Chores and no energy.

This is a recent phenomenon. I get up in the morning, go out to do chores, and by the time I get back in I feel I've been beaten by a gang of thugs.

I have no energy.

Used to get out of bed, put on clothing and boots and leave the house. From asleep to out the door took about 45 seconds to one minute. Then I'd do the chores, which involves hiking up and down sloped land, but not great distances, just steep. I did this for years and it was never a problem.

Now? I can't do it anymore.

I have discovered that I now have to allow myself some time to wake up and eat breakfast first. Once I have a cup of coffee and some toast or cereal and let my body adjust to being awake, THEN I get through the chores easy peasy. I find this change upsetting and annoying. IT BOTHERS me that I have animals standing out there wondering where their breakfast is. I want to get out there and get everyone fed and the poop shovelled up. But I just can't push myself through that anymore. It feels awful, staggering around all googly eyed and useless.

Has anyone else noticed that as they (ahem) mature, that their energy levels have changed? I used to go to bed at night and read for hours. Loved it! Now I go to bed and fall asleep! What's up with that?! It's really bugging me!

Do you eat breakfast before chores? IF yes, why, if no, why? Things are changing here and I hate it!

I need to mainline some coffee before I can become a productive member of society.

I think my energy levels are similar to my younger years, but the recovery time is much longer. If I do something stupid, I know I'll be paying for it for a couple of days. Unlike my early 20's, when I could do stupid things all the time and be fine the next day.

To start with I must say you look good for someone of your advanced years. And yes, the importance of taking care of oneself to compensate for our youthful foolishness has hit me as well. I took a weeks holidays to work at being a farmer, and worked very hard but got about three quarters done of what I expected. Then I drove to Dawson creek and back in two days. It has taken me over a week to recover from this. Of course, I got back from Dawson creek and went hard again to finish up what wasn't finished, and finally finished it the following weekend. I am trying to age with dignity and accept some increased limitations, I can no longer pick up small buildings by myself and things like that. Of course I still try, but now advil is becoming my best friend. Getting old does suck but it beats the hell out of the alternative. I much prefer looking at the soil from the top down than the bottom up.

Thank you, BCKev, but I'm sure you have me confused with some young bunny who bounced over to introduce herself.

Ha ha, had to laugh about moving buildings by yourself. Hub used to do that too. Now he finds gee, the forces of gravity have increased since things like buildings and transmissions seem more firmly rooted to the ground. (we have transmissions and motors and other things in the bush that sometimes have to be picked up and moved)

What is REALLY irking me is the eyesight, or rather the lack thereof. Driving at night has become an exercise in weeping and white knuckle terror, for the other drivers! I CANNOT SEE! OF course there seems to be a shortage of road paint in our area, local highways crews preferring us to take a guess at where we are on the road on a dark, rainy night. Why paint a line, that takes all the fun out of night driving in the rain.

My vision used to exceed 20/20. How the mighty have fallen! It was a blow when I sat down two days ago to start hand quilting a baby quilt and for the first time ever, had to put on glasses to see what I was doing. The keyboard infront of me is blurred, writing by hand is tricky, Gordon knows how many bugs I've eaten on berries, not seeing them! Getting old ain't for sissies, as someone famous has said.

Uno, welcome to my world. I too used to be bright eyed and bushy tailed in the morning, but no longer. I have also encountered a new phenomenon called Endofschoolitis. I work so hard the last two weeks before school ends that by the time it does end I am so exhausted I get sick. Right now I am battling some random allergy that has taken over my head, compounded by pinkeye in both eyes. It is 11:30. I have fed and watered, and removed the baby ram and bucks from the main herd, but THAT IS ALL! I am hoping my swollen face will unswell and I can go out to cut the lawn soon. Sigh!

Sue, you have my sympathy. I hope your head un-swells and you can get back to your un-head-swelled self.

I find that as I age my immune system is also prone to attack by various itises. One that sneaks up and gets me from time to time, one that fells me as I struggle to keep order around here is, WhoOwnsAllThisCrapitis. This is a bug that overwhelms the system by its sheer vastness. Victims are rendered immobile and limp, desperately trying to dial the scrap metal dealer, but fingers are too weak to press the buttons on the phone. PLUS, I can't SEE the buttons on the phone! Tragic.

