Feeling One's Age

It is relatively easy for people like Chuck Norris or Arnold Schwarzenegger to be active and full of energy well up into their 70s...

Reason:  they have not been sick nor experienced any serious illnesses.  That is a HUGE reason why you see stories about senior citizens who have the physical behavior of those 20 years their junior.

On the other hand, at age 60, I was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and experienced a heart attack that was serious enough for the surgeons to recommend triple by-pass surgery.  I had 5 stents inserted into my heart arteries instead.

Five years later, I was diagnosed with Melanoma, so now I am being treated for two cancers.  

Side effects of cancer and cancer treatments:

1. Nausea
2. Extreme Fatigue
3. Loss of Appetite
4. Anemia
5. Loss of Immunity
6. Thyroid damage

At 75 years of age, I am in my 15th year of treatment and have survived (so far) two cancers.  This has only made my symptoms worse.

I have experienced:

• surgery
• chemo
• radiation
• immunotherapy

all of which has left my body physically weaker than I was at age 60 before all this started.

In addition to my cancer treatments, last year I was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and had 5 disks fused together:  L2-L3-L4-L5-S1...  it has taken me a good year to get back to the place I was at physically before back surgery...  which was again not the best place to be.

My wife is 6 years younger than me and has also had cancer but after 3 years she went into REMISSION (Mine will never go away). She also has back problems but takes shots to avoid surgery.  She believes that I should be as active as she is...  I love her dearly but she is completely out of touch when it comes to that reality.  I am anxious (somewhat) to see how active she is when she turn 75...  the problem with that is that I will be 80 which is why I said somewhat.

Younger people typically never feel the age of older people therefore it is difficult for them to understand what we are going through...   at the same time, it is difficult for me to understand what my wife is going through with her pain(s) as well...

My back surgery was not performed because I was in pain, it was performed because one morning when I got out of bed my knees gave way...  and, I could no longer walk without a limp...  plus walking was a struggle instead of a pleasure as it used to be.  I never experienced the pain she is experiencing.