My life is a journey...I never know who or what I will meet just around the next bend that will give my life experience!

Sunday, August 9, 2020

Catching Up...and Moving On...

 Every day I sit for awhile and ponder my life.  I have experienced many ups and downs...some of my own creation...others leveled upon me without any help from me at all.  I wanted to record the progression of my aging process so that my children could get a glimpse at what they might face when they have lived as long as I have.


I have a talk with my body every once in a while, just to check in to see how it is doing.  For a woman my age, who has pushed my body through ma y rigorous activities, like ballet and toe dancing for most of my young years, hiking steep trails into mountains, swimming rivers and lakes, skiing and water skiing, a little golf (I never was very good at it!) and yes, even playing the piano.  Plus, I bore 6 children!  All of these should have left me with a ton of arthritis, but what little I have is endurable.  The only bone I ever broke was a toe when I was 13-\ years-old...and, oh yes, a chip fracture in my thumb after our automobile accident last September.  I have been pretty good to my body over the years and it, in turn, has been good to me.


I have had 3 abdominal surgeries, 5 eye surgeries, a bore-hole craniotomy for a head bleed, and most of my teeth pulled.  It could have been much worse.  My vision is crappy!  I inherited my dad's Glaucoma and my mom's Macular Degeneration.  Because of this, I don't drive anymore.  I have a difficult time reading anything unless the font is THIS BIG!  And I can't do any kind of close work,  My hearing us awful,  EH?  And my feet have lost their feeling...Neuropathy...also inherited from my mother.  But my body tells me that if I don't give up on it, it won't give up on me...just yet!


I have been so blessed to have my cognitive abilities still intact.  My memory is sharp, my ability to reason is intact, and I recognize everyone in my life still.  Sometimes, if I haven't seen them for a long time, I have a hard time realizing that that little girl I used to brush her hair as a child has grown into a mature, lovely woman!  Recognizing that they age too, throws me sometimes!  For these blessing, I am eternally thankful, because so much of my brain power could have been wiped out when I suffered my head bleed in 2012.


Why am I writing this?  I think it is because I wanted to keep a Diary or Journal, if you will, to help me track any signs of decline.  I am soon to be 81-years-old.  My mother lived to be 86 and in the last few years of her life I watched her body dwindle down to a frail 86 pounds and her cognitive abilities only slowly decline.  In the end, she didn't know my sister.  I tell myself it was because she couldn't take care of her and we ad to put her in a Nursing Facility.   She was nearly blind and needed a walker to take the few steps she was able to take.


So, over the next months and years, I shall check in here and leave a "progress (or regress) report" so those who come after me can read it.  This is my life!

No comments: