Navigating senior years.

Donstar · January 7

My brother was prescribed CPAP therapy a few years ago and quit after his first night. He went back to his Doctor and was prescribed a custom mouth guard as an alternative to reduce his frequency of apnea events. The fact that I didn't know this until I told him about the results of my sleep study is a good example of the stigma around sleep issues. It is hard to imagine going to bed every night with a tube extending from a hideous looking mask to a machine beside your bed. The first nights are a struggle and you will need to make changes and adjustments to become comfortable with the therapy. Talk about your frustrations and you will find nothing but support, respect and encouragement. Being embarrassed or secretive have no benefit. Personally, I feel proud to be taking advantage of the very effective technology available to sleep safely.

Donstar · January 16

I have a bidet toilet seat in our main bathroom. My 82 year old visitor noticed it yesterday when using the facilities. She is thinking of having one installed in the future and had lots of questions. Money is not a concern for her and I recommended that she gets one for her home. Her response was she is managing fine now and will wait for the time when she isn't. This is the same friend who had a fall because she didn't want the neighbors to see her using a cane. More recently, one evening she called us to come help her because she was stuck on her couch and couldn't get up to use the bathroom. We had found her a walker a year ago for such occasions but she put it away out of sight in her garage. She claims that she hasn't got the "old lady look" and such equipment isn't necessary yet. I want to tell her that her mirror is deceiving her and that she (and those around her) would be happy to see her taking advantage of the tools designed to help in our senior years. I am happy to be getting old only because the alternative is much worse. I choose to be proactive in taking advantage to acquiring the tools to assist me as I age.

Donstar · January 17

I just heard a news item about 2016 nostalgia. People talked about the difference in clothes, music technology etc. They showed people intentionally dressed in clothes of the period and played music of the day. I guess today, I'm going to dress in vintage clothes and drive around in my pre-2016 Sierra while listening to tunes of bygone days! Of course, I did the same thing yesterday but now I identify as "old fashioned"!

KARNUT · January 17

Nostalgia comes into play with most older people. Music is usually number one. Under 2020 model vehicles the electronics are getting out of hand in the new ones. Too much distraction. I’m all in with the streaming TVs and choices. Mobil Phones I could never imagine, a big thumbs up on that. Clothes I’ve been wearing jeans and pull over shirts all my life, nothing changed there. Except I wear shorts more in nice weather. The first thing I did change in retirement was adding shorts to the wardrobe. I wanted to fit in.

Donstar · January 20

Plus 1 for jeans and pullover shirts. My clothing choices have remained the same throughout my adult life. I keep a pair of black jeans for those special occasions! My work peers often wore shirts and ties but my weekday attire was about the same as what I wore on the weekends. My haberdashery is Costco!

KARNUT · January 20

2 hours ago, Donstar said:

Plus 1 for jeans and pullover shirts. My clothing choices have remained the same throughout my adult life. I keep a pair of black jeans for those special occasions! My work peers often wore shirts and ties but my weekday attire was about the same as what I wore on the weekends. My haberdashery is Costco!

My latest jeans are stretched jeans. Very comfortable. My pull over shirts are mostly golf shirts. My church used to have a garage sale every summer. One of the oldest members a veteran. Who’s favorite past time was golf. He traveled the country judging tournaments. One year he brought his shirts from those events. They happened to be my size. A closet full for one dollar apiece. He recently passed. At his funeral were pictures of him in full dress next to Presidents of the United States. Like most Veterans I know he didn’t talk much about his service life. It’s like a code. What a guy, he’ll be missed.

Grumpy Bear · January 20

5 hours ago, Donstar said:

Plus 1 for jeans and pullover shirts. My clothing choices have remained the same throughout my adult life. I keep a pair of black jeans for those special occasions! My work peers often wore shirts and ties but my weekday attire was about the same as what I wore on the weekends. My haberdashery is Costco!

Wife first meet me I owned six pair of blue Levi 517's and two black and six Wrangler chambray shirts. Two pair of black Stewart boots. A vanilla Straw Stetson for summer and black XXXX Beaver felt Resistol for winter. On the weekends I traded for black Harley Tee's and a variety of baseball hats and lace up lineman's boots. At first she wondered if I ever changed clothes. I also owned one blue suit and a pair of black Wingtips. The shoes I still own and the only part of any of all that still in the wardrobe.

