By Don Harrison
When I see “old people,” I have to remind myself they may be no older than I — perhaps even younger.
Consciously, we know we’re old, but despite the slower gait, the whiter hair, the memory lapses, the aches and pains, we feel that we’re just as we always were.
It’s other people who are old.
I used to have one doctor, I saw him once a year, whether or not I thought I needed to. Now, there are enough to staff a clinic, even though, compared to many of my contemporaries, I’m in good health.
My primary care physician is a geriatrician, which means he specializes in putting up with cranky old patients.
Like me. In our late years, we’ve become a medical specialty.
In one doctor’s waiting room, I eavesdropped on an old couple (quite possibly younger than I am) who were checking each other’s date books to compare schedules. I may have missed something, but it seems to me that their only appointments were medical. More than MD visits Could it be that there is nothing else in their lives but seeing doctors? If so, that’s pretty depressing.
At the same time, I know people my age — and older — who are much more active than I. They travel more, have subscriptions to shows and concerts (and don’t fall asleep during them), help take care of grandchildren and may well be caregivers for other people.
I envy them. These are the people like the 90-year-old woman we wrote about last month who line-dances at a senior center. Or the almost-80 writer who said she’d stop by because she’d be in the neighborhood playing tennis.
It’s not just that more people are living longer, it’s that more of those old people are more fit. I’ll bet that line dancer’s mother couldn’t line-dance at her age, if she was around at all. And a generation ago, how many people in their late 70s were playing tennis?
A change in attitudes You can thank medical science, of course, but there’s been a big change in attitudes, too. Years ago, even if some people over a certain age were capable of playing tennis or of line-dancing, they’d never dream of doing it. And if they did, their doctors would probably advise against it.
You were expected to sit in a rocking chair and rock away the years left.
So, it’s not just that we’re living longer, it’s that we’re more likely to be staying active and productive.
In between visits to the doctor(s), that is. |