Tag: aging

Fight the Good Fight

Do you remember progress? You know. You start at point A and by the end of the week you are at C and maybe by the end of the month you are at M with a real possibility of getting to Z in the near future. Then you go on to master the next goal. Progress. You remember; don’t you?

When did progress become standing in place? Holding your own?

I had an eye appointment last week. When the good doctor eye-balled my eyeballs, he was pleased. He did not see any obvious deterioration in my condition. Great. I was successful by maintaining status quo.

This morning I went to yoga. I did well those poses I have always done well and truly stank at the poses I have always stunk at. Progress? Not really unless you consider maintenance to be progress.

Then you have those comments suggesting I should not even be maintaining. “I did not realize you were still so active” and “Oh, you’re still working?” What am I supposed to think about those? Am I supposed to be regressing?

This is not the way I have lived my life. There has always been a new mountain to climb and, yes, a new windmill to tilt at. Is that so awful now I am of a “certain age”?

Writing in the June 4, 2014 Atlantic, Linda Fried reported people like Carl Jung and Betty Frieden have seen age as a period of growth and renewal. Fried herself writes that we are a species wired to feel needed, respected and purposeful. I guess that means I am in good company.

Fried also wrote about the research of Becca Levy at Yale. Levy found older adults with a positive attitude towards aging lived an extra 7.5 years as compared to their contemporaries with negative attitudes.

So, seeing purpose and goals is good for us. Also, the simple facts of the matter are life and AMD are degenerative diseases. It takes effort to stay in one place against the tides of chaos and atrophy.

Maybe maintaining the status quo is actually success?

Even if I change my thought process to see lack of slippage – or at least minor slippage – as a positive thing, what am I supposed to do about my need for progress? Goal accomplished. Skill mastered. You know, progress! That feeling of accomplishment, of a job DONE.

The brutal truth is we are not going to “win” this battle against AMD any time soon. I relate to St. Paul (me, relate to a saint???) when he talked about the fight well fought. You fight the fight well even when you are aware you are losing. Still, what does that leave to make progress on?

You chose. How about climbing Kilimanjaro? Anne Lorimor did that this summer. Lorimor is 89. But she did that same climb a few years ago, so maybe that was just maintaining status quo. Hmmm…

Make a soufflé? Learn an instrument? What do you want to be able to say “I did that!” about? Which goals will you be progressing towards? You chose.

Written November 5th, 2019

Next: NOT YOUR ECCENTRIC RELATIVE

Put the Savor Back in Life

As my father got older I really started to worry about his nutrition. Left to his own devices Daddy would prepare a lunch of canned peaches in heavy syrup, a couple of cookies and a bowl of ice cream. It was like dealing with the tastes of a six year old! Sugar, sugar and more sugar!

I eventually learned taste loss comes with old age. Since sweet is the last flavor we can still taste, many of us go to a high sugar diet. Not all that great.

Lost of taste is just one of the sensory losses we experience. Science Digest in February of 2016 ran an article reporting 94% of older Americans have at least one sensory loss. 38% have losses in two senses and 28% have three, four or five sensory losses. Some of these deficits were mild but many of them were serious. The study found 64% of their sample ages 57 to 85 suffered with a significant deficit in at least one sense. 22% had major deficits in two or more senses.

Yikes! This is scary stuff!

Sensory loss takes the savor out of life – literally. It is one of the main reasons people may report a reduction in the quality of life.

Alright, now that we have had the stuffing scared out of us, what can be done about this? Most sources suggest getting any potential sensory loss evaluated medically. Some sensory problems cannot be treated but there are some that can.

Just because some of us have a vision loss that is currently not treatable does not mean the same holds true for other sensory loss. Don’t be fatalistic! Go for help.

Then, of course, there are rehabilitation services. I would like to say rehabilitation services and assistive technology is universally available, but I know better. If you cannot get services funded, use resources such as this website. We regularly try to find things that are free or relatively inexpensive that can help you cope with your vision loss. I expect there are websites for hearing impaired although I am less optimistic about sites on taste, smell and touch loss.

And speaking of smell and taste loss…

In Betrayed by our Bodies – Sensory Loss and Aging Dan Orzech suggests the use of odor detecting technology so we can avoid burning up in a fire (smoke detectors) or being asphyxiated by leaking gas.

Orzech suggested using a little butter or gravy to make the odor and flavor of food more chemically available. (A man after my own heart!). He also reported dehydration can make it harder to taste so make sure you drink your fluids.

Although not being able to see colors well is a hallmark of AMD, do what you can to make foods bright, colorful and visually appealing. Intensely colored foods are rated as more flavorful that dull colored foods.

Given the number of readers and FaceBook members we have, I would suspect more than one or two of you are experiencing multiple sensory losses. Don’t ignore them. There really are ways to put some of the savor back into life!

Written August 4th, 2016

Continue reading “Put the Savor Back in Life”

One Good Eye

Just heard from a reader who said family and friends made her feel guilty about making a ‘fuss’ when she lost sight in her first eye. After all, she was older and you need to expect these things. Also it was ‘only’ one eye. She had two; did she not? She should have been happy she had one good one! They did not think she should fear vision loss.

