You and I Are Too Old to Believe the First Doctor's "Death Sentence"
Too Old for This Sh*t: How to Take Your Life Back from an Ageist Society
When is it time to kick the doctor to the kerb?
A few weeks back,
did a story on me. Since then I’ve been subscribed, and today’s installment is the kind that I just had to pass along. It’s too damned good not to.I challenge you to look at the before and after.
One is a death sentence, effectively a truncated life in a wheelchair.
The other is one seriously badass woman setting records because she fired her doctor and fired her bad self up.
Read about her here.
From the GJ article:
“When that came out of my mouth, that I wasn’t going to make it to 50, that was the moment I decided I was going to fight for my life,” Carole said. “I had a sophomore in college, a junior and 9th-grader in high school. I was doing the best I could for them, but I needed to try harder.”
She changed doctors of osteopath and the new doc eased off the medicines that had made her weight balloon to 195. Her diet was adjusted and Stanford, an athlete in college, forced herself to start walking.
Now she’s setting records.
If this story doesn’t motivate the hell out of you on this Saturday morning I’m not sure what will. Go look at her before and after. Damn, man.
I just got some unpleasant news about my body. Bet you’ve had some at some point too.
Did you just believe the doctor’s degree to be gospel? Our parents did.
Did you appreciate that it gave you an excuse to crap out and give up?
Or did you, like Carole Stanford, say HELL NO?
You and I are bound to get occasional bad news. Bound to. Given all the pollutants, bad food, bad choices, all of it, our bodies are likely to deliver more than a few sucker punches over the years.
What are you going to do about it?
You and I are WAY Too Old to take a doctor’s word as gospel.
It may be projection, or laziness, or the insurance company that won’t pay for tests.
Hell, I had to fight for nearly a year to get the VA to let me see a kidney specialist. Damned good thing too. Some numnut doctor at the VA actually said to my face that Stage 2 Chronic Kidney Disease was NORMAL.
You do not say that to a prize-winning journalist who blogs on health. She was full of crap. Had I believed her, that bit of stupidity would have put me back in the hospital with far more serious kidney disease. I got the referral. Saw the doctor.
AND I WAS RIGHT.
That’s why you fight. You are fighting for YOU.
Some of those sucker punches, like an ALS diagnosis or the like, are pretty awful. Cancer, awful. Sometimes, after all the second and third opinions, it just is what it is. You do your best with what you have.
That said, I keep getting comments from women around my age who have beaten back cancer twice.
or
:…I’m 73 and after 30 years as a single parent and 40+years as a public school teacher my body is showing its age; need daily naps and in bed by 9pm; can no longer gorge myself on mint chocolate ice cream, losing my hair and my back hurts..still, I’m to board a plane bound for Romania and a one week hike through the Carpathians. And then on to Spain for four weeks. No plan, just going. Decided to throw caution to the wind and allow Spain to introduce herself to me on her terms. I will slow my life travels when it’s time to slow down, whenever that is…
Still going.
Men, too, like my buddy
, fellow gym rat, who have had seriously bad cancer scares and have beaten it back and are still training others at the gym. Here’s what Jay wrote recently:Wow!…I’m on the short side of 73 (74 in 3 months) and am confronting the same “sunset” issues. But you’re piece is, as always, inspiring - as in lighting a fire in me to keep doing what I’m doing to stay focused and positive.
Or
:…I'm 71 as well and I refuse to conform with the perceptions of what older age should be like. Life is for living. Right up to the last second.
I could go on. You get it.
What I loved about the GJ article is that Carole Stanford lit the fire in her belly, found a doctor who took her off the awful meds, and committed to herself, her body, her health, her family. And inspired her kids along the way.
You and I don’t know who’s watching us. We have no clue whose life we may inspire or even save when we say Hell NO, this is MY body, and I’m going to do everything I can.
I’ve got a similar path ahead of me. Changing my diet again, returning to all kinds of exercise (thank God I now have that godawful boot off and I can walk and hike) and stride out again.
Not all of us can. I get it.
But far too many of us hear the doctor and decide, well that’s it.
If you say so.
I respect that any doctor is human. They do not get nutritional training for the most part, so it’s up to us to do the research. That said there are plenty of doctors who might love to work with someone who wants a do-over, a redirect, a second shot or even an eleventh shot at life.
It ain’t over ‘til it’s over. Let’s make sure we live as fully as we can before it’s truly over.
Let’s play.
Thanks for joining me today. I hope you were as energized as I was with this story. I invite you read more of Ray’s stuff, he’s linked above. It’s one hell of a kick in the pants for those of us in search of inspiration. If this works for you, please consider
If you know someone battling with a diagnosis and who might need some perspective, please consider
As always, nothing I write should be considered medical advice. Always do your due diligence carefully.
Another inspirational article. Years ago, I complained to my doctor about odd and at times painful sensations in my legs, my balance was off and I frequently fell for no clear reasons. I was told to take a spoonful of a sport drink with a gallon of water to balance my electrolytes, “but be careful now since you (I)have diabetes”). Five years later with increasing symptoms, to a point that a leisurely walk had become almost unbearable, I sought a second opinion ; turns out my ‘imbalanced’ electrolytes was in fact MS! Glad I found a doctor with a background in nutrition. And now, with exercise and diet (and appropriate medication without going overboard) and most importantly ahealthy attitude my diabetes is in check, and my MS has been in a holding pattern for over 12 years. Don’t know how long it will ‘hold’ but I learned two things from this experience getting a second opinion along with a healthy attitude (not to mention exercise and healthy nutrition) will take one very far. All the best everyone!
They don’t get lots of training relevant to us. Maybe a day on menopause. Not much on gerontology either. Never go to the doctor without a question list and backup printouts of relevant medical journal articles. https://stellafosse.com/drugs-after-60-and-not-the-fun-kind/