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Friday, 24 January 2025

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Ibuprofen is better than Acetaminophen for inflammation, provided you can tolerate it. If so, both can’t hurt.

[My cardiologist, a few years ago: "Do you take ibuprophen?" Me: "Yes." He: "Well, you'll stop that now." --Mike]

Everyone likes old people, but nobody wants to be one.

You have my sympathies. Last year I had bruised ribs from a car accident, and besides being very painful, the recovery stood out in two ways (compared to other injuries): surprisingly limited mobility, and each successive day feeling worse, for the first few days. I think it was a month or two before I got back to normal. I hope you can get a friend or neighbor to help you out with household chores in the near term!

Sorry to hear that you are sore. May I suggest that you get some spikes or studs to put on your shoes when going out in the winter? I have two: a set of studs like the ones they put in winter tires that are mounted on rubber, and for deeper snow, I have a set of micro-spikes connected by chains. Either will help keep you upright on icy surfaces and you can get them from Amazon without even leaving your house.

[I was actually wearing my slippers. Like these:

https://amzn.to/4axsl9O

My last pair lasted nine years! And I wore them a LOT. --Mike]

Wishing your recovery to get on track, Michael. I am 75 and try to remind myself regularly, "Don't step backward." I have seen a few people, including my mother, take an innocent backward step, catch their heal, and go down. Trying to burn that rule into my brain.

A pair of walking sticks (hiking poles) will be your friend(s).

I'll be 83 in February, and I celebrate it. Yes, there are all the weird things that your body starts to do, but it's still an interesting trip. The one thing that irks me is when I'm addressed as "young fellow." C'mon, do you really think that's flattering?

I feel guilty, but I had to chuckle at the first paragraph. I’ve been in that exact position far too many times, and you have my sympathy. There’s been more than a few mornings where I wake up feeling like I’ve been dragged behind a train, and it never gets less amusing/horrifying; I can never decide which.

I mentioned in my comment to your previous post that I used to do judo, and your comment about the American football players made me think about my old sensei. He was in his late 70s when he finally stepped off the mat; he’d been bumping around his entire life, but when a botched colonoscopy stopped him from being able to don the gi and join in for a year or two, he aged fast. The human body likes to move and can (and will) take a surprising amount of abuse; it’s sitting around that does us in. I’ve spent about a year now taking it easy while a ruptured achilles repairs itself, and the amount of back ache and hip pain I’ve been getting while sitting on my ever-increasing ass is ridiculous!

I agree with James, the spikes are better on ice. And nobody likes getting old but it beats the alternative

Meloxicam! Best anti inflammatory & pain combo. Just slipped on ice last week and broke my shoulder. Can relate.

These arrived later that afternoon:

https://www.yaktrax.com/pro-traction-device

A friend of many years visits us once or twice a year. We are both in our 70s. The first few minutes of our conversations are usually devoted to the indignities that age has visited upon us. He refers to this as our annual ‘organ recital’.

Have you had an X-ray to confirm the cracked rib? If not, your symptoms sound like a case of polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). Your inability to raise your arms above your shoulders, and the extreme difficulty of simple movements (like getting dressed) are indicative. The symptoms are worse in the morning, lessening during the day.

PMR is treatable with Prednisone. If this is what you have, your aches might vanish after the first day on the pills.

Sorry to learn of your fall, Mike. Getting old is no fun at all, I absolutely hate it. Have you considered physiotherapy? We need you as yours is the most intelligent blog on the internet concerning photography. Get well soon!

I've just clicked over three score and eight myself, quite in your ballpark. Bummer that a momentary lapse can bring such pain! Hopefully Butters will bring your food within reach as you do for him.

The Aged P is an entertaining figure! Only the fortunate get to his level, hopefully we'll all be so easily amused as time attempts to toss us off of this increasingly less-familiar world.

The movie "North Dallas Forty" has a (fictional) behind the scenes look at professional football. If memory serves, the opening scene is the Nick Nolte character awakening the morning after a game; it's a good illustration of your last few sentences, and pretty much the only scene in the movie I remember.

Last March, I turned 70 years old, and a week later, I traveled to Washington, D.C.
I bought a bottle of wine from the shop there, and a guard asked me to show my passport to confirm that I was old enough to purchase alcohol.