Some of it changed into something I didn't recognize like the 517's moving from heavy full weight denim to dishrag weight and loosing the full boot cut bottom. Junk. Wrangler discontinued the practice of shirt sizing by half inch neck and sleeve to four sizes for everyone. Stewart quadrupled in price and local outlets quite carrying them. Hat companies merged and acquired Charles One Horse and got silly with the hat bands and stores quit carrying XXXX felt, special order. I got too old to travel for custom fitting for boots and hat shaping. More a lack of will that ability. Like swimming upstream.

I let the wife buy and dress me now. Sketchers and canvas painters with flannel shirts and ballcaps most days.

KARNUT · January 20

Now if we’re going way back. My first school system was buttoned dress shirts, slacks and lace dress shoes. My freshman year we switched school districts. I was over dressed for that year and stood out. Then came jeans, pull over shirts and tennis shoes. My working footwear was work boots or cowboy boots in Texas. We had custom made hats. The last 40 years custom worked clothes name embroidered. Off work regular jeans and pull over shirts. Retirement no more Red Wings boots. SAS shoes for awhile, Sketchers now.

Donstar · January 23

This coming Monday I am having a left knee replacement. I went for pre-op X-rays yesterday and comparisons were made between my good knee and the one scheduled for replacement. I am not surprised to find out that they are both in similar condition! These older bodies certainly require maintenance! My right knee has done more than its share of the work over the past few years and I'm thankful it held out long enough for its twin to be refurbished!

davester · January 23

JBWeld to the rescue!

99silveradoz71 · January 24

Good luck with the replacement parts. I think my mom is trying to get some loyalty reward. She's had both knees, a partial shoulder, and a hip done.

Donstar · January 24

8 hours ago, 99silveradoz71 said:

Good luck with the replacement parts. I think my mom is trying to get some loyalty reward. She's had both knees, a partial shoulder, and a hip done.

Thank you and congratulations to your mom!

Donstar · January 24

I do know a couple of seniors who declined the option of a joint replacement and subsequently regretted their decision. If your need for a replacement is from natural causes then chances are you have other joints that are future candidates for replacement. You can tough it out with one painful joint but when its twin gets mad at doing all the work, you have a problem. Osteoarthritis prevented my mother from walking for the last decade of her life. Some, like my mom, wait until the pain renders them immobile and discover surgery is no longer an option.

Donstar · January 27

Yesterday, I arrived at the hospital at noon for a 2pm scheduled knee replacement. By 1 pm I was prepped and ready for surgery and in the waiting room for pre op patients. At about 2:30 a nurse came in to tell me she needs to send me home. The patient that my surgeon is currently with was experiencing complications. I had witnessed the same nurse giving similar news to another waiting patient about his surgery a few minutes earlier. I was very impressed, and surprised, by how understanding this man was when hearing the news. I copied his graciousness. I did ask the nurse what she did wrong to have to be the one delegated to pass on such news! There is a lot of prep and anxiety that happens prior to surgery and I'm sure not all patients respond well to be cancelled at the last moment. Stuff happens!

Grumpy Bear · January 28

I believe this has been covered here before but it is new to me. That is, thinning the herd of possessions. Early last year we had a basement flood of about a foot it depth. Window blew out so lots of yard YUCK involved and we had the majority of it cleaned up fairly quickly. Save my shop area. A space I don't use much anymore. So once into it and having to touch nearly everything it seemed there was an awful lot of items I have no use for. Maybe never did. The job is metastasizing.

This fall we hired a firm to mitigate this persistent water issue and after six months I think they nailed it. Which means this task no longer has the feel of unavoidable reoccurrence.

How many jars of tiny screws and nuts does a guy need, really? I might even paint the lathe and mill. Who knows.

I've decided I'm not going to do this job "Dumpster" style where in a commit myself to a weekend of once and done. More like a bucket and box to the standard trash. A bit each day. Something to get me moving in the dead of winter.