Tag Archives: ailment

23

May. ’20

Vitals

Like many people I have a few ailments that have been with me for so long that I rarely think about them. For everyone, that will be any type of ailment, known or unknown. These ailments do not hinder the daily activity or require a visit to the doctor’s clinic. This have been happening with me for several years and then came the COVID-19 pandemic.
For a few years I have been keeping a logbook of my vital signs. This is mostly for me and I share it with all my doctors so that they can get an overall picture of my health and not just for the day I visit them. This is more important during these pandemic days. I am imagining you saying this is a lot of work and time but contrary to that, it is not a lot of time and it is beneficial.
In my logbook, before I have my coffee or eat anything, I get my blood sugar test, date, time, blood pressure, weight, and body temperature. I can compare this with whatever was written yesterday, last week or whenever. I can think about what I ate yesterday or drank or whatever to make these readings increase, decrease, or stay the same. I am not a doctor but want to know what is going on with my body.
However, during this pandemic I keep a weary eye on my temperature because that is one of the signs that something is wrong. I keep an eye on my wife’s temperature because she wants to know about hers also. I am leery these days more so than in the past. Before I was in a routine, a habit, and it did not mean much to me. It was just a log of my body’s vitals, ho-hum. Now, every slight vital sign moves, up or down, have me wondering if it something I should be concerned about.
Years ago, when I first started keeping a record of my vitals, I never thought it would mean as much as it does now. A high temperature would be worrisome, at best. A drop or height in blood pressure and I start to wonder if I should be cautious. Is that cough a warning and am I smelling things? Should my blood sugar really rise would have me calling my wife and the doctor (I never had). Maybe I am too cautious, but it is better to be safe than laying in the hospital telling myself that I should have.
I am rambling on and on just to say the times have changed for many reasons and this is only one. Now is the time to really take care of your body and your significant other to stay healthy and give the doctors and nurses a needed break. You only have one life and it is up to you to take care of your body and see another day. Now is not the time to throw caution to the wind and take your chance of not getting sick. This COVID-19 is nothing to play with nor that a chance that it will pass you by.
I will continue to take my vitals, seldom venture out, stay away form people/crowds, wash my hands/sanitize often and always wear a mask (not only for my benefit but for the safety of others). The world has changed, and it is time we all do the same. There is nothing that is as normal as before. Stay safe and good luck during the re-openings.

 

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12

Oct. ’19

Good Old Days

Have you seen something new on the television, the internet or in a store and said to yourself ‘I’m getting old’? Have you ever daydreamed about the things that went on during your childhood, looked around yourself and thought how old you are? Well, I also look at it another way. I look at the name of something or what it is called and say to myself ‘in my day it was called…it’s exactly the same thing’.

Many things are not different from the olden days. It is only named differently or packaged differently or made to look different. I imagine you are asking, why? Simple. To peak interest in something being new therefore you will purchase it. The thinking is that newer is better therefore, make the consumer think the product is new. To pass the test that the product is new, they add a little additional ingredient, that really does nothing to change the product (or does it?), then call it new, passing the test of calling it ‘new’.

In my day natural items were used to combat ailments or for cleaning or just about everything. Actually, natural is cheaper and sometimes better. A across the counter laxative will cost much more than some prunes or prune juice. There was oatmeal, Oxtagon soap that was used for, not only washing clothes but treating poison ivy and other rashes. The list can go on and on and I doubt I can think of all the items that fall into this category.

I feel old in so many other ways. I used to want to always be partying or be around the gang. There was always something alcoholic to drink. There was loud music everywhere I went. Now, I am content to sit on the porch and watch people and traffic go by. I go one or two weeks without a drink. I really love quietness. I remember my military K-9 days, which was very solitary, and I still love that. Now I know I am old.

Have you ever heard the first bars of music and immediately knew the song? I bet you remembered when the first time was you heard the song, where you were, who you were with and what you were doing (probably the conversations that took place). I’m not talking about this new stuff. I am talking about the oldie-but-goodie of years gone by. Yeah, we are all getting old. But there is nothing wrong with that because we are still alive, mobile and can remember it all. We can smile and recall it all. We sit around with our friends and talk about the old days.

There is nothing wrong with getting old because it is something we all must do, like one day we all must die. All I am saying here is that old is good and new may not be better because it may be a new brand of old, including the music. Thinking about new music, I have listened to new music and it will have the sound of an oldie-but-goodie with different lyrics. One day the young people today will do the same thing we are doing. They will look back and say ‘those were some good old days’.

 

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05

Jan. ’19

Weather And The Elderly

Seldom a morning goes by, as I arise from my bed, that I wonder what the weather will bring today and what is the temperature at the moment. Sure, I know what the weather was yesterday, but what will it be today, is the forecast correct? The temperature in the house can deceive a person, give a false sense of weather awareness, which will make a person wonder if they will overdress or underdress. To the elderly, it can be a bad cold event or not.

The one thing that really make me feel cold is watching a person walk by wearing shorts, flip-flops, a bald head without a hat and a jacket on a breezy, chilly day. Maybe the person does not feel cold but why does the person wear a jacket if they don’t? I have seen this much too often, and every time I wonder why. Occasionally, I have seen this when there are snow flurries and a stiff breeze. Flu shot or not will not protect anyone from catching something under a nasty weather condition when disregard for properly dressing is in play. No, not catch, the ailment was invited by the way the person dressed, prepared for bad weather.

Elderly people need to be very careful because today immune systems, for some unknown reason, are very fragile which translate into a possible death sentence. I am a firm believer in the body healing itself. I will take a medication only when I have no other recourse, but I do not take over the counter medication unless I absolutely must do so to rid my body of something. However, that is a rare occasion. My immune system ward off many things and the things I do develop are very minor.

If you want to see young people cold or wet and cold but dressed for fun in a nightclub on a nice summer night, look outside a nightclub on a cold windy night. There will be many women barely dressed {men also), turning colors before your eyes yet saying it’s not cold. By putting on a fashion show at the expense of your health is not worth it. It may not be felt today but years down the road will reveal the harm caused during adolescence. Not only from how they were dressed but other ways the body was treated.

How an elderly person looks show what type of life they led and what the elements can do to the human body. Some of the body configurations of these people are not pretty. The dictionary of elderly ailments is all there in a room filled with a dozen or two of elderly people. Even those that spent large amounts of money to snip this, tuck that, shape this, tone that is in the same boat as the rest of us, sometimes worst.

It’s not good for a person when they are the same age as you are but look, act and speak ten years or older than you are. I have had a rough life and my body have been abused because of the work I did, and I really wasn’t careful how things affected my body. I feel it now but there isn’t anything that can be done now except to just live with it. I can not go back in time and redo the things that have been done to my body. However, I have corresponded with a few guys that were working beside me back in the day and just about all of them have the same ailments. They are also trying to care for their bodies, unlike today’s young people. They look into the mirror and most can tell their age.

Bottom line, take care of your body. Dress correctly for the weather that is and that’s coming. Don’t over do it because its’s the only body issued to you. Elderly people take a very long time to repair the body so be careful, make this New Year fruitful.

 

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