Saying goodbye to your youth?

[Farmer17]

I just got back from my annual fishing trip with a bunch of guys where we float down the Illinois River near Talequah, OK in fishing tubes for 3 days. Our gear rides in a Jon boat boat between us and then we camp on the rocky river bank at night and clean our fish and eat a big dinner and we cook big breakfasts in the morning and have sandwiches for lunch. We had a lot of rain this summer and the river was clear and beautiful but moving very fast and its pretty tricky to real in a Catfish, put him on your stringer, and bait your hook when your trying to dodge boulders and fallen trees in your tube that you can't control very well. We had a ton of fun as always, but its very tiring and I'm the oldest at 65 and wonder how much longer I can keep doing this. I've always been pretty hyper active but had to give up my boxing class and boot camp class a couple of years ago because of little aches and pains. My wife and I play a lot of pickle ball but I haven't been able to ride my mountain bike or water ski because of knee issues that won't completely heal, but hopefully I'll be able to snow ski this winter. I know the old age thing happens to everybody but is there a time or indicator when just need to say "good bye" to the active things so you don't risk a bad injury?

 

[soFlaNative]

I don't beach dive anymore, I've excused it by telling myself the water quality has deteriorated and temperature has increased but the real truth is that I will no longer go solo. My best friend passed and my brother is just too beat from his job so I miss out on one my favorite activities.
I guess an answer to your question is as simple as second guessing or questioning whether things we did not so much routine but without second thought are worth the risk. I think in most cases it would be OK to continue by thinking thru each step.

 

[Telecaster]

Maybe you could still go tubing, just take it easy and let them do the fishing.

 

[ColbyBruce]

Have you considered or tried Physical Terrorpy for your injuries?

 

[URIT]

We all need to stay active until the hospice worker tells us to rest.

PAIN is our body telling us there is a problem that needs our attention. Chronic pain needs a medical doctor's evaluation.

There are different types of pain which can indicate mild to severe medical issues. Don't wait for the pain to become great.

At 50+, it is best to know the symptoms of angina. The pain is mild but the consequences for ignoring the discomfort can be fatal.

Your knees are telling you to get an evaluation sooner rather than later.

Good advice, spend some time on the internet searching for answers to the little physical discomforts before they become a critical issue.

 

[jem102]

I agree that seeing the Dr. regularly is very important past 60. I did not do that and paid the price. I have recovered well but at 73 no amount of time in the gym or miles walked brings me back to an "energetic" level. It's more of a "place keeping" endeavor that keeps me going but I feel displaced and a step out of time is the best I can describe it. My mind still thinks I'm 25 but that gets me in over my head so I have to let things go sometimes that I would like to do.
It is what it is and I keep pushing but I am at that point where sometimes I just say the heck with it and turn on some music.


One other thing that I did wrong over the years was to be a loner. If you have good friends keep in touch, have coffee one day a week, go to the range or just shoot the bull. I only had that with my brothers but now we live 700 miles from each other...

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

This age thing is in the back of my head. I will turn 69 in a few months and in the back of my heat I think that maybe handling the launching and retrieval of the big whaler by myself might not be such a good idea any more.....more so after a few weeks ago when I found myself in the hospital after fainting and with a blood pressure of 78 over 54 after cutting grass and doing some light stuff around the house. Turns out I was about two quarts low as they pumped two liters of saline into me. I had my wife and son (who is a registered nurse) scolding me and treating me like the village idiot.....

 

[Kenna]

Have you considered or tried Physical Terrorpy for your injuries?

I call it physical terrorism!!!!

 

[venomballistics]

Maybe you could still go tubing, just take it easy and let them do the fishing.

the problem is that with our age and wisdom, we need to find some form of plausible justification in our follies.
In a case like this, the ultimate goal is consumption of beer. to justify that, we fish, which causes thirst that must be quenched by the beer ....
to facilitate the fishing, we enter tubing into the equation.
With the removal of any part, the whole scheme simply unravels.

 

[326MOD10]

Not sure who said it, other than plenty of people I know but,

"Getting old ain't for sissies".

I would think the pickle ball would be much worse on your knees than the bike rides.

I have had some on again/off again knee issues and found that sleeping with a pillow between my knees to align the back helps a great deal.

You also might want to consider finding some shoes, or inserts, that give you a great deal of arch support. I switch out my walking shoes about every 4 months when i notice my knees are starting to ache.

I checked with a doctor who offered PT but I found the few simple things above helped out a great deal.

Hope you get to feeling better.

 

[H Richard]

Walking helps, but I have recognized that at 83 I just can't do a lot of things any longer. Just came back from CO, visiting my daughter and family, and I had no problem at 9100 ft altitude, the extent of my walking has limitations, and very little up hill trail walking. My pace is about half my daughters speed. Just do what you can, but keep doing it.

 

[Golddollar]

I know the old age thing happens to everybody but is there a time or indicator when just need to say "good bye" to the active things so you don't risk a bad injury?

