Ancient

I have texted and emailed updates on the house hunt to my siblings. I've had a number of conversations with my sisters, and brother sent one text about it being exciting and keep them up to date. I thought it was rather strange I hadn't heard more from him, but have my ideas about why that may be the case. So today I was talking to Sister. She had a conversation with Brother this week and asked him what he thought about my house. He expressed concern that it was a lot of house for me to handle and offered the opinion that it would be hard for someone my age. Sister pointed out I'm not that old and the house is much smaller than where I am now and has fewer steps.

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She told me, "I think he thinks you're ancient!" I was always the third parent for him, and his mother-in-law is my age (his wife is much younger than he is), so I think he's having a difficult time keeping my age in perspective. For his wife, I'm mom's age, not sister's age. There are some other issues, of course.

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I noticed that Realtor kept talking about how important it would be for me to have first floor laundry. I find myself wondering if he thinks I'm ancient, too. Maybe I should think about doing something about all that gray hair....

Dr. Hairy Ears

That's what my friend, C, and I are calling the doctor who scoped my stomach this morning. Both of us were amazed by the amount of black hair he had growing out of his ears. I had lots of scar tissue in my esophagus. Think I'm good at ignoring my own physical needs? He stretched it some, but was not able to stretch it as much as he'd have liked to because of the amount of scar tissue there. I go back at the end of August to see if it has helped. I can already answer that-- it's helped. It was much easier to take my pills when I got home. My throat is sore, but other than that I feel great.

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I'll get a letter with the results of the biopsies he did in a couple of weeks. I understand I was out of it at first, but my recovery has been quick. One of the nurses suggested I wait until I got home to eat, as many people throw up the first time they eat. By the time we got to my favorite deli, I decided that rather than having C and Daughter go in and get food to go, I was going to try to eat. We did sit near the bathroom, but I was fine. I had half my sandwich, chips, and iced tea. C wouldn't let me get my favorite tomato soup, but she didn't object to the caffeine, which was generous of her. He said I could go back to some of those things in moderation.

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I suspect I'm off the ibuprofen permanently. I'll have to adjust to Tylenol and some level of pain, I guess. I also have a hiatal hernia. At least Dr. Hairy Ears didn't tell me my problems were the result of aging. (Maybe he figured I already knew that.) We made it through our first medical procedure, now we await the big event: Daughter's wisdom teeth extraction on Wednesday.

Growing Old

I have an old knee. Old knees get arthritis. Arthritis hurts. That's the short version of my doctor's appointment today. I'm going to do 4 weeks of PT to see if that helps. Anti-inflammatory medications would be helpful, but since they are suspected of being the source of my stomach issues, I can't take them right now. He could explain the location of my pain. That area shouldn't hurt. Not only am I old, I'm weird. Painful knees is one of the downsides of growing old, but this morning I also was honored by one of the upsides.

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This congregation has deep roots, and people who have moved away often come back for visits. I always welcome them home, because this is still their home base, even when they've lived the majority of their lives elsewhere. There is a young woman, Grad, who has been here numerous times with her parents. Both of her parents grew up in the church. I've spoken to her when she's been here, and watched her grow up. She was 12 or 13 the first time I met her. I've probably seen her less than 30 times, and never have had an extended, sit-down conversation with her.

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Today, I received notification that she'd tagged me in a photo on facebook. I was surprised, as I've never had my picture taken with her, but I followed the link. She graduated from college this weekend. There was a picture of the top of her mortarboard with a bunch of names written on it in white, including my name. The caption read "All the Women in my life who got me to graduation day. Thanks." Wow.