WHAT THE GERONTOLOGIST DIDN’T TELL ME

Before flying to Saudi Arabia in 1984, I read 50 books about that country. Before old age, I sought books to prepare. One famous female writer complained she could no longer walk because of foot pain. Today, I know she probably had plantar fasciitis, https://www.verywellhealth.com/plantar-fasciitis-2549411 which may happen in old age. It begins as heel pain but can spread to the entire sole. Eventually I found articles which focused upon maintaining social contacts while a friend advised joining a gym. Both excellent advice.

Still, I wish the authors’ of Our Bodies Ourselves wrote another for us old ladies: https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/ Their website includes: https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/subject-area/growing-older/

Here’s what I’ve learned first-hand, so far, at 73, not included in Our Bodies Ourselves ‘growing older’ section:

1. Breast Cancer. Only 3-6% of lumps in the breast are cancerous. Do your self-examinations, but don’t overly worry. Nowadays, the doctor puts a numbing chemical onto the breast area then inserts a long needle (Don’t look at it!). The needle punctures the breast and removes whatever is in the lump. Most of the time it will simply be a cyst, and the needle removes its content. If not, the contents will be examined for tumors. Wait for the test results before worrying.
   
   
2. Thyroid. Get a reading on your TSH-3 and TSH-4 numbers. As we age, this hormone-producing body part weakens. A great many problems ensue. Solution: a blood test then a daily pill. I once added the supplement Tryosin for lack of motivation. It worked but altered my thyroid numbers. I discontinued Tryosin but think I should take it and re-adjust the thyroid medicine dosage.
   
   TSH levels are only one indicator of how your thyroid is functioning. They vary by gender, age, and other factors. More information about your thyroid can be found at this website: https://www.healthline.com/health/optimal-thyroid-levels#tsh-range-chart An endocrinologist informed me that the thyroid controls proteins and enzymes involved with energy. She gave me a blood test with 27 tests to be completed. Seeing an endocrinologist should be helpful to many people. All these tests show cholesterol levels as well as others. I hadn’t known microwave popcorn was so unhealthy, so those numbers are high. Giving up Nutella years ago was also difficult but it too is very unhealthy.

3. Digestion – ‘old fart’. This saying is true. Like an aging car muffler, our digestive system slows down, lags, takes longer to process food, and gas builds up and back-fires with a fart. Probiotics diminish the gas build up. Eat less and smaller meals throughout the day is healthier rather than three large meals a day.
   
   
4. Digestion. Years of abuse in one’s youth and middle age may cause many problems from junk food, alcohol and sugar. One such problem is diverticulitis.
   https://www.healthline.com › health › diverticulitis
   Diverticulitis: Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, Surgery
   Diverticulitis can cause symptoms ranging from mild to severe. These symptoms can appear suddenly, or they can develop gradually over several days. Potential symptoms of diverticular disease include…..
   
   Again, this is a ‘common’ or ‘normal’ old age problem. When eating becomes painful, this may be the cause, even if you change to a healthy diet. The body’s inner path of digestion develops abscesses, like small pockets. Food can become lodged, bacteria grow, then, possibly, a serious illness can cause death. Solution: change diet: eat small meals throughout the day, increase water consumption, avoid sugar and alcohol. One simple Mars candy bar caused me extreme pain. Ibuprofen is not good for diverticulitis pain because it worsens the problem causing bleeding. However, marijuana helps with this pain, as long as I control the munchies hunger.
   
   When repeated illness occurs, with its pain and infection, emergency room visits are mandatory with application of antibiotics via an IV (intravenous needle). With repeated hospital visits, the problem may demand an abdominal open surgery, slice out portions of the digestive system, close up and hope that no infection occurs. If an infection happens, more pain and daily hospital visits will resolve this long, complicated illness. If infected, a colostomy: an opening in the large intestine, or the surgical procedure that creates one is necessary. The opening is formed by drawing the healthy end of the colon through an incision in the anterior abdominal wall and suturing it into place. This opening, often in conjunction with an attached colostomy system, (bag) provides an alternative channel for feces to leave the body. Wikipedia. When the intestines are reattached without infection, the colostomy bag is no longer needed.
   
   
5. Defecation. I was just diagnosed with a ‘common’ old age defecation problem: rectal prolapse. My doctors and I thought it was a digestive problem. I learned microwaved food is unhealthy for the digestive tract. I bought a toaster oven. Laxatives were hell. Trying to eat high-fiber foods didn’t work. I tried an expensive but healthy meal supplement from the Listen to Your Gut website at: https://shoppe.listentoyourgut.com/ When that became too expensive, I changed to Ensure, ensure.com a pre-digested food supplement often used in hospices. This puts less strain than solid food on the intestinal-colon track. I’ve just learned Ensure’s sugar content is high. This encouraged me to mix it with a pea protein powder. (Whey protein comes from milk products, unhealthy for lactose intolerance.) Ensure also contains an element that may cause diarrhea.
   
