sequence of maladies. All previous were able to get around, one way or another, but not the hills. One can not make them lower again, Lyme's Disease of May 2002 assured that. Perhaps not the potentially most devastating but the one which replaced all others as the one which is most responsible for the present condition of the body. Should have been dead years ago from "natural causes". Beat them all so far!

Martin

I reckon I'm luckier than some.........I'm 70, soon to be 71. I can still read most things without reading glasses. Well except maybe the ingredients on the snack cake package.
OTOH, I have been going mostly bald since about 35. I still get a haircut once in awhile, every month or so, for the back & sides. My full beard is more brown than gray, and I don't "chew" either. I haven't even smoked my pipes, in about a dozen years.

I've shrunk about an inch in height. I use to be an even 6'1". Now, I'm a shade under 6' even. My spine has settled I guess.
I'm lucky enough to have 5 grown Kids all pretty good, straight-up daughters & sons I can be proud of. I have 16 grand kids, some grow, and some half grown. A couple have degrees, as do a couple of my daughters.
My cholestrol is good and so is my blood pressure. I have a large frame and I keep my weight under 225# and that's good enough for my old Doc.
I have to go in for a hernia repair next week. (Walk in the park!)That'll be an excuse to slow down some, for awhile.
The surgeon said, "I can do a good job on this repair. But, I can't make you Superman or indestructable. You are going to just have to Slow down."

I have a dear sweet loving wife that stays after me to take care of myself. I'm retired on an adequate stipend. I have 13 acres with about 1/2 woods, with a 1 acre pond.
I guess I'm a lucky old Man , who worked hard and made the right choices, in Life, when they came along. And that's more than many folks end up with.
Take care, and Good Luck!

I get my aches and pains at 59 but I'M HAVING too much fun to complain very loudly. I've worn glasses since I was 2, my red hair is darker now with an occasional white hair and I haven't driven for 6 years due to eye problems. Still I'm retired and can spend all day in my robe if I wish, open up the chicken coop in my underwear if I feel like it, and make a poached egg and toast for supper when I get the urge. I laugh a lot, hug a lot and clean when I have to. Life is good.

I am enjoying this thread. It is wonderful to hear such positive attitudes about getting older; and momof2birds, I have not ... as yet (because my son lives with me) fed the chickens in my underwear ...; but I have certainly tended the stock in my pajamas! ROFL

It is nice to know that so many older people like me are still active and enjoying life. I had an interesting life from the start, as I was supposed to be stillborn, guess I was pretty blue! I had a "studio" pic taken at age one as once again they thought I was going to die, turned out to be a calcium defiency causing convulsions, Had every childhood ailment you could get plus chicken pox twice!!
Here I am at 66 and counting. I have worn glasses since jr high and got dentures in my 20's due to that darn calcium problem back in babyhood. I have arthritis and can still milk my goats!:nanner: I do have all the high blood pressure, diabetes type 2(lots in family)but that doesn't slow me down at all.
Oh yes hair is ugly salt and pepper, I have to wear a bra now just to keep the darn things strapped in! I have ran out into the backyard after a varmint in my underwear and fed in my pj's too. It occurred to me yesterday that I was getting closer to 70 than I ever thought possible.
Tim McGraw had a song about living like you were dying, that's what I try to do.
Oh the best thing that happened this year was the birth of my new grandson. I had two families of sons about 15 years apart and the second set is finally reproducing. My grandchildren are old enough to have babies but so far no one has made me a great-grandmother:sob:
That is when I will feel "older":huh:

Mom said her best decade was her 70s!:bouncy: I have a ways to go, plus with inflation, I think it might be my 80s.;)

I just had an abrupt wake-up call a few weeks ago. I went to a singles dance with a bunch of I guess 50-60 yr olds. As I looked around at all the white haired overweight singles it hit me like a hammer. I'm their age. That hit me so hard I had to get out of there and I bolted for the door.

It's like I looked down to get the farm going and when I looked up I no longer had the farm or my youth.

Inside I still feel like I'm in my 40's but the calendar says I'll be 57 next month.

I can't run up a hill like I could in my 40's and still practicing karate and some hills take my breath away but I don't think anything of going for a 5-10 mile hike. Next week I'm renewing my membership at the Y and once I get my joints and ligaments toned I'm going to start pushing myself to 100% 3 times a week until I regain my wind and muscle tone.

