What A Drag It Is Getting Old...

So now I'm closer to 58 than just turning 57, which to me means my late 50s, which is getting very close to 60.  Many of my friends like to make believe they're "still young." Not me -- I am the ultimate realist.

The Ds had an intervention with me last year, fearful that I was going to drop due to my inactivity and obesity. I took their concern and love to heart, so to speak, and started with a personal trainer. Indeed -- I'm in far better shape than I was -- I even walk up stairs like I did in my 30s. The weight loss has been slower in coming, due to the fact that I continue to overeat. Oh well...

The only by product of working out, given my age, has been a shoulder injury. When I was young and played softball, I would get a strained muscle, or other orthopedic issue, and it would go away in a week or so. Not no more.

After months of being awakened by pain in my shoulder when I turn over, I made an appointment to see an ortho I had met socially -- Keith Hechtman. Ha. As if you really get to see the Wizard of Oz-like specialists. I saw his P.A. -- a lovely young woman, who seemed to know her stuff. She diagnosed simple bursitis, and prescribed anti inflammatory drugs and PT. I ignored the NSAIDs -- the pain isn't that bad -- but I started the PT.

The PT I chose is a terrific young fellow -- a few years ahead of D1 at Palmetto High and UF -- D1 knows his wife through a charity they're both in. Jason has really been helping -- strong massage followed by shoulder muscle strengthening.  I plan to go for another few weeks.

So I figured that was it for awhile. Yeah, right. Last Tuesday as Wifey and I were driving to dinner, I kept reaching to the roof of my car to shut off a dome light that I thought was left on. There was no light -- I was getting so called optical flashes.

I read all about them -- sure enough, they occur after age 50 when the eye jelly, called the vitreous fluid, starts to harden and dry out like the rest of your aging corpus, and causes the retina to bend in.

Usually they're harmless, but you have to see an eye doc to make sure you don't have a hole in your macula, which needs surgery to keep your vision.

Wifey had a cousin of flashes -- floaters -- where it looked to her she had cobwebs in her eye. She saw a young crackerjack doc over at Baptist named Schimel -- trained at Bascom Palmer -- and he said she was fine -- just normal eye aging.

I probably made fun of her -- as she is 4.5 years older than I am -- and now eye karma has come back to kick me in the head, so to speak.

I called the eye office and waited 30 minutes, and then was told that Schimel only sees patients with diagnosed retina problems -- I'd have to see a regular ophthamologist first..  Fine -- I had met a fellow named Buznego years ago -- he took care of a client of mine who was kicked in the head by a horse and developed cataracts. Buznego and I hit it off -- we were the same age -- and he was most helpful in my suing the horse. The horse, or its owners insurer, paid.

Anyway, they gave me an appointment in April to see him. But then the office called  -- indeed I COULD see the retina guy, and there was an opening next week. So I plan to take my eye and go in.

Ah -- aging. Better than the alternative.