Im an Official Old Fart

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jazzy

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so---im 67 old broad. not great eyezs, other problems, etc like most people my age. recently i hurt my foot and knee and started using a cane in the house to get around . i resisted and hated it at first but gave in after housemate told me i was being a stubborn old fool. i had an old cane that as just a walking cane but it was ok but not real comfortable---so a friend suggested one of those canes that have a sort of crook neck.

i resisted for a l while cause, well, thats an old persons cane. im old, well, but i aint that old. so im 67 old lady, bad knees, damaged foot, bad back and i was fretting about a crook neck cane making me look old.

after my friend pestering me i got one.
dang if that thing isnt more comfortable and easier to use
i was really surprised at how well it worked. i practiced using it from my room down the hallway and to the living room and kitchen and back and forth to the porch, etc i went trying it out. dammit. it really does help. iwas surprised at how much more comfortable it was frommy old standard walking cane sorta shaped like a 7
.
from walmart for $14 i think ill get a backup as i have a history of losing or breaking things, ive learned to alwasy get 2 of something that works.

im thinking of putting racing stripes on mine
im an official old fart and i guess im ok with that.
 
My moment came about 10 years ago. I was still young in my mind, early 50's. I got trampled by a bull while loading cattle. I didn't need a crutch, my doc insisted I use a cane... for 6 long months, and occasionally in the years since.

I was only mildly annoyed by using a cane. For many years I traveled for work seeing 100's of strangers daily... Frankly, I reached a point where I never really gave a thought to what strangers think of me, wasn't important except once.

I grew my first beard at age 30. I'm blond but my beard was completely gray. The first time a woman about 40 held a door open for me I went home and shaved it off! ;) I looked 60, haven't grown one since.
 
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As I was going through the milestone birthdays (You know. The ones with a zero at the end.) I never noticed to much difference in diminished physical skills. When I hit 60, it was like I fell off a cliff. I was still active, but couldn't do near what I used to. I can still walk pretty comfortably without any assistance, but I am feeling it more in my hips.

It sucks getting old, but we are on the right side of the sod.
 
I think my moment came when I was trying to get out of the woods about 4 years ago, I had downed a small deer and was dragging it out when I tripped and became disoriented, what should have been an easy 15 minutes turned into 2 hours of distressing stumbling around in circles. I made it out but it changed my thinking forever.....

Every year my joints and stamina seem just a little worse. I need to work another 7 years but that would put me at 70 and I just don't know if I have the get up and go to make it that far.

But I refuse to stop, I will push myself as far as I can for as long as I can, I know what when I give up I will be done.
 
I have never been much of a skier. It is an expensive hobby, or can be. I had financial priorities (paying off my home, staying out of debt) You also can't have a job where you have little time to get exercise and then hit the slopes once or twice a year. I also went to what I have since learned is usually the worst slope in Colorado for decent skiing conditions. I fell getting off the lift. That was a clue! The slopes were icy, so you can never really get a good edge to grip when you make your turns. I had the realization that I should and would never ski again because if I did, I would probably really hurt myself and be laid up for a long time. I didn't need that at 50 because some injuries will plague you for the rest of your life.
 
My biggest regret is that I didn't slow down 20 years ago , when my body was telling me to.
I did so much more damage to my body by not slowing down....not quitting just slowing down.
Shouldn't have kept breaking horses in my 60s.

It has taken it's toll.

I guess I'm still going but it ain't fun anymore , when everything is painful.

Jim(old fart)
 
As I was going through the milestone birthdays (You know. The ones with a zero at the end.) I never noticed to much difference in diminished physical skills. When I hit 60, it was like I fell off a cliff. I was still active, but couldn't do near what I used to. I can still walk pretty comfortably without any assistance, but I am feeling it more in my hips.

It sucks getting old, but we are on the right side of the sod.
When the milestone b-day has two zeros then you are old!
 
Hubby uses a cane but canes are not for me,If I need support I use a walker when knee gose out every couple years I use walker,I fell and sprung my ankle on a cane ,my friend sommersalted off a porch on one,she went airborn .But hubby has never had a problem with his cane.
 
Hubby uses a cane but canes are not for me,If I need support I use a walker when knee gose out every couple years I use walker,I fell and sprung my ankle on a cane ,my friend sommersalted off a porch on one,she went airborn .But hubby has never had a problem with his cane.
Do what works.
 
