Aging Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Be A Cop-Out

This winter has been a real adventure in living. I discovered on one of my regular visits to my physician that I had another tear in my Achilles tendon.

I suffered from the malady while I was in Singapore 13 years ago. The Chinese physician attending me prescribed new athletic shoes and a wrap to help with the recovery. Walking was prohibited to avoid ripping the tendon and I acceded to doctor’s orders.

Now I am once again afflicted. I procrastinated believing my symptoms may be recurring plantar fasciitis. Finally, the pain and burn were enough for me to see that exercise was exacerbating the condition and the Achilles issue seemed to be the likely diagnosis. (Yes, I have a propensity for self-diagnosis propensity thanks to a family medical background.)

A specialist confirmed the Achilles tear and prescribed one of those heavy plastic boots that requires inflation. Unfortunately, the boot caused more consternation than healing, since the injury is located on my right leg, right where accelerator for my car is located. Then because of my “under-tallness,” the boot began to whack my knee.

Another canvas device was prescribed and a lengthier recovery anticipated. Driving became more convenient, and I could work as long as I stay off my foot as much as possible. Exercise is reduced, so biking and walking are prohibited. Side effects of a changed gait induced me to seek acupuncture to relieve pain and encourage successful healing.

Over the past two months or so, I discovered that this normally wakeful individual - one who likes to get up early and works best into the night at the computer to write and create marketing material — could not do it. Something seemed wrong, out of sorts, not quite right. I started taking naps that went into extended periods of sleeping 12 to 14 hours or more. This is NOT me!

At the age of 60, I resisted my physician’s observation - a man in his mid-50s — as a dismissal of my symptoms. “Remember, Maralene, you ARE aging,” he said. The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up.

Just to clear up any misconceptions, I grew up in a family of medical professionals. My mother led the charge as a nurse. To warrant seeing a doctor, we had to have significant symptoms that lasted more than the course of a normal cold, sprain or headache. Nothing was worse than having the symptoms disappear in the waiting room.

Then there were the times through my adult life when my doctor would say, “Maralene, you should have come in sooner.” Or there were the times when the test results showed no sign of a problem. Yet three days later, I was in the hospital with pneumonia and fears of meningitis, or small lumps that couldn’t be felt, but showed up on an Xray and had to be removed.

He once told me, “You just don’t do it like the book says.” With his 20-plus years as an oncologist, my internist never questioned me when I described my symptoms. Perhaps having a major medical issue eight times in three years marked the beginning of his trust in my self-understanding of my body.

So when I heard the words for the first time that I was aging, I became aware that some medical professionals would look at my chart and automatically diagnose me first with aging before considering the reality that I was actually having an issue that needed to be diagnosed.

I began to wonder if I would have to procrastinate even longer than my lifetime habits before seeking the opinion of a medical professional? Is the fear of being told repeatedly that it isn’t anything but aging going to create a sense that my medical needs are now all lumped into a place where getting older means just passing on quietly - and not straining the system?

Didn’t I work, as all baby boomers have, with the understanding that my Social Security was going into a fund for my aging years? Today, we are being told the system has to be revamped because we are reaching retirement.

Our aging is straining the system. If the system had been handled correctly — not borrowed from by the government to cover over-expenditure in other areas - how could that be?

Of course, why should I be surprised when our veterans have been treated shabbily? The problems have existed in the Veterans Administration hospitals for more than a few years.

Now as I age, I discover my generation is a burden to the system. My symptoms can easily be chalked up to being 60. It grates at my sensibilities that it was the baby boomers that helped make it possible to expand life expectancy with the science and medical advances made during our generation.

Well, I stood my ground. This week I will undergo additional testing. I know something is not right. One result has identified one culprit contributing to my symptoms. It most likely is something that a simple prescription can help to reverse the extreme fatigue and boost my system.

It is true I’m aging. But I can still play some basketball with the grandsons, ride my bike, and hike when my Achilles tendon heals. I still can write this column; stand before an audience and make sense in presenting workshops. I’m not “addlepated” yet, as my daughter likes to tease me.

I’m aging, but I have legitimate symptoms and I expect to be treated so. I fully understand that the arthritis in my joints needs an antiinflamatory. Occasionally I forget things — so do my children and grandchildren. I require reading glasses these days. It’s harder to get out of the kayak sometimes, but the worst that happens is I get a dunking. My right ear has lost some hearing after an infection.

It’s OK. I understand aging. However, not all symptoms are the result of aging; they really are afflictions that deserve attention. I stand on that — and I’m feeling pretty feisty about it.

Maralene Strom is a speaker and author who teaches on topics dealing with grief and recovery;Issues of living life 50 & Beyond; Caregiving in extended care facilities, home care, and special needs; Communicating with Empathy & Compassion. Her website features some of the topics she speaks on with information to connect with her for tele-classes, workshops or speaking to groups, conferences, etc.—- let her help you discover your life’s meaning as you journey now and into your future. Visit http://AdventuresInLivingsite.com to receive her newsletter.

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