There sure are. Things like bone on bone in your knee, cataracts, a retinal hemorrhage and a significant blockage in your coronary arteries. I'm 72 and I have/had them all.

But you adapt. I can't march in the town Memorial Day parade anymore, but I get to drive one of the trucks. I keep a cane in each car. I'm getting a permanent handicap parking placard. I had the cataract surgery done on both eyes. If the temperature is above 85 degrees or below 30 degrees I stay inside for the most part. I trained myself to shoot handguns sighting with my other eye.

And don't be too prideful to accept help. It took me a little while, but I finally figured out that I'm now at the age of people I used to help. I was just paying it forward, and now people are paying it forward helping you and me. They are looking out for us.

And you can still be considerate of others who might be worse off than you. I used to visit a lot of American Legion and VFW posts and sometimes I had a temporary handicap parking placard. If there was an empty handicap parking space, I would still go to a nearby regular parking space because I figured there was a good chance that a veteran who was in worse shape than me might come around.

So with some medical consultation and caution, there's no reason why we can't go out and enjoy life.

 

[Golddollar]

If you have good friends keep in touch, have coffee one day a week, go to the range or just shoot the bull.

This is the type of advice I actually received from one of my medical providers. For medical reasons, I had to swear off alcohol, but she said it was good that I still went to the service club in town to spend time with other people. I just had to switch to unsweetened ice tea, which the servers make sure is around for me. I still tip them like I was drinking beer because I felt they shouldn't have to suffer financially because of my medical issues.

 

[Rustyt1953]

 

[Telecaster]

I went kayaking on a local suburban creek today. I'm looking for activities to keep me "feeling young." It's mild exercise, but left my legs stiff after an hour. That's fixable, I guess. The 5 foot alligator was fun to see. I've only kayaked once before, so this is something I may get into. This and shooting get me out of the house.

I have a few years to go before retiring, so I need to do stuff like this while I can.

 

[ColbyBruce]

"For medical reasons, I had to swear off alcohol"

For your own safety, I respectfully suggest you get a second, third, maybe a fourth opinion. There are quite a few sloppy doctors out there.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I believe age is a state of mind. You think you're as old as the last major event in your life. A list of those milestones is not limited to, but include:

The Good ones:

Drivers license

First date

Graduate

Get Married/first kid born

Kid's first day of school

First or last kid graduate

Last kid move out for good

First Grandkid

The Bad ones:

Divorce

Loose a child (very hard one)

Loose a parent

Loose friends

Major illness.

For a long time I was in the grandparent stages. Then Covid hit, I lost friends, I got minor sick, I got major sick. I am fighting unknow stuff.

Fortunately, in reality the good and bad are intermixed! Every time something wants to drag me down, I get an injection of goodness from friends and grandkids!

This year is out 50th High School reunion. The list of those gone ahead is
already too long! I noticed that people I didn't get along with 50+ years ago, when I see them, I am very pleased! I'll be glad to toast our missing comrades, But I don't want to talk about who hurts the worst!

Ivan

 

[smoothshooter]

Time to dial it back some.
You don't want to be the one to ruin the next float/fishing trip for everybody by having a heart attack or stroke.
Or worse, cause death or injury to any of your buddies if they have to try and rescue you from some situation.

 

[Ματθιας]

I'm a genXer, so I'm not as old as some of you all. My folks adopted me in their mid 40s so there's a HUGE age difference between me and them Taking care of and going with them to Doc visits has taught me a lot about aging and taking care of oneself.

A doctor once told my folks that "Movement is life, life is movement. once you stop moving, you'll quickly stop moving all together". He told them that as a warning. I took it as good advice.

Since I'm adopted, I don't know what kind of genetic cards I've been dealt so, as much as I hate going to the Doc's office, I go regularly for check ups. It's like vehicle maintenance doing severe service intervals. If there are problems, they can be taken care of in early stages.

I watch what I eat as I don't want diabetes. When I started putting on weight and was getting he big gut, no butt body, I decided that I wasn't having that! I've seen what happens when health issues are ignored and/or made worse by unhealthy lifestyles. I don't drink and I don't smoke, and I have and try to keep a positive outlook on life, no matter what's going on around me.

The one thing that changed my health was/is getting and keeping my vitamin D at the optimum level. Most people are vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D does so much and it's cheap. I don't get sick anymore, my seasonal allergies have almost gone away and other things.

The one thing I don't/won't do is drink milk.

I can still do all the things I did 30 years ago, I'm just not quite as fast.

I'm not telling anybody to do anything, I'm just saying what works for me.

 

[bigmtnman]

You are paying attention to your "inner voice" which is my first suggestion for a safer life. You don't want to be laid out on the ground waiting for the ambulance (or the angels) thinking " Dadgummit ... I KNEW I should have stopped (or changed) this."

I stopped doing solo "two wheel track over the prairie adventures" when I realized I might die because of a flat tire