Sanguine Tenacious Tidings

Making Aging a Normal Situation

When you’re unwell, do you allow others to take care of you, or do you prefer to soldier on alone? What does it take for you to ask for help?




This is a question to cause me to delve into my own history. I'[m rarely unwell. K and I basically administer minor first aide when necessary; cuts, slivers, and such.

Last January I had a major problem I called a Dr. and made an appointment. I soldiered through it with the Doctors aide.

At the beginning of summer I had to deal with a financial attack. I called my son for support. I have 3 great boys but only one visits me and keeps holidays with his family. Paperwork for the elderly is sometimes unreal. Companies have to be reminded the elderly are not all senile, crippled, slobbering maniacs.

K is going through a lot of tests now he has had health problems for 20 years they only get worse with age.Every once in a while he goes through tests and they balance out his medications.

Here is what I deal with at my age. I do yoga and I have a small dog companion who takes walks with me. We still mow and when the hay was off the field it gave us lots of places to walk. I have developed good radar about dog toys and cat toys. We have a house full of animals. I clean bird cages and cat box 5 times a week. I also keep the outside bird feeders full when fall and winter are around. Snow is a bummer because it shortens up the walking area. Who wants to tromp through 12 inches of snow? I have muck boots so I can do the tromping if I want and there are 2 elderly horses in the barn who need daily care.

Lately 2016 has been working against me. Lots of people want to know when I will die? What the heck!
I need to give all people a heads up, after 60 you will start getting regular warnings and questions about what you are going to do with your property. People want to know. Do you have death insurance? Do you have a will? And since the country has basically built an elderly community that has no resources. They don't want younger people to look to closely at the way things really go on the financial bottom layers of society. (Does Trump really think he can change a generation of putting people in poverty?)

When my children were growing up there was not any health insurance for my family. They were basically healthy children. There was one Doctor for a large area and he gave families straight answers to questions for small fees. Like the time one of the boys was bitten by a chipmunk. The Doctor knew to ask if the boys had cornered the creature and tried to pick it up. The chippy had a right to bite. So, we did not worry about rabies.

For fun we played capture the flag, ice skating on the pond in winter, read books which I bought or came from the school library and lots of home based chores. Now, we have health insurance but we pay lots of co-pays and worry about a major hospital stay or property taxes or just getting to old to coup with paying bills. My son helps with car repair, takes us to movies and out to dinner once in awhile and gets involved in any way we need major help. I call my daughter just to visit now and then and we see her on holidays. She recently brought her girls for a 4 day visit. We shopped, talked and took the girls to ride bikes on a local trail. Yes! I still ride my bicycle.

Asking for help is easy. Knowing where to ask to get results is not so easy. Around here if you belong to a sisterhood or brotherhood you can wave your membership at them otherwise you have to hunt for the answers. Life in Northwestern Pa. is not a level playing field. (Ask yourself, why do the candidates talk about changing the problems in this country and how are they planning to make the changes work? In the last 30 years what are the ways our financial systems have changed? Where does the money come from to fix the problems?) Oh well this is getting so long I forgot to stick to the prompt.