I have a bad knee & could use a cane once in a while. After seeing this video, I now want one of these cane, because you can take it anywhere & you are protected by HIPAA. On the street, in D.C., including the White house & on planes.
 
I have a bad knee & could use a cane once in a while. After seeing this video, I now want one of these cane, because you can take it anywhere & you are protected by HIPAA. On the street, in D.C., including the White house & on planes.



Hubby is enjoying this video you put up Joel, our son brought him a cane back from Thailand that has beautiful carving on it of a dragon.He was working overthere and saw the cane and bought it for hubby. It needs a rubber boot on it so he can use it more often.
 
Do what works.
I'm going to skip the cane altogether and go straight to a mobility scooter.
Of course, knowing my history, it will probably one of these :D:


Let my people GO!
 
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Well, I will chime in now. Got cut up by barb wire Saturday so after church Sunday I had to go south to closest Walmart to pick up husbands medicine. While there I signed up for tetnus shot. Medicare won't pay for it. Just like shingles shot. I paid 68.00 for TDAP as it had been 6 years and significant cut. I can't pay two payments of 168.00 each for shingles. It stinks to be older and so in debt I am working part time, cleaning a ladies house twice a month plus my teacher retirement. I sit in recliner and fall asleep. My momma is 90 years old and doing great. I have cats, dogs, chickens and cows. Husband was self employed and didn't pay social security so gets little. He hasn't worked in 5 years. He can't anymore. Knee needs replacement again. I retired from school in 2015. He has had carotid cleaned out, quadruple bypass, two hernia repairs and colonoscopy since 2015. He is on 6 meds and I am on one. Sorry for vent. I used to be able to do anything and everything. Have to think it out now. Just feeling down right now. Thanks for an opportunity to share my failings on this topic of aging!
 
I hurt a knee and the doc said to use a cane so I did. On a city bus one day, a gorgeous 20 something woman offered me her seat. It was devastating, I had never felt so old and decrepit. I was in my 40s. I never carried that cane again. The male ego is fragile. :)
Guess you didn't ask her out?!
 
Guess you didn't ask her out?!
I would need more than a cane if my wife found out I was asking women out. :p
After I had time to think about what happened I should have said "yes and you can sit on my lap." My wife would not like that either so I guess it was best to just let it go.
My Mom and my MIL both got scooters and it was their downfall. After a few months, neither one was able to walk very far because they had ridden their scooter instead of walking like they did before.
 
I have a bad knee & could use a cane once in a while. After seeing this video, I now want one of these cane, because you can take it anywhere & you are protected by HIPAA. On the street, in D.C., including the White house & on planes.



joel, thank you so much for this, it was awesome. im going to share it with everyone i know
 
My Mom and my MIL both got scooters and it was their downfall. After a few months, neither one was able to walk very far because they had ridden their scooter instead of walking like they did before.

My dad (87) was in and out of the hospital Nov/Dec of '19, pretty much chair bound. In Jan. he spent 25 days in the ICU, then 3 weeks in the hosp... then 6 weeks in the nursing home. His muscles atrophied. It's been a year since I brought him home and he still hasn't gotten even half of leg strength back. He still uses a wheel chair in the house. we got him a riding mower without the deck for outside and he does walk some, in the garden, he gets the eggs for me everyday.

He should have spent another 6 weeks in the nursing home doing rehab. On 5apr, two days after they pulled his chest tube I got him out of that covid infested nursing home. So, part of this is my fault, just couldn't leave him there a day longer.

"If you don't use it, you'll lose it" rings true... I'll use a cane til I have to use a crutch, til I have to use a chair and so on.... the point being, I won't use any of them until the day comes I have to. I think most of us noticed the effects of gravity on our bodies by the time we were thirty... a cane is just a way of fighting back.
 
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While we're on the subject...

band old.jpg
 
Agree with you, Peanut, on the "you better use it". Husband has two scooters, ramps off both ends of the house, a number of canes and walkers. But he does go to rehab three times a week, and that helps. Also we have some pretty big exercise equipment that he uses each day. He is trying to use his cane more, and I think that's good. Mom, on the other hand, really needs to use a walker for her balance. I have to hold her hand or her arm every where we go and walk really slow...she is that unsteady. She won't use a walker, and returns every one that people bring to her to try out. Except when she's at our place and I tell her we're going to take a walk and look at plants and the chickens. Then she'll use my husband's walker, and she'll do more walking than she does in a whole week.
 
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