Living With Health Issues

 

From the time I was born until age 59, and not including all the usual childhood illnesses that are encountered, I have never been sick, not even a cold or the flu but saw a family doctor twice a years just for shits and giggles.

From age 40-60, I walked 5 miles a day 7 days a week, never drank alcohol, never smoked, stopped eating red meat, fried foods, and sugars 95% of the time.

At age 60, I was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, and then during that time suffered a serious heart attack where it was recommended that I have a triple bypass; however, I had 5 stents put in instead over a period of a year and 3 operations.

At 65, and in all probability, the treatment that I was receiving for my Lymphoma caused me to contract Melanoma on the bottom of my left foot, that spread to my groin, and then to my neck.

At age 74, I had L2-L3-L4-L5-S1 fused together that was part of growing old and would have been worse had I not been so damn healthy all my life.  It has been over 4 months since the surgery and I am still learning how to walk normal again.  I walk 1.5 miles each day in 33 minutes and take 1 day off.

Over the last 14 years, I have had over 150 infusions, 8 surgeries, 6 intensive radiation treatments, been hospitalized for a staph infection where I became septic and almost died, and have had to watch my physical health and strength gradually decline.

I turn 75 this month and figure that at the most, I only have 2 decades left to live.  While that bothers me, I don't think about it...  what I do think about, it what I am going to do today, maybe tomorrow, and check and see what appts that I might have the following week.

I try to argue with my wife or get too upset with Democratic politics...  I am concerned about Russia and China and our Oil concerns, but there is really nothing I can do about them...  it is time for a new generation to take over...  and hope they will learn before it is too late to change their minds.

My big concern right now is that my Oncologist is just as old as I am, and one day soon he will retire and then what?  His risk taking and standing by his experience saved my life as my cancers had gotten to the point where he said it was hard to stop them...  but he did going against the wisdom of a younger team of doctors.

I have been blessed with a strong, sturdy body with strong bones, and a mind that is fixed but flexible and relatively intelligence with its awareness, understanding, retention, and knowledge.  Good eyes, teeth, and hearing although all three are showing wear and tear.

I was never overweight except when I was 40 and 65 through the present...  largely because of the steroids I took for 14 years, but if I can lose 10 more pounds then I am back to the weight for my age.

My diet of fish, chicken, beans, veges, and rice is keeping my heart and heart arteries at the repair age of 61.  My cardiologest is impressed with those results and only needs to see me every 12 months instead of every 6 months.

I will continue to walk 1.5 miles a day in the mornings and in a couple of months will walk 1.5 miles in the afternoons for as long as I can...  just because I can and because it is healthy to do so.