Damn! Just went out to cut the lawn. The two smallest kids escaped their new enclosure. Hunted them down and locked them in with the rabbits. Cleaned the random items on the lawn so I could cut, found the mower keys and......the mower will not start. Corroded battery connection and no idea where the wire brush is. Must wait for Doug to return to work from lunch in an hour to contact him and find out.. Maybe I will take the garbage to the transfer station. That should be a pretty straightforward and easy to accomplish job in the 27 degree weather.

There is a nice rosé in the fridge and technically it is past noon. May have to take that route.

Me eeesite is as gob as eber. I don nood glassas.





Don't get me started on glasses. Excellent eyesight was one of the few things I had over other people. Now the letters are a blur, can't hardly read anything without the glasses. sigh What's worse, since he gave them to me last year, it's like my eyes don't even try anymore. Thankful that my distance sight is still good. Whine over.

Schipperkesue wrote:There is a nice rosé in the fridge and technically it is past noon.  May have to take that route.

Sister. 'Nother Mister.

Eyesight changing SUCKS!!! SUCKS! SUCKS!

I have had glasses since I was around 10 years old. My eyesight was pretty much the same through my whole life. I can tell you the exact day it changed for me too. I was in Wal-Mart trying to read the small print on something and the words started sliding off sideways. I thought I was just tired. Each time I tried to read the small print, the same stupid thing happened to the words.

Go to the friendly eye doctor. Big smile from him "Well people your age that normally happens. Why do you think all your friends in their 40s need eye glasses?" I told him I don't have any friends so how would I know? He tells me to trust him. Here come the PROGRESSIVE LENSES so you don't need those old foggie bio-focals. $700 later...it took me 2 years to get used to these $@#* progressive lenses. They still drive me nuts but I have got used to them.

Only I still have to take them of to read the small print.  

I hear you, TB. I had progressives, but they gave me a head ache and nausea. I went bifocals but they gave me a headache and nausea too. I have had glasses for 2 years and rarely wear them. I am due for another appointment this summer. Sigh!

I'm glad I'm not alone. People, thank you.  

When I was 40, I felt I was on top of the world. I had lost a load of weight. I got myself in shape. I felt I was putting myself together for the first time in ages. Best thing to ever happen was when my dad started to withdraw from the family because he was no longer trying to tell him how to run things. Damn annoying when half of the property is yours and you can't use it the way you want because someone is always trying to dictate to you. Anyway....I was able to do things like use power tools, build a garage, allow some of my chickens to run in the yard, enjoy life. I felt great.

Where things went wrong for me, believe me was not etirely when my mom died and I was stuck 1-to-1 with dear old dad. I began to have pain in my left big toe. Tried telling my doctor. When he wouldn't listen, I saw another. Then another who sent me for an MRI. Then a specialist. Year & half later according to everyone nothing was wrong. Yet the pain got worse. The pain traveled to the ankle, then calf to the knee. Got so bad I had to use a cane, sometimes for weeks because I was unalbe to support weight on the leg due to pain. Still, doctor says nothing really wrong. The weight came back on, in part to the building stress of dealing with my dad but also because I was not able to exercise due to the painful leg. Depression. Doctor asks if I want a pill for depression? I felt like smacking him and informing him that what I need was someone to take my pain seriously.

I went from feeling great, finally finding myself to felling like why the thrwap! do I even bother. I need to have a coffee and something to eat in the morning...then the computer...then another coffee...I cry alone wondering what the hell went wrong???? But each day, I am trying to get better than I was yesterday.

Schipperkesue wrote:I hear you, TB.  I had progressives, but they gave me a head ache and nausea.  I went bifocals but they gave me a headache and nausea too.  I have had glasses for 2 years and rarely wear them.  I am due for another appointment this summer.  Sigh!

Bruce has worn bi-focals for sometime. Funny thing was he took to them like they were always on his face. Then the doctor said he need tri-focals. He wore them one year and told the doctor to switch him back to bi-focals.

Progressives made me sick too. Still do at times. I find that when I notice the vision change and start to focus on it with my eyes, I make myself sick. I try to let my eyes do their thing without thinking about it. Still...I wish I could have my old vision back.

You're all just getting ................wait for it ...........OLD er!  

I just got my first pair of progressives, still not used to them and have to take them off when I walk for fear of falling over, and when I fall they feel the earth shake two towns over. My balance is terrible to begin with.
Sue I wonder if the bushy tail has anything to do with your pasty butt issue.
Uno I have to laugh about lifting transmissions, when I was a kid I worked at greyhound and we would get transmissions to ship and would carry them no problem now I have hard time shifting my transmission.  

