Catch up post

 

It's been a while since I've posted and I should include pictures of the kids, but I really wanted to note the changes (mostly physical) that age has brought on over the last few years. While few folks, if anyone, currently reads my "blog" (and I use that term loosely considering the frequency with which I post), I'm hopefully that someone in the future will find these missives and determine them to be of interest. The main reason for my lack of blog posting over the last few years has been reduced amount of time available with Marissa and Thomas consuming time and rightfully so. Additionally, the increased responsibilities with my real estate career, now in it's third year, also eats up time that would otherwise be spent pondering solutions to the great problems of the world.

 

But I digress. Health. About two years ago my eyes started to change after being stable for the last 15 years since my laser eye surgery when I was 35. Though I have always had some haloing around lights at night post eye surgery, my day time vision was 20-10 for most of the 15 years. When my vision slipped a little, it went to 20-20. After turning 49 though, not only has my far vision slipped further (to the point of preferring glasses to drive at night), but I developed some presbyopia and found that, while I don't have reading glasses, reading up close is tough without very good light and even then it's a struggle. Both of these have just slowly gotten worse over the last two years, but not dramatically.

 

Last year (February 2, 2016), I had knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus bestowed upon me by a negligent driver on 5/25/2015. The surgeon, Dr. Ho, also performed microfracture surgery which prolonged my rehab stint significantly. Physical therapy didn't stop until early May, so I was a bit off most of the summer while I regained knee and leg strength.

 

Then we sold the condo at 660 Roscoe and moved out to Mokena. The move took it's toll in the form of allergies, ear infection, sinus infection and colds. Most of the summer I was pretty miserable and the day of the move I almost couldn't get out of bed due to an attack of menieres. Later in the year I finally switched from Claritin to Zyrtec for allergies and have been good ever since.

 

Also at the request of my PCP, I started taking baby asprin at night, fish oil and niacin in addition to a regular asprin in the morning. After about three weeks of this new blood thinning regime, I was playing softball and caught a ball off the calf. With super thin blood, it blew up almost to the size of a softball!! Needless to say I cut out some of the thinning ingredients, but the damage was done and it took about 2 months for it to return to normal size. It took so long that I went BACK to the doctor a second time to make sure it was okay!

 

At the time of my blood thinning prescription, I was informed that it was time to get a colonoscopy. It wasn't a surprise by any stretch, but the reviewing the prep left me.....lacking in desire to get it done. Plus, I was sick or hurt most of the year anyway.

 

So back to the hurt part. Over the summer, after sitting in an awkward position while painting the kids playhouse outback, I managed to tear the meniscus in my left knee. Now it also could have been from the added stress of making up for the right knee not being healthy, so I guess I could relate that injury back to the car accident as well. Anyway, while I was initially incapacitated, the swelling and pain eventually went down enough so that I could play some softball. Running was a problem of course, but I could hit. It needed to be fixed though so I picked November 1st to get that done, just after the Bears-Vikings game on Halloween and during a bye week and an away game or two for the Bears. That allowed me to recover to the point of walking at least before the next Bears game. The Cubs though, after I lived in the neighborhood for 27 years, decided to win the world series, so I wasn't around for the celebration. Bah. I did get to one game against the Giants and one against the Dodgers though.

 

The impact of aging was not done though. Over the last year in particular I noticed more wrinkles on my face (around my eyes) and on my throat. Not flattering. Then the kicker came on my 51st birthday while in the midst of closing on the condo. After having two slices of deep dish pizza, I was severely bloated and had some acid reflux. Now, I've been taking Prilosec for about 10 years or so and it has really controlled my sour stomach so well that I never really even thought about it. About a month prior to my birthday though, I decided to see if I really needed to take it anymore and found out quickly that yes, yes I do. It would appear that I developed a peptic ulcer, though my endoscopy has not confirmed that yet. Oh, did I mention I had an endoscopy AND a colonoscopy at the same time? Yeah, fun day. Actually, the day before (really 36 hours) of no eating and only drinking clear fluids plus some bowel cleanser was the most unpleasant part and even that wasn't too bad. The colonoscopy came back all clear and I'm waiting to hear on the endoscopy, though I'd bet dollars to donuts it's a result of H. pylori.

 

So that's where I'm at now and what I've been dealing with over the last few years (except for gaining about 10 pounds as well).  I'm hoping that this year I settle into some good routines, shed weight and get healthy!!

 

Now for those kid pictures!!