How did I get here?? (Thread for ILXors in their 60s and beyond)

Yep . Enjoy the rest of your birthday today

Happy birthday Aimless!

happy birthday aimless :)

my thumb (see above) still hurts: my guess is that it's become mildly arthritic -- in the 90s i dislocated it in a car accident and even since it always ached a little in the winter, now i suspect POSTING AND DOOMSCROLLING have added to the burden, esp.as the other one (unharmed in the accident) often twinges in sympathy

it's not stopping me do anything except not quietly saying "ow!" every now and then

Happy birthday Aimless!

For a couple years, I've been dealing with knee and foot pain, super annoying, enough to wake me up at night, tough to walk etc. I chalked it up to arthritis and being old and treated it with ice and Advil. This past spring though, it hit a new level of intensity in my right knee and I bought a shiny purple cane and upped the Advil to the max. I worried about overdoing the ibuprofen and switched to topical Voltaren - which completely worked after 5 days. But you're only supposed to use it for 21 days. So I stopped for a couple weeks then started it again - got a rash, but kept using it. The rash intensified into nonstop itching and blisters and I finally went to the doctor.

And - it's not arthritis. It's a hamstring thing and a couple months of physical therapy exercises sorted most of it out. Will I learn the lesson of not self-diagnosing? Time will tell.

It's too often the way, you anticipate a diagnosis of "well, what did you expect? You're doing pretty well otherwise..."

Convo with a much younger coworker (25ish) yesterday, commiserating about families that constantly tell "amusing" anecdotes from our past:

Me: you'd think they'd stop, I'm nearly 64, it's been fifty years!

CW: ugh seriously

Me: my mom doesn't have enough memory left but everybody else keeps it going

CW: whoa your mom is still alive!?!

Me: (feeling extra old) ... She's in her 80s, yeah

the thread of ATRIAL FIBBING
i have something in my eye (= posterior vitreous detachment, not getting worse but not getting better)
tinnitus (my hearing aid counteracts it somewhat)
help me find my asthma inhaler

also i have (so-far manageable) prostatitis and an itchy bruise-like patch on my right shin which is varicose-related

adding: Arthritis Commiseration Thread (my hands ache a lot and i need to talk to to a doctor abt it)

I'm asking the mods to change this thread title to "60s and beyond" b/c what are the next decades really but late 60s and even later 60s?

Hugs to you mark s - I'm debating getting a T-shirt made that says "This body is a traitor." But that seems unkind.

"60s and beyond" is fine by me. It was going to be lonesome in a 70s thread, at least for a half year or so.

I had a blemish behind my left ear a few days ago and convinced myself it was an incipient tumour. Some variation on that happens every couple of weeks.

Yes, I had one and my wife convinced me to go get it seen. The morning of the appt, I brushed it with a finger and it fell off.

(I had other things to discuss)

thank you jaq! if i'm honest i feel -- despite that list of links -- both healthy and happy at the moment: none of my ailments are currently unmanageable

PVD at my end too. Flashers/floaters for four weeks now. The printed diagnosis I was given began with three words I think i am going to see quite a bit of in the coming years: "As we age,..."