Infirmities

As probably everyone who actually reads this blog knows, I'm not so young any more.  Although I'm not always happy about that, I accept it for what it is.  I understand that with age comes certain boundaries. 

For example, I can't do cartwheels anymore.  Actually, what I should say is that I DON'T do cartwheels anymore.  The last time I tried (about 15 years ago) I felt things move that I didn't know existed!

As most of you also know, I'm not really excited about doctors, medication, etc.  Oh sure, I buy some things when I hear they might be good for you:  Vitamin D, Multiitamins, Glucosamine, etc..  But most days I forget I bought them, or just forget to take them.  I suppose it's partially because growing up my family were not 'pill takers'.  We were good hearty eaters, and I think my folks thought that whatever vitamins and minerals we needed we would get in our food.  I think it is also partially due to the fact that I get up at 5:30 every day, and am usually out the door by 5:40.  (Really.)  Maybe 5:45 some days.  Many of these pills are best taken with food.  For years I didn't eat breakfast at all, and now I eat breakfast after I get to work.  I'm not really 'up' for breakfast as soon as wake up.  8:30 seems like a much better time.  I generally bring either cold cereal and yogurt, or instant oatmeal.  (And I'm lucky enough to have a job where I can eat my breakfast at my desk and no one is bothered by that.)  So you can see, unless I bring things like medications to work, I don't currently have a routine where I take them.  (I also have Vitamin D and multivitamins in my desk at work - I think one bottle expired..... )

If you're still with me here I'm sure you're probably wondering if I even have a point to make.  I do. 

Back to the beginning.  As a 55 year old, I accept certain aches and pains.  My wrist hurts most days - I figure it's from being on a computer all day long, and then coming home and knitting.  If I knit a LOT (like I'm doing now in preparation for Christmas) my elbow starts to hurt too.  I'm fairly okay with that.  Not crazy about it, but not about to go to a doctor (who would probably tell me to stop knitting so much).  I also have the usual aches and pains when I've been sitting too long, and stand.  Have you noticed that as you get older it gets harder to do that silently?    Recently I've been having a chronic pain in my hip.  It's not debilitating (usually) but it's always 'there' if you know what I mean.  I notice it particularly when I walk up stairs.  I also notice it at night when the house is quiet and I wake up and all I can think about is how that darn hip hurts.  Nothing else to distract me I guess.  I tried sleeping on my other side, on my back, sitting in a different chair at work - no improvement.

So I finally decided to go to the doctor.  It's been bothering me for a couple of months, and isn't getting any better.  I mostly wanted to find out if I  need to start worrying about hip replacement at some point in my future.   I decided to call yesterday and make an appointment for sometime in the future - my doctor is very popular and generally it takes a while to get in to see her.  I was also trying to decide if I should do it this year, or wait until January for the  new deductibles to be in effect for our insurance.  (Isn't it sad what insurance makes you do?)  As luck (?) would have it, she was working an evening shift last night and I got an appointment to see her.

So I went in - we got caught up (I rarely see her and have been doctoring with her for 30 years) and we discussed my hip.  After some exploration, we decided that for the time being anyway, anti-inflamatory meds (Over the counter Ibuprofen) in fairly large doses, and some excercises focusing on my hip would be good for now.  After a while, if things don't get better I could come back in and we could revisit.  I came home, took my prescribed ibuprofen, and (later) went to bed. 

I woke up this morning, and ran down the stairs.  (Not really).  Since I'm working at home today, I actually made coffee, and as I was in the kitchen,  realized I had left my phone upstairs on the charger.  I ran back upstairs (not really) and suddenly realized that my hip doesn't hurt NEARLY as much as it has for the past 2 months.  Amazing, huh?  So I moved quickly up and down the stairs a couple of times to see if it was my imagination - and, while not completely fabulous, I don't have that chronic ache that I've had.   And then I realized that I hadn't woken up in the middle of the night thinking about it either.

Which makes me feel kind of stupid.  But it's not the first time that's happened.  I went back downstairs, took some more ibuprofen, and threw in a mulitvitamin for good measure.  Who knows?  Maybe I can learn some new routines.