This is the inevitable thread for ILxors in their forties

might not be a magic bullet for everyone but psyllium husk pills have really helped for any reflux or digestive things for me

my body tells me, "Oh, no. We've adapted to crap food since the early 80s to survive. Don't bring anything new in here or we will fuck you up."

Sounds about right. A few years back when people were getting all excited about gut flora and its relationship to general health, one of the assertions that was floating around was that your gut flora is highly adapted to whatever makes up your normal diet (which is also its normal diet) and if you deprive it of what it expects and wants, the bacteria in your gut will not just complain about the change, but can stimulate cravings for those foods.

oldest person at the bar= win

yeah i feel like our bodies get more finicky about food as we age and really punishes us for the foods it doesn't like.

― ꙮ (map), Thursday, January 19, 2023 3:04 PM (one week ago)

true. ... last summer I had this really painful stomach issue that was basically really bad bloating and gas that felt like "okay facehugger alien, you can burst out now and just put me out of my misery" ... best I can tell is it was due to undercooked beans. I had never had anything remotely like this problem before than I can remember? But I had started making a greater effort to eat more beans because they are healthier and more ethical than meat. ... After a few months I slowly phased back in eating beans, but goddamn, that pain was horrible, and all y'all who have that on the reg ... my sympathies.

yesterday when i was sitting in the biggest most comfortable chair in the house i stretched my arms up and yawned and that was enough to fuck up my neck

the moral of the story is don't stretch

don't get out of the boat.

My wife once reached up and behind her to flip a wall light switch -- not a long reach at all -- and wound up needing shoulder surgery.

I laughed knowingly about the "facehugger alien" description. For me it's raw or undercooked cabbage. Kimchi or super stewed cabbage is fine - great even - but I'll suffer for days if I have coleslaw or anything like that. My totally amateur theory is that my stomach acid or gut bacteria is just no longer up to the task of breaking down that kind of roughage.

lol - "we give up motherfucker, ur getting bloated"

Maybe my most "I'm in my forties" realization yet came when I had two falls on the ice in as many days and, unlike when such things would happen to me when I was younger, I really am feeling it now. Was up til 4AM last night with pain in my left leg, and this morning's dog-walk was less than pleasant (though mercifully didn't result in another fall).

Typed out a bunch of stuff that's been going on with my health and deleted it, basically it's been rough going and I miss pizza, beer, and cookies. Trying not to think about food as source of pleasure and focus on other things (making music, reading, Disco Elysium). And people I guess.

Sorry to hear that Jordan. All I’ve had to give up lately has been coffee and that’s been tuff enuf

Wait, why did you have to give up coffee again?
Also sorry to hear that, Jordan. Also a little sheepish and sorry to barge into y’all’s decade.

I still have coffee! Gotta appreciate that.

i had this phantom knee injury that defied diagnosis a few years ago. it wasn't located in one specific spot and if something were to graze the area in the right way, it could be excruciating. had two bouts in my right knee and the best guess I got was that it was a nerve issue originating somewhere else, but we never got to the bottom of it.
well, now it's in my left knee and it's made sleeping super fucking difficult and pretty tough to play with my kids etc. i'm just toughing it out because nothing at all seemed to help aside from time. its tough not to help outloud when someone gently brushes it and i suddenly feel like they sliced me with a razor blade

I am probably the strongest physically I've ever been in my life but then I pull a chest muscle due to overconfidence and lol whelp!

Over the past year I've been feeling steadily shittier and shittier, and I assumed it was all because I'm getting older. While I am getting older, I'm pretty sure I'm anemic because I stopped eating meat. My iron was already on the low side beforehand. My joints hurt, my head is fuzzy and I have very little energy. Iron supplements upset my stomach and I'm already eating loads of lentils and kale and iron rich foods.

Now I'm eating meat like it's going out of style. Sorry cows, I can't feel like this any more.

don't eat too much or it's gout time

WHY IS FOOD TRYING 2 KILL US

I highly recommend iron infusions. Talk to your friendly neighborhood hematologist. During the worst of my anemia it was the only thing that gave me any sort of life.

i feel like once a week now some part of my body starts hurting for no reason

i really hate the 20’s version of myself that took “feeling fine always” for granted

xpost it's very easy to get a complete blood count which will show whether you are anemic and could suggest iron deficiency as the cause. can also get your iron level measured. bad fatigue and joint pain could have other causes - not medical advice but consider seeing your GP

I have an appointment but I’m new in town so it’s a month off as a new patient.

