Nobody wants to hear the truth
- col-teri-stein
- February 19, 2025
- 878
It’s easier to drive with two good hands. It was something I found out recently when I was hit with an attack of old age.
Like everyone else, I try to stay healthy, because when you are getting older, the only thing you can do to help yourself is eat right and exercise. Let’s read it again: eat right and exercise. Nobody wants to hear it, but it’s the truth.
Sometimes, it’s the exercises you might be neglecting that are going to come back to haunt you. My hand weights have been pretty lonely sitting in the basement. Perhaps if I had kept up a good regimen of using them regularly, I could have avoided some issues.
Things had been going pretty well for so long I didn’t see old age creeping up on me until that one morning. I woke up ready to take on my day and ouch. My left arm was hurting a lot. No matter, I’ll just take a few days and wait it out. I have stuff to do, and a sore arm is not going to stop me.
It’ll be better tomorrow. I thought that for a few days actually, until my arm wouldn’t move farther than a few inches in certain directions. It was painful.
I tried visiting the hand weights and some stretching, yoga and over-the-counter pain reliever. Nothing was working; it just got worse. I could hardly type or do dishes or wash my hair. The only thing that was tolerable was sitting in the recliner and not moving at all, which left me with no choice but to visit the quick care medical office.
Unfortunately, I had to drive myself. I used my sore shoulder and lame arm as much as I could to buckle my seat belt and found myself reaching across the steering wheel with my good hand to use the blinkers. I could just grasp the bottom of the steering wheel with my bad hand, which helped somewhat but this was not easy.
As I got to the end of our road, it occurred to me taking the busy freeway would be the fastest way to get to the quick care office. It also would be the fastest way to cause a horrible chain reaction accident involving multiple vehicles. I decided to go through town.
The news was not good at the quick care office. They took an X-ray, and I heard the words “has anyone ever told you that you have arthritis.” Well, not up until now.
It was suggested there could be other issues too that might not make this an easy fix. This was not what I wanted to hear. They made an appointment for me with the orthopedic doctor for the next week. I wasn’t sure I’d survive.
But then two days later and six days after it had all started, it all started to disappear. My arm began to move without pain, and it got back to full range. The holidays had just gotten over, and January was settling in. My sister said, “It’s a post-Christmas miracle.” I had to agree. The relief was enormous.
The ortho doctor thought it was a combination of several things that had happened at once including I slept on it wrong. It’s ridiculous what can do you in when you’re old.
I’m going to double down on my own advice of eating right and exercise. It might not save me, but it couldn’t hurt. I’m hoping to ward off another attack of old age anytime soon. So hello hand weights. It’s time for some bicep curls and side raises and chest presses.