Thursday, August 23, 2012

Two at a Time...

When I was younger and in construction, that was always the rule.  Carry two sheets of plywood at one time.  If you are young and strong and know the trick it is pretty easy to do.
girls can do it!  I can't.
   I just came from my yearly physical, three months late so it was about a year and a quarter!  I would have gone even longer but my doctor was going to cut me off from the one prescription I take, "simvastatin", a cholesterol lowering drug that really works!  Brought it from 220 to 170 within a week!  Anyway, so I made an appointment and he pushed and pulled and prodded, took some blood and checked my blood pressure:  always on the low side of "normal".  I don't get riled.
   "I want to be 19 again", I was complaining about not be able to carry 2 sheets of plywood.  I did just finish an eighteen foot balcony railing and carried the back half of it to the street 160 feet from my shop with my helper leading with the front half.  Years ago I could have done this by myself.
I want that strength back.  Now I know what they mean when they say, "youth is wasted on the young".
   I know that I shouldn't be complaining, two years ago I couldn't carry 20 pounds!  I keep a photo of me taken 2 years ago, after 12 "chemo's" and the loss of over 50 pounds thanks to that voodoo chemical crap made from WWI Mustard Gas.  It is on my wall, right over my desk and I don't recognize that guy at all.  I used to walk down the street like a ninety year old man and the neighbors didn't know who I was.  I should have been a Bank Robber.  It was the perfect disguise.
  I did pass my physical, this one from my regular doctor, a much more thourough inspection than my cancer doctor ever does.  It was my regular doctor who discovered the Hodgkin's Lymphoma in the first place, nailed it on the spot during a fifteen minute physical that turned into over half an hour!  No one likes to hear those words: "You've got Cancer".  He sent me to the specialist who spent $30,000
to confirm what he already knew.
   No one wants National Health until they get cancer.  It is not really in the top ten things we think about during the day.  "Not me," right?  It is an interesting topic if you get into the thick of it.  Better to discuss it before you need it is all I am saying.  Should be just a discussion on economics, dollars and sense, what is practical and workable and not an emotional topic at all.  Funny, we can send a craft to Mars and we can't solve this problem!
   I have good insurance, so it is not a battle for me.  My $130,000 war with cancer cost me exactly One Thousand Dollars.  The Insurance Company paid the rest.  I was lucky, most people at least lose their houses and pretty much everything else.  People with great insurance get too sick to work and lose their policies and then get kicked out of cancer treatment, file bankruptcy or both.  Cancer represents only 5% of the total medical expenditures in this country.  But that is everything when you get it.
  All right, so I am not 19 anymore.  I am still getting used to that.

6 comments:

Barbra Joan said...

Hey Jerry, we're on the same med! Simvastatin. and same thing for me .. 220 down to 170..
Listen to us. Talking meds..
Well I don't know about you , but I'm still young enough to dance in Paris. !!! hugs, Bj

Jerry Carlin said...

Yes, we'll dance in Paris, the biggest ballroom we can find so our walkers don't bump into each other! I hate talking "meds" like an old man! I am getting old enough that I don't remember what is used to be! I know I could carry two sheets of plywood and now I am happy to carry me.

Autumn Leaves said...

If it makes you feel any better, Jerry, I doubt I could carry even one sheet myself. Not now, not ever before. (Woe is me for lack of upper body strength!) I'm just so glad you continue to be cancer free. Keep up the good work!

Kay said...

I think the hardest thing for me this year is feeling weak as a kitten! I finally feel like I have strength back..but it felt like I would be "bent over with pain and weakness" forever!!! Still I hate that I cannot do what I used to. I was always very strong for a woman. Now I look at the things that did not get done this year and realize that Hubby and I are no longer young...sigh. Luckily I am on only one med and sometimes Aleve for knee pain...but Hubby is on 10 meds and it costs us an arm and a leg!!! even with insurance.

Rama Ananth said...

I had stroke some 12 years back, with my entire right side of my body being paralysed.
First I had no hope when I saw myself, but from somewhere I got the determination to get back to what I was before the stroke, and, everyday I thank myself for not taking the easy route of depression, for had I led myself to do that I would never be what I am today.
You have to look at the progress you have made in all these years, and feel proud of your achievements.

Jerry Carlin said...

Thank you, Rama, your strength and determination is a light for everyone to follow!