What a great thread!!

I'm 69 - other than beating cancer 33 years ago, and the usual childhood things, I've been pretty healthy.

Yes, grey hair and need glasses for reading - I've been blind in one eye since I was 5 years old, but haven't needed glasses except for the last 8 years - for reading sewing - but it's fast approaching = "I only need them to see!"

So far, so good, don't want to brag, don't want to temp fate.

One thing I have noticed, people are beginning to treat me like an old lady. They seem a little more gentle and helpful. It is very nice, but at the same time, a little strange.

My school was having an all-school reunion and I got a note from my class members with a picture of our 50th reunion, 2 years ago - they were all OLD people!!!

They say that as you age, two things begin to fade. First your eyesight, and I cannot remember what the second one was.

When I was 16 I thought 30 was old. I'm 43 as well, and stagger around in the morning for a good half hour because my muscles are stiff and sore. lol!

Hmmm, replaced knee at 17 (screwed together), shattered both wrists at 18 (metal rods in there), fractured skull at 19 (hit the wall so hard, the roll cage collapsed and cracked my helmet, a bit of a dead spot on the cat scans...short term memory loss...still)), gray hair at 25 (shortly after marriage...LOL!), glasses since 10th grade...but still romping thru each day physically. Kinda think the mind can control the body.
Your only as old as you let yourself feel...
Matt

At 62, I can still read without glasses. However everything is a blur starting about 6 inches out but that was true as far back as I can remember. I can still remember when I got my first pair of glasses in the 3rd or 4th grade- I discovered the trees had these strange things called leaves- had never seen them before.......
I have a small catalog of aches and pains from horse back riding for years- actually it wasn't the riding part that got me- it was the unexpected and sudden stopping of rides.
It's true that things that I injured back in my 20s that I thought had repaired themselves have come back now. But nothing that really holds me back too much.

Oh and for those people noting their first gray hairs- it's not over till you find some everywhere you still have hair growing.

Every morning I get up and read the newspaper. (Subscriber to the same one for 48 years.) World and local first, sports second, and then the good stuff such as comics and word or number "brain activators". First for me is daily crossword puzzle followed by the cryptoquote. Sometimes, 15 minutes of steady filling in the squares of the crossword and sometimes I wonder all the clues missed over the years. Anyway, can't remember the exact cryptoquote or author but one last week was about old age. It was something like considering anyone of old age as being 15 years older. I totally agree that 87 would be someone who is old. And when I get there, I'll think the same for someone of 102!

Martin

Made. Me. Laugh.

:thumb:

I love this thread, too ... very much so.

:)

Oh, feeling so much comradery here! Thought maybe something was seriously wrong with me until I read all these posts. LOL
I had perfect eyesight all my life until I was 42 or so. Now at 46 my mom keeps pressuring me to go to the eye Dr. to get glasses.

Just can't bring myself to do it...... Dollar store glasses will have to do.
I have also noticed that once you start using glasses to read you become even more dependent on them...can't focus on print without them.

Getting a little annoyed with people saying "Oh, your hair is getting gray!", it's so rude to point that out! "Oh really??!! I hadn't noticed!!" :( Sheesh!

Love reading everyones posts! And I see no matter the age or health reasons, you still love the life you are living.

Am 46 now, haven't been able to see distance or mid for a number of years, can't see in low light well and after reading the posts, glad I am not alone in this.
Have more grey hair than I can shake a stick at and for some reason many of these greys hairs like to grow straight out of my head... what's up with that? LOL
I have slowed down a lot since the accident a number of years ago, between that and having Osteoporosis, I went from 5'8" to 5'6" .
Have a family issue with blood pressure and mine has been playing up but I can't get my Doc to pay attention. sigh ~~ Hate when people don't listen or don't care.
Found out I have some pretty interesting allergies.. so have to hand make all my food now.
Keep chugging along.
Still have some chickens and one duck.. 3 Icelandic horses and one mini. Really want a couple of goats at some point. A garden and fruit trees.
And the almost scary part of getting older... old people don't look old any more and when I go to the Military base, them that are flying those fighter jets, look like they are barely out of diapers now! LOL