Do you walk around with the “new kid in town” on repeat

I went for a frew blood pressure check and had worryingly high BP - in a “level 2 hypertension, go to the emergency room right away“ kind of way - and went to A&E to check for blood clots. Spent seven hours in A&E next to a drunk dude retching into a bucket. Worrying! There was no blood clot but I had to test my blood pressure at home for two weeks and bring the results to the GP.

The GP said the results were fine and my blood pressure was normal and that it was normal for it to go up and down randomly. So basically a waste of two weeks, and glad everything is ok, but the experience of two weeks of solid worrying was traumatic in itself.

I got the classic “you seem very tense” from the doctor at A&E and I said, “yes because I’ve been in A&E for seven hours next to a guy retching in a bucket”

The shit part of high BP is being aware of it and then having that anxiety frequently spiking your BP

Anxiety will temporarily spike your heart rate, not necessarily your BP

Anxiety can totally temporarily spike your BP. it's short term, sure, like if you take your BP many times during the day and you don't normally have high BP, you should get some normal readings among the high ones.

It's why white-coat hypertension is a thing.

https://health.umms.org/2022/10/27/anxiety-and-high-blood-pressure/

i feel like once a week now some part of my body starts hurting for no reason

oof - last week I had a few days of the "lower back pain of unknown provenance"

i'm doing more or less ok for late 40s and my philosophy is that even if something hurts or i have to take bp meds now (lol) these are now the good times. it's not getting better from here so i might as well enjoy these years.

Not sure if this is the pandemic's doing but I now consistently believe I am one or two years younger than I actually am.

yesterday I had to tap out of my exercise program midway through due to leg cramps. getting lazy on warming up doesn't pay off.

these are now the good times. it's not getting better from here so i might as well enjoy these years.

otm ... very otm

i would also like to advise a regular stretching and balance exercise regimen -- nothing too time consuming just focused on those two things. i know the other types of exercise are important, but stretching helps a LOT in feeling better and balance is necessary if you want to avoid falling down and what that brings.

yeah that is a healthy perspective LL!

i will try to embrace that outlook <3

I've been thinking about sending out birthday invitations for my 50th this year. Last night I dreamt, why do I need to send out invitations now? I'm not fifty for another two years... three years... five years! :/

I’ve recently had to change the default display setting on my iphone to zoomed. Struggling to make out small text. Officially old

RIP

Think I'm still older than you because I read that and thought, "Oh, what a good idea! Let me look into Settings and ... ... oh, I'll just keep putting my readers on, nevermind."

Had trouble watching a subtitled film on TV the other day; had to switch to the iPad so I could be closer to the text.

oh god i just don't know why they put things in that fucking tiny print, it's impossible, if i get too close i'm farsighted and i can't read it, and if i get farther i'm nearsighted and i can't read it, there's like one subpixel of space where it's halfway legible. like i'm sorry, was this put together by robert walser in an insane asylum*? is your hobby engraving the bible on a grain of rice? are you brainwashed by capitalism into believing that you are personally responsible for the deforestation of the amazon?

* wow apparently i'm just going with the deep cuts today, thanks for tuning in, next up is "too many hopes" by pilot from their 1976 album _morin heights_

I keep trying to just rub my eyes to make text less blurry and easier to read at smaller sizes. Sometimes this works…

Discord text is hella small. Ageists

am going to need reading glasses soon I think. I thought I might already need them because have been having trouble reading v small print like on medication leaflets since last autumn, but noticed if I take off my glasses (which are for myopia not reading) then I can still manage it. but presumably that won't work for too much longer.

Another place they put really small text is on the backs of smoke detectors. Seriously…how do they expect elders to be able to read the legend that shows what the beeps and colored lights mean…

wait ... the backs? As in the part that gets affixed to the ceiling or elevated surface? I am confused. ... also in aging eyesight anecdotes, if I need to refer to text on a piece of paper, I now have to put it on the side where my "strong eye" is, because if I put it on the other side ... you guessed it, blurry!

Never posted in this thread and now it's too late :(

happy birthday? i haven't got that much longer here myself, tbh

Do you need help finding the sequel thread?

how do they expect elders to be able to read the legend that shows what the beeps and colored lights mean…

It means your house is on fire.