Recalling a past time when only blind mendicants being towed around the city by their guides wore those dark glasses, all day.
Now it’s considered hip, cool,
and even rad, when you see those celebrities wear those outsized dark glasses
even when the sun has gone down. Even
our local hipsters have followed the trend, their little faces almost
completely hidden by those faddish glasses.
Now it is my turn. An old clip-on, recommissioned for new
service.
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As the centenarian lady
runner opined, her performances in her races are not getting any better, but only
worse because of her advanced years.
The same could be said of
doctor’s visits for one who has reached hard to count years. Like I am?
Thus, those visits may not
be welcomed, but rather dreaded a bit and to be avoided if possible.
Anyway, in my case the
choices are next to nothing, especially if I want to continue to live. So doctor’s visits have to be scheduled and
observed. And because we now live over
7500 miles away from our health provider, the visits take on the nature of
one-stop shops. Examinations covering
from head to toe, especially for a case like mine whose medical rap sheet runs
in pages, are called in covering various appearances on different occasions.
Expectations on these visits
are rather modest and the bars are set very low. Just hoping that the conditions discovered
during the last visits had not worsened, or that no new alarming conditions
have in the meantime cropped up.
But like the centenarian lady runner, we foreknow the results to be expected.
And these last visits are no
different. Existing conditions have
dipped even lower, and new ones are discovered, expected from an aging body
that is on the inevitable road to its own junkyard.
So now know that your buddy
pacemaker has to work harder to maintain that normal heartbeat, like 96% of the
time. By the way, your thyroids are not
in synched so will now have to lower the daily doses you have been taking. Also, with the new guidelines, your elevated
BP will have to be attended to even more.
And the new findings? A double whammy. A slew of quick vision care exams show invasive
cataracts on both eyes, and presto, you are now considered a “glaucoma
suspect”. And thus a battery of exams
will have to be scheduled. If you have
the time. And please keep your eyes protected
from the blistering sun in the tropics. So
advised to wear sunglasses. As usual, your total cholesterol level is at best
borderline. So…. Etc.….
A little glimmer of
hope. Your eyeglass prescription has not
changed since the last examination which was years ago. A significant enough good tidings to
celebrate?
While the overall prognosis
may not be exhilarating, one continues to be of the thought that life is still
bearable and livable. Continued physical
exercise is still allowed and continues to be a tolerable routine that produces some uplift
not only in physical fitness, but more importantly in mental alertness and acuity,
part and parcel of what is called the “runner’s high”, or the “second wind”. This does the late Jim Fixx proud, the father
of running who died doing the best thing he liked to do, running.
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