Good grief. Not sure what species these people are from but we humans have a pretty strong fear of vision loss. In fact WebMD published results of a survey that found vision loss is what Americans fear the most.

This is a consistent finding across varying racial and ethnic groups. We ALL fear going blind.

In fact, fear of loss of sight was the same or greater than fear of losing hearing, memory, speech or a limb. And what is so scary about loss of sight? Quality of life and loss of independence, of course. Having good vision can be seen as a key to one’s overall sense of well-being. Good vision is frequently seen as essential to overall health and daily functioning. Good vision is seen as basic to just about everything.

There are five – just five – basic fears according to Psychology Today and I can see sight loss as feeding into three of them. First is the fear of mutilation, the loss of a body part. I took a little poetic license with this one, equating loss of function with loss of the organ itself. Then there is loss of autonomy, pretty self-explanatory, and separation. Sensory loss can certainly lead to a lack of social interaction. Is it any wonder we get so upset about sight loss? It taps into three out of five primal fears!

Fear is not just for weaklings and sissies. Fear is a valuable emotion. It tells us something is wrong and we had better start paying attention. There is something that needs to be dealt with. It is not only necessary but perfectly acceptable to listen to your fears.

To address their first point, vision loss is not an inevitable part of aging. There are a number of vision changes that occur but it seems only one of the common ones is not considered a ‘disease’. This is presbyopia – literally ‘old eyes’ from the Greek – or farsightedness. Presbyopia can be fixed in one of two ways: corrective lenses or grow longer arms!?

The Washington Post article entitled Vision loss is a part of old age but it’s not inevitable then goes on to list the rest of the causes of vision loss in older folks: cataracts, glaucoma and retinal disease. Please note the word ‘disease’.

Disease is not a normal part of anything and yes, you get concerned, and, yes, you see a doctor.

Our reader still did have one eye left, but would you like a good obsession? Try wondering when you will lose function in the second eye! That should afford you untold hours of uninterrupted worry! Somewhere I read waiting for the second eye to go is one of the most stressful things about progressive eye disease. Don’t know where, though. I read quite a bit on the subject.

Take away points: sight loss is not inevitable. Most causes of sight loss in older folks are considered disease and there are treatments for most of them. Don’t let anyone but a retina expert tell you there is nothing wrong. Most importantly, although I did not say this earlier in this page, if there is a sudden onset of symptoms, act quickly and get to the doctor.

Continue reading “One Good Eye”

Improving Communication: Part 1

TGIF! Greetings from the land of organized chaos, aka my life!

I have not been writing as regularly as I would like. For one thing, as I keep pointing out, there are lulls in the action with AMD. You adapt to a certain level of loss and things are calm until the next loss of vision occurs.

Crank up the magnification and soldier on until the yet next disaster. Lulls are not all that page worthy…and I don’t need a disaster right now.

The other reason is my days have been flying! I am taking more counseling clients and my days are jam packed. Nothing like being busy to make the time fly!

All of this by way of saying, I am sliding into a holiday weekend (Happy Memorial Day!) and I am going to try to pound out a few pages over the next few days.

We stopped for deep dish pizza on the way home. (The new comfort food!) I walked the Beastie Baby in the neighborhood and the field. She drank from every rain puddle (mud flavor! Yum!) and we investigated what looked to me like bear scat (poop, no bear. Life is good). Well fortified and with the ‘adventure’ out of the way, I guess I am ready to go.

The topic was suggested by one of our readers. She is located in Massachusetts and has just helped to launch a new, vision loss support group. (Kudos!) The topic had come up in her support group: vision loss and social isolation.

The short answer is “yep”. Problem is, I rather doubt I can make a page out of that. In trying to flesh things out a bit, I came upon a publication by the Thomas Pocklington Trust. Published in 2013, this literature review contained 44 pages on the topic. Good resource. [Lin/Linda: it’s 44 pages if you download the Word version; 8 pages for the PDF version which is what I’ve linked to.]

The review starts by pointing out loneliness is not part of natural aging. Loneliness and social isolation are also not inevitable for the elderly, visually impaired population. (So maybe “yep” is not the short answer?)

That said, however, it is easy to see how vision loss, loss of function and depression can lead to social isolation and how social isolation can loop back around and cause more depression, etc. People with vision loss can really end up in a nasty downward spiral.

The review acknowledges the problems that can come from not recognizing faces and facial expressions. Without nonverbal cues to go by, communications can easily breakdown.

Lack of good social communication can break down social relations and lead to a drop in feelings of self-efficacy. Feeling you are not able to adapt and cope with your loss once again leads to all sorts of issues and perpetuates the downhill slide.

I think I mentioned before that feelings of self-efficacy are exceptionally important to mental health. The “I can do it myself” attitude can be reinforced by success in using assistive devices. In another page I believe I quoted something that said one of the best predictors of life satisfaction is access and use of assistive technology, both high and low tech.

OK. To be continued. Since some of us have trouble reading long text, I will stop here for now.

Continue reading “Improving Communication: Part 1”

News: August 25-26, 2016

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