74 – How am I doing?
It’s been twenty years since I first thought about the concept of this book. I was a mere stripling of a lad in my mid-fifties. I’m now in my mid-seventies. That’s twenty years nearer death! Twenty years of ageing with all the possibilities for terminal illness! I’m still waiting!
So how am I doing? Have I made good use of my time?
Three score years and ten. Well I’m past that!
I remain relatively fit and rudely healthy. I am a bit overweight and could do with losing ten pounds but not too bad. My joints are not doing too bad. I don’t think I’m going to need surgery in that department. My memory is a bit hazy and I have the usual age-related problems of remembers facts, names and words. I do the classic thing of walking into a room and wondering what the hell I came in here to do. I am diabetic now but seem to have that relatively under control. I’ve cut out my cereal and have less sweets, chocolate, ice-cream and puddings (woe is me!). My blood pressure and cholesterol is under control.
So, at seventy-six I have to accept that I’m not going to be playing football again. Indeed, there aren’t many sports I can do. I could do swimming or cycling but I don’t fancy that (unless we move to a warm climate and I get a house with a pool). I’ve just taken up bowls! That’ll have to do.
I exercise fairly regularly – a burst of interval training and weights in the gym plus a bit of walking. I watch my diet more (though not as much as I should – I have a sweet tooth). Breakfast is not berries and yogurt, lunch is an egg and slice of sourdough toast, evening meal is vegetarian or fish. I don’t eat much meat, cakes or biscuits. I do have the occasional yum-yum, chocolate bar and ice-cream though. I want to cheat death but I also want to live life.
I take three lots of medication – amlodipine for my blood pressure, atorvastatin for my cholesterol and Orlistat to reduce fat uptake.
So far so good. No heart attacks, strokes or cancers. I can get around, walk, even jog, travel, read, write and do most things. Death is not imminent. The balance seems to be working. I’m living well!