Ruins of Roman City "Scythopolis", part of the "Decapolis"
Somewhere north...
On the Sea of GalileeDENIAL
I’ve been trying to deny that I’m actually getting older, however my body will no longer let me. For those of you who don’t know, I turned 45 this past January. Now of course my college friends know this, and they never let me forget it. I went to school late, so I’m the oldest of our group by far…But when it comes to meeting new people, I’m generally not terribly forthcoming with this particular truth. And as I’ve always looked younger than my actual biological age, it’s never been a problem-I just let people think what they want to think, or if directly asked I’ll generally say something like “29 and holding”. And I still act young, so why not? However, now that I am 45, my body has started to say “You’re definitely getting older!” Actually I noticed maybe 2-4 years ago that losing weight is no longer as easy as it once was-I would go on a diet (especially in college), drop those unwanted pounds, and be content (for a while-until they started to come back on). But a few years ago I started noticing that taking them off was not so easy anymore, although putting them on was a piece of cake!
Then I started noticing more *gray hairs. I’ve had a few here and there since my early 30s (more in times of stress, like graduate school, but those usually went away). I realized a while back that I could no longer pluck them-unless I wanted to have bald spots-but it was nothing a simple $6 rinse couldn’t handle. Until this year. I put in a rinse just before coming to Israel, and within a couple of days, the *grey was showing through again. So a couple of weeks ago I tried a natural henna color-I went for black to be sure everything was covered-and nope, that didn’t work either.
But that’s the minor stuff. Back in December while driving home from Chicago I managed to hurt my foot, and it turned out to be “plantar faschiitis”. Well it can have several causes, but one of the things you’ll notice when you look up information is that is generally occurs during “middle age”. So an age related health problem-that was new.
But it doesn’t stop there-I went to the doctor about the foot problem, and he checked my blood pressure, just as a routine, and it was a little high. Nothing to be too concerned about (around 140 over something)-he just told me to monitor it, and cut out extra salt. Well I did more than that-I went back to the gym, did a cleansing fast, and started taking natural supplements to lower it. And it went down-it was within normal range before by the time I left for Israel. And once I got here, with all the walking and the healthy foods (fresh fruits and veggies all the time), I thought I’d have nothing to worry about.
But recently asthma has been a problem, and I decided to see the doctor today to get that under control. When he finished, I noticed the blood-pressure monitor and asked if he would take my blood-pressure, just as he was asking my age (wondering if he needed to take my blood-pressure). Well it was so high he didn’t even tell me the figure right away-he just asked me to relax and after a few minutes he took it again. He still didn’t want to say what it was, and had me wait a bit longer-asked if I was nervous about coming in for the first time-(and I wasn’t). So the third time he took it, it was down to 170+/105! (It was at 190 when he started!)My blood-pressure has never been that high in my life!!! In college and even into my 30s, it was generally around 110/70 and lower. Back then they would look at me strangely because it was so low--Well those days are apparently over! He put me on medication for it (he did not want to hear about natural remedies and supplements), along with aspirin to thin my blood, and I have to walk an hour a day and give up salt. Well, I’ll take the drugs (reluctantly), and I’ll start walking (some days may only be 45 minutes), and I’ll cut back on the salt-But I’m also going to restart my natural supplement regimen and have all of you pray for me because I do not want to be on these drugs long-term! You know I was celebrating finally being “drug-free” after coming off of 20+ years of asthma meds-and now this!
But as I said, I can no longer deny that if nothing else, my body is in fact getting older. As for the asthma, he put me on almost the same course of meds I was on for the last 5 years (until last summer). However he also wants to do blood work, check my cholesterol, my glucose, several other things, and he’s even talking about an ultrasound on my kidneys to see if a clogged renal artery is causing the high blood-pressure.
Was I just being naïve? I wasn’t even considering dealing with any of this stuff yet-isn’t this for people who are in their 60s or older???
Actually, with the history of strokes in my family (on both my mom and dad’s sides), I should be very grateful that I went to a doctor who’s willing to take this seriously and deal with it aggressively. I know I told some of you that a cousin of mine last year had a stroke at the age of 45. So I do realize the need to be cautious.
Well I guess that’s it for now-next week I plan to post pictures from the New Age Festival I’m going to this week, and hopefully some from Pesach (Passover) as well. (And I’ll also have to find time to write about my tour of Israel and show more pix of that as well!)
Please pray for my health, and that things go well at the Festival-
Blessings from Jerusalem!
Monica
*both spellings are correct and I can never make up my mind which to use, so I decided to use both-
I’ve been trying to deny that I’m actually getting older, however my body will no longer let me. For those of you who don’t know, I turned 45 this past January. Now of course my college friends know this, and they never let me forget it. I went to school late, so I’m the oldest of our group by far…But when it comes to meeting new people, I’m generally not terribly forthcoming with this particular truth. And as I’ve always looked younger than my actual biological age, it’s never been a problem-I just let people think what they want to think, or if directly asked I’ll generally say something like “29 and holding”. And I still act young, so why not? However, now that I am 45, my body has started to say “You’re definitely getting older!” Actually I noticed maybe 2-4 years ago that losing weight is no longer as easy as it once was-I would go on a diet (especially in college), drop those unwanted pounds, and be content (for a while-until they started to come back on). But a few years ago I started noticing that taking them off was not so easy anymore, although putting them on was a piece of cake!
