The big creep - aging

by YankeeJim | August 5, 2010 at 03:24 pm

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Every day, I think of new ideas that I want to pursue when I get to it. I am busy attending to my business and writing, so busy, that I hardly have time to look up.

One day, I awoke and wasn’t feeling so good. I looked in the mirror and saw something that I had seen before, though it wasn’t a part of me. I remember seeing my Grandfather age before my eyes. We were playing baseball in the yard, and the next think I know, he is walking with a cane. Then, I saw dark circles under his eyes and a gaze that I had not seen before.

When we were together, and it was often, his focus was on me and wanting to show or teach me something. Suddenly, he was distracted as he wasn’t feeling well. He was sick.

In those days, medicine wasn’t as good as it is today, and it took too long to diagnose that he had heart trouble followed by cancer.

I saw the dark circles in my own eyes and became distracted and inwardly focused because I didn’t feel good. I went to the doctor many times before I found the right doctor with an accurate diagnosis: cancerous kidney.

The cancerous kidney contributed to high blood pressure as did the extra pounds that I piled on over many years. It all came to head. I was dying.

Fortunately, Dr. Mordken, my urologist ordered a CT-scan and found the tumor. He removed one bad kidney laparoscopically (with a robot). Since the other kidney took over, I had no more problems with that, though recovery is slow.

I was in a triage situation as next came cardiology. While I almost had a heart attack, I fell short of the threshold and drug treatment brought high blood pressure and cholesterol under control. With an exercise and diet program, I put myself on a healthy track.

Yet, I will never be the same because 1) I did some permanent damage and 2) I am getting older.

The process of recovering from cancer and improving cardiology has taken three years of hard work. What next?

I told the story before that I lost my hearing. I am deaf.

With all of this happening, I still awake every day with new ideas – things to write, paintings I want to do, and many business deals.

Is anything going to hold me back?

Nothing that I can see, because as my ENT doctor Michael Nathan days, “Life goes on.”

“Federal Report Details Health and Economic Status of Older Americans (Media Availability)

For Immediate Release:
Monday, July 19, 2010

Contact:
Barbara Cire, NIA
(301) 496-1752
nianews3@mail.nih.gov

Today’s older Americans enjoy longer lives and better health than did previous generations. These and other trends are reported in Older Americans 2010: Key Indicators of Well-Being, a unique, comprehensive look at aging in the United States from the Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics.

Older Americans 2010, the fifth report prepared by the Forum since 2000, provides an updated, accessible compendium of indicators, drawn from the most reliable official statistics about the well-being of Americans primarily age 65 and older. The indicators are categorized into five broad areas—population, economics, health status, health risks and behaviors, and health care. The 155-page report contains data on 37 key indicators.

The Forum—a consortium representing 15 agencies with responsibilities for federal data collection, programs serving older Americans, and research—assembles these data and makes them available to a wide constituency including other agencies, policy makers, researchers, and the public.

WHEN: Older Americans 2010: Key Indicators of Well-Being will be available online at www.agingstats.gov on Monday, July 19, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. EDT.

SPOKESPERSONS: The following individuals are available to comment on the report:

National Institute on Aging: Richard Suzman, Ph.D., Director, NIA Division of Behavioral and Social Research
National Center for Health Statistics: Edward Sondik, Ph.D., Director, National Center for Health Statistics

CONTACT: To schedule interviews, please contact the following individuals:

NIA: Barbara Cire, 301-496-1752; nianews3@mail.nih.gov
NCHS: Jeff Lancashire, 301-458-4800, paoquery@cdc.gov

MORE INFO: The Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics was established in 1986 to improve the quality and utility of federal data on aging. The 15 agencies that now compose the Forum include the Administration on Aging, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Veterans Affairs, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, National Center for Health Statistics, National Institute on Aging, Office of Management and Budget, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (Department of Health and Human Services), Social Security Administration and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Older Americans 2010: Key Indicators of Well-Being is available online at www.AgingStats.gov and in limited quantities in print. Supporting data for each indicator, including complete tables, PowerPoint slides and source descriptions, can be found on the Forum’s website. Single printed copies of Older Americans 2010: Key Indicators of Well-Being are available at no charge through the National Center for Health Statistics while supplies last. Requests may be made by calling 1-866-441-6247 or by sending an e-mail to nchsquery@cdc.gov. For multiple print copies, contact Forum staff director Elena Fazio at (301) 458-4460 or send an e-mail request to agingforum@cdc.gov.”