I am still in denial when it comes to glasses. I use the drugstore cheaters, which I buy at the dollar store because they're cheaper and I lose or break them often. I have a pair in every room in the house. Removing a splinter from Hub has become an exercise in nightmarish gouging and he has drawn the line at letting me pick steel slivers out of his eye with a cow needle. Which, by the way, is what the doctor uses. One of those big cow needles, slice, slick as a whistle, out come the sliver and a tiny chunk of eyeball. I can do that, but only now I take a slightly larger chunk of Hub's eyeball. He has called a halt to this. What a sissy.

Toybarons, have you gone to an actual foot doctor? When I had such bad hip pain that I ad to come up and down stairs on my butt, convinced I needed hip replacement, I had the good sense to NOT go to regular doc, but my foot doc. I have the worst, flattest feet in the world and they give me no end of grief. HE checked me out, made an adjustment to my supports and in 2 weeks, months of agonizing hip pain disappeared. He is my hero. Try a foot doc if your regular doc is not doing anything.

I too have my own foot doctor. Besides abiding off an irritating plantar wart, he has made casts of my feet and now I wear orthotic insoles and shoes. Expensive, but I no longer have neck muscle spasms, bad hips or knees. I used to be the knee brace queen.

Sue, isn't it amazing the entire body difference a good stance can make? I don't know why everyone doesn't go to the foot guy. What's that saying...the foot bone is connected to the everything bone?

It is true, Uno. I am fortunate. I have a good health plan and a health spending account as well. But even if I didn't, I would still save the money for orthotics. They make the world of difference...

Oh, dem bones!

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Actually, I have started wearing those Doctor Schoels orthodics. You know the one that you see on TV that has this machine you step on to test your feet. Well...I did. Apparently the left side is indeed flat. I started wearing the recommended orthodic and my feet feel really good. I'm able to keep a pair of shoes on without feeling like a cripple.

When my doctor recommeded I look up a foot doctor, I pretty much mumbled under my voice about it. Pretty much I was against the idea. From the time I was a kid, my dad [then in his late 30s] had foot and leg issues himself. He spent I don't know how many thousdands of dollars going to foot doctors who recommended orthodics. Special shoes that cost hundreds of dollars. He spent his whole life never finding a solution to his pain. When my doctor made the same recommendation to me, he might as well hae been telling me to use snake oil.

However, I was wrong. The orthodics haven't solved all my problems. It sure has help a whole lot though that I'm slowly starting to get back into being able to work outside without having to sit down every 20 minutes or grabbing the pain killers. Makes me  

toybarons wrote:I'm glad I'm not alone. People, thank you.  

When I was 40, I felt I was on top of the world. I had lost a load of weight. I got myself in shape. I felt I was putting myself together for the first time in ages. Best thing to ever happen was when my dad started to withdraw from the family because he was no longer trying to tell him how to run things. Damn annoying when half of the property is yours and you can't use it the way you want because someone is always trying to dictate to you. Anyway....I was able to do things like use power tools, build a garage, allow some of my chickens to run in the yard, enjoy life. I felt great.

Where things went wrong for me, believe me was not etirely when my mom died and I was stuck 1-to-1 with dear old dad. I began to have pain in my left big toe. Tried telling my doctor. When he wouldn't listen, I saw another. Then another who sent me for an MRI. Then a specialist. Year & half later according to everyone nothing was wrong. Yet the pain got worse. The pain traveled to the ankle, then calf to the knee. Got so bad I had to use a cane, sometimes for weeks because I was unalbe to support weight on the leg due to pain. Still, doctor says nothing really wrong. The weight came back on, in part to the building stress of dealing with my dad but also because I was not able to exercise due to the painful leg. Depression. Doctor asks if I want a pill for depression? I felt like smacking him and informing him that what I need was someone to take my pain seriously.

I went from feeling great, finally finding myself to felling like why the thrwap! do I even bother. I need to have a coffee and something to eat in the morning...then the computer...then another coffee...I cry alone wondering what the hell went wrong???? But each day, I am trying to get better than I was yesterday.

Don't know if this is a perfect match but I never knew that a back problem could cause pain in a totally different place.

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