Pain is the Name of the Game

I remember when an injury was cured by a couple of days of resting.  Apparently those days only last until a certain age. 

I hurt my back over a week ago.  Every time I moved, the pain would grab me and twist my back and facial muscles into something less than becoming.  After three days of resting, the pain was worse, so I scheduled an appointment with the doctor.  He prescribed pain medication and muscle relaxers.  I left his office confident that I would be better in two days.  It has now been five days and while I no longer make facial contortions to rival Jim Carey, I am not pain free. 

In an email last night, I wrote "apparently I don't bounce back as quickly as I used to."   The person replied, "Around age 50 I started noticing that life was moving a whole lot faster than I could and falling asleep in the recliner was actually becoming fun."

I began to think about similar things I had heard.  Right after my husband and I married (which meant I was the ripe old age of 19), we went to visit his grandmother.  She told us that she had attended a funeral the day before.  My husband said, "Well, Grandma, I'm sorry your friend died."  She said, "That's alright.  She was old."  My husband asked, "How old was she?"  His grandmother said, "87.  That's old."  My husband said, "How old are you."  She said, "78.  I ain't old, I've just been here a long time."  I thought that was a wonderful view of aging. 

One friend who lived in an older house told me, "When I get up in the morning, if the house doesn't creak, I do." 

I saw a coffee mug with "I finally got it together, but I can't remember where I put it" printed on it. 

 Mark Twain said, "Age is an issue of mind over matter.  If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." 

Some unknown authors have written, "I still have a full deck; I just shuffle slower now."
"You know you've reached middle age when a doctor, not a policeman, tells you to slow down, all you exercise are your prerogatives and it takes you longer to rest than to get tired."

Dave Barry said, "I recently had my annual physical examination, which I get once every seven years, and when the nurse weighed me, I was shocked to discover how much stronger the Earth's gravitational pull has become since 1990."


"Everything slows down with age, except the time it takes cake and ice cream to reach your hips."  ~Attributed to John Wagner
I have always said, "Getting older is not optional, getting old it."  I plan to do exactly what my husband's grandmother said, "be here a long time."  I plan to laugh, cry and move--just slower than I used to.