   After three years, I learned constant constipation, or as many older people do, straining when defecating, can cause medical problem. After spending nearly 500 euros (not covered by insurance) I discovered I have a rectocele prolapse: https://my.clevelandclinic.org › health › treatments › 16610-rectocele-repairRectocele Repair: Surgery, Complications & Recovery – Cleveland Clinic. It’s a bulge, or herniation, of the front wall of the rectum into the back of the vagina. Rectocele occurs as a result of thinning and weakening of the band of tissue that separates the vagina from the rectum. If it causes symptoms such as difficult bowel movements or discomfort, it needs to be repaired. Like stages in cancer, the lower stage, the lesser need for intervention – other than exercise.
   
   Unfortunately, the doctor did not inform me that one aid is to perform pelvic floor exercises. https://www.womenshealthmag.com › fitness › g29799963 › pelvic-floor-exercises Pelvic Floor Exercises For Women – How To Strengthen Pelvic Floor Learn how to strengthen your pelvic floor at home with simple exercises from fitness pros. These pelvic floor exercises can help you reduce pain, improve sexual function, and improve your posture. They are also excellent for my problem. Many are similar or easily incorporated into yoga exercises.
   
   I also use a Chinese medicine recommended by my acupuncturist: “ben cao”. Unfortunately, I can’t find it on the Internet. I need to ask the acupuncturist or the supplier about its specific contents. Many digestives supplements are possible, including those with enzymes as well as probiotics. The actual words “ben cao” refers to an ancient Chinese medicine encyclopedia.
   
   As on New York Times comments, I also use chia seeds and ground flaxseeds – called ‘flour’ here in Portugal. When using chia seeds, I wash my mouth with water and use a toothpick to dislodge any chia seeds stuck between my teeth. One NY Times commentator wrote how chia seeds caused him agonizing and expensive dental work.
   
   
6. Kidney stones. Genetic per-disposition may occur in one’s sixties accompanied by pain akin to childbirth. When a Portuguese friend brought me Stonebreaker tea, I thought third-world witchcraft. I didn’t use it. BIG MISTAKE. Stonebreaker tea originates from the Amazon Basin forest plant, available from Amazon.com at the United States website: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=stonebreaker+tea&crid=1KK3PKIACV6FW&sprefix=stonebreaaker%2Caps%2C2261&ref=nb_sb_ss_sc_2_12 Here in Portugal, it’s found in grocery stores, along with other health teas. No Western doctor had helped my mother’s hospital stays for kidney stones attack in the 1970s and later. Here, a doctor suggested stop eating shrimp. The Internet said too much salt, calcium and Vitamin C. For me, it’s two mugs of extra-strength Stonebreaker tea which cures the problem.
   
   
7. Sciatica. Again, a common old age problem with multiple levels of pain, recovery, and incapacity. It’s a medical condition with pain down the front, thigh, under the knee, shin and sometimes the lower back. Onset is often sudden following activities like heavy lifting, though gradual onset may also occur. The pain is often described as shooting. Typically, symptoms are only on one side of the body. Certain causes, however, may result in pain on both sides. Wikipedia
   
   Sciatica causes such crippling pain, I could not walk. Sometimes the origin of the pain is caused by various spinal conditions. Thus a spinal x-ray is necessary.
   
   Other times, for most people, the pain may disappear on its own, any where from four to eight weeks, but with physical therapy, or for me, constant yoga with long leg stretches. Becoming crippled, using an office chair with five moving legs, has allowed me to get to the bathroom, kitchen, living room and bedroom, as if in a wheel chair. I did have a friend remove the hallway’s carpet for easier traction. However, getting downstairs or walking outside, is impossible. Simply entering and exiting taxis has been hell. Eventually, yoga has made it possible to balance on the injured left leg – a major improvement, but I am still, effectively, housebound. Unfortunately, the first knee/leg doctor I saw was badly educated and even with a knee x-ray, did not diagnose this common problem! It can easily be diagnosed simply by trying to straighten the affected leg: the angle at which the pain starts quickly shows the condition.
   
   Nowadays, I prefer doctors over 50 years old. Young ones are too in love with pictures on their computer screens or ‘instant’ injectable medicine.
   
   
8. Sugar. Basic. A blood-test reading can determine if you have diabetes or pre-diabetes. I didn’t understand how to use the initial testing equipment, but decreased my sugar intake. Another year, I was prescribe an easier testing system. I learned to control my intake better – eat less sugar; exercise more and take the test – not daily – but weekly. I exercised, lost 34 pounds, and ceased being pre-diabetic.
   
   
9. Falling. When you fall, do not immediately assume you need bone surgery such as knee or hip replacement. I fell. The ‘instant miracle cure’ cortisone shot from a young doctor failed. A second opinion from an older, experienced doctor said I was too weak to perform after-knee surgery exercises. Crippled, I cried in a wheelchair. Later, despite physical therapy and home yoga, little improvement.
   
   More than a year later I visited an acupuncturist. He diagnosed and treated the twisted inner-thigh MUSCLE problem. That thigh muscle does not cross over the abdomen (which I feared and demanded a Cat Scan to seek any damages. Again this doctor did not consider any possible muscle-related injury). Rather, the thigh muscle ascends up and over the hip. Months later, I thought a new pain on my left-side was digestive. Actually, it was the hip muscle pain having moved north. Medical massages cured that problem.
   