Then I started noticing more *gray hairs. I’ve had a few here and there since my early 30s (more in times of stress, like graduate school, but those usually went away). I realized a while back that I could no longer pluck them-unless I wanted to have bald spots-but it was nothing a simple $6 rinse couldn’t handle. Until this year. I put in a rinse just before coming to Israel, and within a couple of days, the *grey was showing through again. So a couple of weeks ago I tried a natural henna color-I went for black to be sure everything was covered-and nope, that didn’t work either.
But that’s the minor stuff. Back in December while driving home from Chicago I managed to hurt my foot, and it turned out to be “plantar faschiitis”. Well it can have several causes, but one of the things you’ll notice when you look up information is that is generally occurs during “middle age”. So an age related health problem-that was new.
But it doesn’t stop there-I went to the doctor about the foot problem, and he checked my blood pressure, just as a routine, and it was a little high. Nothing to be too concerned about (around 140 over something)-he just told me to monitor it, and cut out extra salt. Well I did more than that-I went back to the gym, did a cleansing fast, and started taking natural supplements to lower it. And it went down-it was within normal range before by the time I left for Israel. And once I got here, with all the walking and the healthy foods (fresh fruits and veggies all the time), I thought I’d have nothing to worry about.
But recently asthma has been a problem, and I decided to see the doctor today to get that under control. When he finished, I noticed the blood-pressure monitor and asked if he would take my blood-pressure, just as he was asking my age (wondering if he needed to take my blood-pressure). Well it was so high he didn’t even tell me the figure right away-he just asked me to relax and after a few minutes he took it again. He still didn’t want to say what it was, and had me wait a bit longer-asked if I was nervous about coming in for the first time-(and I wasn’t). So the third time he took it, it was down to 170+/105! (It was at 190 when he started!)My blood-pressure has never been that high in my life!!! In college and even into my 30s, it was generally around 110/70 and lower. Back then they would look at me strangely because it was so low--Well those days are apparently over! He put me on medication for it (he did not want to hear about natural remedies and supplements), along with aspirin to thin my blood, and I have to walk an hour a day and give up salt. Well, I’ll take the drugs (reluctantly), and I’ll start walking (some days may only be 45 minutes), and I’ll cut back on the salt-But I’m also going to restart my natural supplement regimen and have all of you pray for me because I do not want to be on these drugs long-term! You know I was celebrating finally being “drug-free” after coming off of 20+ years of asthma meds-and now this!
But as I said, I can no longer deny that if nothing else, my body is in fact getting older. As for the asthma, he put me on almost the same course of meds I was on for the last 5 years (until last summer). However he also wants to do blood work, check my cholesterol, my glucose, several other things, and he’s even talking about an ultrasound on my kidneys to see if a clogged renal artery is causing the high blood-pressure.
Was I just being naïve? I wasn’t even considering dealing with any of this stuff yet-isn’t this for people who are in their 60s or older???
Actually, with the history of strokes in my family (on both my mom and dad’s sides), I should be very grateful that I went to a doctor who’s willing to take this seriously and deal with it aggressively. I know I told some of you that a cousin of mine last year had a stroke at the age of 45. So I do realize the need to be cautious.
Well I guess that’s it for now-next week I plan to post pictures from the New Age Festival I’m going to this week, and hopefully some from Pesach (Passover) as well. (And I’ll also have to find time to write about my tour of Israel and show more pix of that as well!)
Please pray for my health, and that things go well at the Festival-
Blessings from Jerusalem!
Monica
*both spellings are correct and I can never make up my mind which to use, so I decided to use both-
1 comment:
Monica, Monica....let's take a little quiz to see if you REALLY are a 40-something human being; Q) do you know who "The Police" are?
A) _________
If your answer is "oh yes, Sting is so hot!" then you are a true blue 40 - something. If your answer is "no", you yet have hope...
On the above musical note, in case you didnt'know, the impossible dream has occured: The Police have reunited, are getting along famously (see Sting.com for details) and they are going on a world tour in a few months.
What does this have to do with lowering your blood pressure? Nothing. In fact, thinking of Sting's physique has probably served only to ELEVATE your blood pressure. However, it is possible that listening to their polyrhythmic reggae infused pop will, in fact, cause you to dance, which will in turn, indirectly decrease your blood pressure. Try it. "Walking on the Moon" is my prescription.
Well, in all seriousness, I will try to remember to bring you up in prayer during Base Worship on Thursday. I feel for you. I am almost 41 and have noticed many many annoying, even sobering physical problems that were not formerly an issue. I'm talking blood sugar problems, skin rashes, leprosy (not really...) and stiff knees during base work days. We truly do live in earthly tents, do we not? I do look forward to trading in this ol body, though it has served me marvelously for four decades...
Love,
Dayne in Richmond.
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