[I found this on Ye Internet, presented as being the response from an unnamed corporation when an 85-year-old man was angry about being carded and pursued the matter at the corporate level. I can't vouch for this.

[quote]

"Many people today aren't very good judges of age and we found it was difficult to train for something like that.

"As you know, at first the law was 'look over 25' but too many people were still being sold alcohol, so they changed it to 27 and then 35. There were evidently still too many cases (per ABC) where a person didn't have sufficient judgement so … they were talking about 50.

"We found that some of our cashiers were distracted (on their cell phones) or could be easily distracted (one person goes to buy beer while a confederate distracts the cashier in some way) too often. We didn’t believe we’d get enough hires if we instituted a no cell phones policy and didn't know how we’d train people to not get distracted by a clever con artist.

"We decided that this could result in allegations of prejudice, some people still might not have sufficient judgement. So, the policy is to check everyone. We intend no insult but the problem is as I said, we simply can't count on every clerk having sufficient judgment to follow an age-based rule." [unquote]

So there's that! --Mike]

BUMMER!!! That's no fun. Though I've racked up enough injuries over the last 83yrs ... a fractured lower back at 15, two severe whiplash injuries, hyper extension of both knees etc... chronic pain is not one of them. I feel for you Mike. Do take care and give yourself time to heal.

A couple of weeks ago I was walking my adopted Chow Chow and a large Golden Doodle slipped the leash and came after us, ran right underneath me and knocked me over. After a brief snagging the Doodle and returning to the owner. I was surprised at feeling no pain as I have fallen on ice before and felt it. I'm giving credit to the Five Tibetan Rites exercises I do every AM.

Exactly as Ed Taylor writes; hence my earlier comment. Tylenol (Acetaminophen), can relieve pain, but Ibuprofen is an NSAID, which stands for “non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug.” Too bad your cardiologist vetoed it. Perhaps he/she can recommend a safer anti-inflammatory alternative.

A bit more on the Tylenol and/or Ibuprofen issue: isn't it possible that your doctor might be OK with you taking Ibuprofen for your acute condition? NSAIDs do an excellent short-term job, principally by reducing inflammation and thus reducing pain. Furthermore, because their method of operation is completely different from acetaminophen drugs (Tylenol, Paracetamol, etc) it's OK to take both - for a short while.

Perfect hair dresser advertising poster photo.

Caption should read,
We don't wreck your hair with machines,
We do it carefully, by hand.

Forget all this writing malarkey. Become a distributor for those Ugg slip-ons
.
Price in the UK - £165.00 - £226.80

I went in for a doctor's appointment last week and he asked how I was, I think perhaps the social How are you, not the diagnostic How are you, but whatever.

I answered "Pretty good, but if I woke feeling like this when I was 30, I would probably have gone to the emergency room"

He said I said that the last time. Sigh.

If you are an older person of the sort that likes to push random buttons just to see what happens (sometimes this is a preventative of older-person-syndrome, a certain amount of judgment comes into play), the response "Are you flirting with me?" when asked for ID can liven up an otherwise routine trip to the Market.

This may sound impertinent, but as I am noticeably older than you, let's pretend it isn't.

"I tend to . . ." That means to me "I often don't . . ." That's really not a good plan.

How about changing to "I always . . ."? As it happens, as I can see 81 on the near horizon, I happen to still have excellent balance/stability. Nevertheless, I mentally prepare for all potentially dangerous situations. The only fall I've taken in decades was a result of a faulty stair step.

But still, for example, whenever I carry something heavy down the outdoor stairs to my basement, I mentally go over the rules; "If you start to fall, Moosie, don't try to protect what you are carrying, drop it and grab the railings." Same sort of thing on iffy stairs in a house in Scotland last fall. Take a moment to assess how things could go south, and prepare mentally for compensation, best reaction and self protection.

I know many top athletes use this sort of technique, going over in their minds and feeling in their bodies how to execute a move or react to trouble.

It also helps to develop a "monitor" in your mind, a dispassionate observer that may advise free of the emotions and/or mindless reactions of the moment.

That's the voice that would have said, "Whoa, what good are you going to be to Butters if you slip or trip and fall?"

Get well soon!

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