   
10. UTIs – urinary tract infections. These are common among older women and caused by vaginal atrophy. The doctor who took four months to discover I had an unusual strain of e. coli failed to teach me about atrophy. Thus I had reoccurring e. coli infections. Two or more years later, another doctor instructed me to insert an estrogen cream supplement twice weekly into my vagina. This strengthens the urethra to fend off bacteria. One friend warned me of estrogen dangers. I reassured her, unlike HRT – hormone replacement therapy for menopause – this method bypasses the blood system. No more UTIs in over five years.
    
    
11. HRT. One early Peace Corp Volunteer told me the medicines given women volunteers in its early years in the 1960s caused repeated menopause as they aged. My friend used natural herbs but still experienced shocking waves of heat with a passion to shed her clothing to cool off. To avoid that, I used HRT patches. I stopped after one and a half years because I dislike pills. However, one of my sisters continued for more than 15 years. When I heard she had breast cancer, I called, apologizing, fearing I had caused the cancer. When we were kids, playing outside in the snow, I accidentally hit her breast with an ice ball, not a snowball. She laughed. She consoled me it was her excessive years on HRT that had caused the cancer.
    
    
12. Cataracts. Those of us with light eyes need this surgery five to ten years before those with brown eyes, in my early 60s. Luckily, medical improvements make this fast and painless. Once the surgery was completed, I needed reading glasses! A nuisance. Finally, I wear the reading glasses as a necklace. Sometimes I wrinkle my nose trying to read small print until I find my glasses. (Be aware, cataracts do not like direct fans. The minimal vibrations disturb the lens.) The operation surprised me – I no longer squint to see distances. I thus no longer deepen the two ingrained lines between my eyebrows.
    
    
13. Flat feet. Wearing sandals for years in Gulf countries, I avoided awareness of this problem. While young, I simply didn’t like shoes and owned few. I recently discovered having only one flat foot is common. For ten or more years I’ve been using MBT sandals and shoes, the ones with about two inches of curved soles. I’m looking forward to newly purchased MBT slip-on tennis/sneaker shoes. Another recommendation is a combined inner arch support with a wide size, sometimes with a one-size larger shoe. MBT in Europe https://eu.mbt.com/ More MBT on-line and shops are available in the USA (I’ve recently been avoiding Amazon, where MBT sells its products.)
    
    
14. Supplements. Tryosine helped with motivation but harmed the thyroid. Metabolic supplements for the cipofloxacin problem – total lack of energy and motivation- didn’t seem to help much, despite their expense. Red rice yeast replaces blood pressure medicine because it actually has the prescribed contents as in Western pills.
    
    Traveling in Supplement Territory is dangerous. Ill effects cannot be easily determined. The USA FDA fights the use of any non-expensive-non-patentened-medication (in support of the medical-industrial-complex). I avoid anything ‘made in China’. Many ‘Chinese medicines’ – including supplements – have been tested and shown to contain lead and other deadly contaminants. This is another reason why generic drugs can be dangerous.
    
    I begged doctors for Ritalin because of my mitochondria impairment fatigue caused by ciprofloxacin. Refused. Finally, after many people suffering Covid fatigue, I can more easily obtain Ritalin for use three times a week. (More than that and I worry its effects may be damaging; and addiction possible.)
    
    
15. Social Support Network. As for this advice, I have failed. As a dyslexic, learning the local language is difficult. It took me five years to learn basic French, but living in France is twice as expensive as Portugal. Additionally, I have never seen articles discuss the negatives of having friends: acquiring their stress, their problems, their outlook on life, untimely demands, etc. I’m fortunate to have an overactive imagination, and I’m picky choosing friends. I altered the old saying, “Something is better than nothing”, after a bad relationship with a man to: “Nothing is better than shit”.
    
16. Bone density tests and calcium are important.
    
17. Anemia, undiagnosed, often occurs in old age. I presently must take iron pills daily until my numbers go up to 100. This may stop the unpleasant IBS-IBD problem I have suffered for years. Some doctors allow for IV infusions of iron but that is expensive. Remember to take iron that is packed with Vitamin C. Nowadays, most iron supplements are. If not, you may suffer constipation. Vitamin C with iron stops that problem.
    
18. Total knee replacement surgery. Most such patients recover the ability to walk within four months. With my going on nine years of fatigue, it has taken me nearly two YEARS. Because of long Covid fatigue, my medical doctor was more willing to offer me Ritalin for fatigue. I only take a child’s dosage of 10 mg. An adult dosage starts at 20 mg. The larger dose may cause more sleeping problems or other ones. The smaller one helped me walk! I also don’t like drugs, so less is best.

Yes, I miss exchanging stories with kids, as well as sharing anniversaries and celebrations with relatives back home in the USA (expensive and unsafe). Three years of Covid isolation happened to all of us, but being alone was easy for me. I’m now agaI in exploring Second Life on the internet. https://secondlife.com/

No life is perfect. So I fail in this one important aid to a better old age. At least I have food on the table, a roof over my head and money in the bank. And the Internet.