You and I Are Too Old Not to Take Our Health Very Seriously

Too Old for This Sh*t: How to Take Your Life Back from an Ageist Society

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A lesson in empathy turns into a lesson in preparedness

Last Monday I was on the last day of a rafting trip, my second on the Rogue River of Southern Oregon. At one point, a young boy, one of two children of one of the families on the trip, went from being the center of attention, all energy, to crying and whining.

It went on for some time, dominating a few hours over lunch, the mother attending to the child and creating what shade she could in the (happily, not overly-hot) sun.

It was annoying. I had no clue what was wrong, but the crying got under my skin.

Not being a mom, I can’t read such behavior. It’s so, so very easy to judge a crying child or a whining animal, whatever the source of irritation might be. If you’re not a mother or a pet owner (I’m the latter, and much more likely to be empathetic to the pet owner as a result), how swiftly we can judge real distress to be irritating.

Turns out that the little boy was quite ill. About 48 hours later, only just home and faced with a slew of immediate deadlines, I got body-slammed. Most likely it was COVID.

I’ll bet I wasn’t the only one who went home carrying.

Here’s what we currently know about the variants.

And this is what we know about this summer’s surprisingly high wave.

So much for how we “beat COVID.” All due respect to the folks trying to make us feel better about this awful nastiness, but we have not beaten something that can morph faster than Alien can reproduce. Or Hollywood can grind out another Alien sequel/prequel. Likely always will.

Frankly, I was too miserable to figure out if I had the flu or the latest round of COVID. The order in which the latest misery shows up (chills or coughing your lungs out or the shits, I was having so much fun I forget), that’s what tells you it’s not COVID.

What? Who’s noticing?

When your dentures are clacking together like a box of Chiclets -my generation will get it- it’s difficult to take careful note of which symptom preceded the next, which would help us discern if it’s “just” the flu.

If it was in fact “just the flu,” this flu would likely take someone out if they weren’t pretty hale.

For those who still think in terms of it was “just the flu:”

CDC estimates that there have been at least 35 million illnesses, 400,000 hospitalizations, and 25,000 deaths from flu so far this season.

Apparently it’s a slow season, so far. At least for flu. We are so familiar with the flu that we don’t respect it nearly as much as we should.

Flu still kills, especially as we age. It’s damned mean and certain variations are meaner than others. If we’re not hearty and healthy, we may well be sitting ducks.

Here’s why: the flu, under certain circumstances, can become pneumonia, which is so often a death sentence for the elderly.

From that article, here’s a gem:

Yes, it’s possible to have pneumonia and the flu at the same time. Pneumonia can be caused by a variety of germs. So, it’s possible to be infected with the flu and another germ that causes pneumonia — like COVID — together. 

So in that wonderful way that the Universe provides a humbling moment to an arch one of ours, it was my turn to suffer from a virulent something that was so serious that I could do nothing but hug the toilet, sweat, cry and suffer for three days.

One neighbor kindly got me a supply of meds to relieve the symptoms, left outside my sliding glass door. Then she ran.

So would I.

I really hope that little boy is better. And I am very sorry I had little empathy for the pain he was clearly in at the time. At least he had his mother.

I had a pissed-off puppy.

Deposit photos

My poor pupper, at eight months, 65 lbs and irritated at the lack of exercise, trashed my basement and expressed her frustration the only way a poor puppy can.

We both had the shits. I swear I will not criticize a kid for moaning again, after what I just went through. I dunno if it’s this year’s flu, but if it is, GET A SHOT. If it was COVID, well.

I know I will annoy some people but I believe in vaccines. I’ve had seven so far for COVID. They do not prevent the illness, but here’s the way I see it: I most likely had COVID. My down time lasted three truly awful days, but only three.

Before you ask, I was WAY too sick to even test for COVID. I didn’t eat and barely drank. Someone who lives alone and is too sick to eat or drink is not likely to be well enough to read the ten-point type directions and do all the things…all we want to do is survive.

Recently my kidney doctor admonished me for not capturing my most recent kidney stone. I admonished him back, pointing out that someone in that kind of pain- one of THE worst known to the human condition- that they are being rushed to the ER is in no shape whatsoever to carefully set up their toilet with the little mesh basket thingie. I wasn’t polite about it, either.

I am convinced that the moron who came up with the idea clearly had never had a kidney stone.

Just like the moron who designed the Imitrex shots for migraines has never had a migraine. I trashed three thousand dollars’ worth of shots one horrific dark morning trying to get their easy-peasy idiot shot setup to work. The next morning I took a photo of the carnage laid out on my kitchen workspace and sent it to GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer, with a list of tortures that the inventor might be subjected to while they are inventing the next “easy-to-use” injection.

A way to have some empathy.

The same way the Universe invited me to have a little empathy for that wailing child.

I am better, if not deeply humbled, and grateful to be upright. GET A FLU SHOT. If you are vulnerable, this is not to be trifled with. Whatever is going around is meaner’n a junkyard dog. Take this year’s flu seriously. There are new, very ugly versions going around. Not a neighborly flu at all.

If it was COVID, and those of us vaccinated can still get it albeit not at full force, please update your vaccination. I sure will. I’d hate to think if that was the milder version, what the full onslaught might have been.

I’m masking for a total of ten days. If that is what a COVID vaccine can get me, a ten-day sentence largely reduced to three, I will take it. It might be wishful thinking but there’s this: read The Expectation Effect.

Works. Especially when it comes to attitudes about aging well. In this case, though, expectation is well-served with solid preparation. In this case, doing everything we can to be as healthy as possible when something evil this way comes.

That way, that something might be mean for a few days, but at least it doesn’t drag you with it out the door.

Let’s be healthy enough to play again when we’re done being sick.

(And PS, I was finally well enough to take the test. It was COVID)

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

Thanks for joining me for a gleeful chuckle at my own discomfiture. There’s always a lesson somewhere, especially if we’re willing to see the one being laid at our feet. If you got value out of this please consider

If you know someone who might need reminding that an annual flu vaccine really is a pretty good idea, kindly also consider

Above all, do all you can to be as healthy as you can. We need it. And we need you, healthy, happy, here as long as you can be.