The end of the year review

This has been a year of change for me.  Since the purpose of this BLOG was to describe getting old and dealing with it, I'm going to review all the elderly changes that occurred this year.

First, I finally, after over 15 years of severe knee pain, decided to go under the knife and get my knees -- both of them -- replace, totally.  Why, I ask myself, didn't I do that sooner?   I now have no pain in either knee and walking is like walking on air, seriously.

There has been one hitch, however.  After my second surgery, the sciatic nerve -- on both sides, started giving me a terrible time and until recently I have been unable to walk hardly at all, which has been a real bummer since the purpose of getting new knees was so I could walk again.

I still have days when I cannot walk at all.  Take this past Sunday for instance.  I was all ready to go to church, starting toward our in-house elevator to go down to the garage, and BAM! I was hit was a pain in the back of the legs (sciatic) that nearly knocked me down.  Then by afternoon I was walking again, and by evening I was not walking or bending or reaching.  Wierd?  No, for me, that's been the norm since April.

The fibromyalgia problems have been few, but when I have an "incident" -- I don't know what else to call the pain -- it hits hard and fast and usually clears up in a day.  My dear cousin, Joan, who hasn't hit elderly yet, has helped me trememdously to deal with this disease. 

God has been very good to Alan.  He is walking and enjoying some of the things he had forgotten, I think.  He wants a dog.  He wants to walk HIS dog.  I sort of want a dog, but I know I can't take care of it at all since I still can't bend over very often, so picking up dog poop would not be a possibility for me. 

I really have to say that God has been very faithful to me as well.  Lately, my dear husband has taken to praying for me when I am in pain.  It works.  The pain is relieved for hours and now days.  Sciatic pain meds are reduced, and I'm not so loopy as when I take pills for everything that's wrong with me.

SO, what is wrong with me now that I'm going to be 70 in 2013?  Not too much.  It could be worse.
I have normal blood pressure, kept there by that tiny pink pill; no cholesterol problems; weight is down about 40 pounds; the knees work great and I'm climbing and descending much better than I have since the day my son was married (the last time I recall running, or moving quickly, up and down steps); my heart seems to be fine; I have infrequent panic attacks; I droop like I should in all the places we elder people droop; my hair fell out twice due to the epidurals I had this last year and has come back in nice and full and straight; and fibromyalgia, kept under control most of the time. That's about it.  Not bad, eh?

I wonder if I'll live another decade.  I am sure where I'll be when I die so there is no fear to the end of this life.  And I have to admit on the pain-filled days I want to be gone and not have to put up with pain any more, but as the Apostle Paul was known to have an affliction, I, too, have an affliction, and my pain is not as bad as some others I know, so I bear it and move on.

I hear the wind rising and the lights across the street are fading -- the blizzard has arrived.  I shall be ensconsed in my home with my cocoa and later on some soup.  It's that kind of day.

I say to you all, ttfn.