In this Glasbergen cartoon the doctor says to the depressed-looking fellow on the examination table,
You’re suffering from an incurable condition known as “midlife sucks”.
Have you ever felt despondent like that patient? Do you think that attitude is incurable?
The cartoon doesn’t relate to what’s going on in my life now, but a few weeks ago I could relate to another cartoon I saw years ago. The fellow on the exam table said,
Doc, old age isn’t creeping up on me — it’s running straight towards me at top speed, screaming at the top of its lungs.
Fortunately things are looking brighter now. I had my appointment with the retinal specialist this morning and he agreed that since my left eye wasn’t interfering with my everyday life, watchful waiting was a good strategy. I was surprised and relieved that he said if I did elect to have a vitrectomy I wouldn’t need to keep my head down for a week or so. Hopefully, I will never have to find out.
Anyway, I go back to him for a checkup in six months unless I notice my vision getting worse. This visit was well worth getting up at 6 am this morning. We were back home by 10:30, so Andy could go up to the land not much later than usual. All in all, a good day.
There are a few other things going on, and for them I’ve decided to rearrange my daily schedule to start learning Tai Chi. No despondency here.
October 19, 2015
OH!
such heartening news.
there i wrote your appointment on my calendar to remember it…
then i never look at my calendar!!!
i don’t really ever feel old. until i have some kind of health set back.
then… for awhile i feel ancient!
and
i’m waiting for our library to offer tai chi classes! i’ve ALWAYS wanted to take them. i practice on my own. but it’s not the REAL thing.
they told me if there was enough interest they would consider it.
so i’m holding out hope!
i got a dvd once to teach me… but i couldn’t follow it very well.
i’ll be looking forward to hearing about your class!
xo
I took a class years ago, but right now I’m having trouble finding one here in town. I’m using a Dr. Lam video. He’s gentle and easy to follow and stresses staying safe. If you can’t do the full range of motion for a form, then do as much as is comfortable and visualize yourself doing the whole thing. Sounds crazy, but I think he has the right idea. 🙂
I crossed the ‘midlife sucks’ and ‘threescore and ten cheers’ stages and am now on a daily dose of prayer and meditation to keep my faith strong, life without experiencing poverty and death without problems to myself and others. I can feel the effect of aging and I think by and large have adjusted to accepting those effects as being a permanent feature henceforth. I have also learned to say ‘no’ emphatically and the roof has not yet fallen down because of that.
What do you say “no” to? I liked the eye doctors because they’re not pushing for “fixing” my eye. And when things come up with my regular doctor she tells me what the current “best medical practice” says, then she suggests I research the matter and decide for myself. I do like to do my homework.
Isn’t it amazing how many expressions relate to sight? Look at your short post alone:
” … things are looking brighter now”, “… watchful waiting a good strategy”.
And then, of course, there is the “light at the end of the tunnel”. My most miserable friend (he maintains that he is a realist – and he probably is) takes that light as an oncoming train. I won’t begrudge him being right. Except even he hasn’t been flattened yet.
My dear Jean, when despondency shows up, uninvited and not welcome, give it a good pillow fight.
U
Yes, you and I aren’t ones to stay down. We bounce back.
Hope you enjoy the tai chi.
I do feel despondent sometimes. I use journalling to express my feelings, sometimes talk to others or do something I enjoy.
The main thing is to not think despondency is going to be forever, it’s just the way things are once you reach a certain age.
at one point in Auckland, Tai Chi was offered to anyone over the age of 60 – and then you could do it for almost free, I don’t know its cost. One of my friends goes once a week and she has found it very useful for “balance” which is apparently one of its ideals.
Despondency: on the other hand can come in all formats, large-small-in between and I don’t see it as a bad thing unless it starts to envelope you all the time… or you start to make other people feel that they caused it. Feeding off a soul springs to mind.
Keeping your own feelings caged may not be a good idea, maybe you then have to say to yourself – “what can I do?” meaning to me “should I join more groups whether it’s real or virtual time” so that you interact with a wide of others…
sometimes despondency comes about because you can’t do/go as much. I know I get down because of my hands that refuse to work as well as I thought they did, i.e. kitchen matters. I had to make do with more expensive ready-made but now I realise if I just slow down – I can make my own from scratch…with a little help of some ready-made foods.
and your eyes are the same category as such, as my hands…
I agree about my eyes and your hands. I’ve had trouble with them all my life and have figured out ways of doing things respecting their limits. Mostly I don’t think about them much any more, just when something new happens. I can easily live with the way they are now because I’m getting used to it. I’ll probably eventually have to have cataract surgery on both eyes to keep functioning, but hopefully that’s a long ways off.
It helps to have a creative attitude, which I think we both have. And, as you say, to have people we can share things with even if their situations are different. But, of course, they have to be the right people! Accepting and nonjudgmental. As we know, not everyone is that way. 🙂
I feel like “mid-life sucks.”
Then I realize I’m kinda past mid-life…
And that depresses me.
Yeah, I know, I know……
So I put it out of my mind until the other day when my knee twisted and I’ve been hobbling around trying to act like it’s not killing me.
It’s like an awful reminder that I don’t spring back like I used to.
But things could be worse. Much worse.
So I will shut up and count my lucky stars.