Getting Old and Sick

When you're young and get a touch of flu or other mild illness, no-one worries too much because the young are resilient. But when someone of advanced age becomes ill it's much more worrisome because older people don't snap back as easily.

Another worry about minor illnesses in the old is that many of us are living alone. Well meaning relatives and neighbors can't make up for that live-in person who, at 3 A.M., can hold your hair out of your face while you throw up and make sure you don't choke. It's just one of those tiny, niggling worries that always sits in the back of my mind.

I hurt my knee dancing last New Year's (as I've let everyone know many times over...even strangers on the street if they didn't run away fast enough) and thought it would be a permanent injury but I've been one of the lucky ones and the knee has healed almost completely. I still get twinges when I walk too long or twist too fast but, for the most part, it's almost like new.

My sister-in-law, Joyce, just went through a bout of antibiotics and got even sicker because it turned out she was allergic to one of them. She's 75 years old so it's hit her a little harder than it would have 20 years ago but she has her sweetie, Larry, to take care of her. They live out in the boon docks of northern Ontario so it would have been kind of disastrous if she'd been there alone, though.

As we age our immune system becomes weaker so a little cold could more easily turn into pneumonia. Yearly flu epidemics end the lives of many elderly people who failed to be vaccinated. A small injury could become a permanent, incapacitating problem.

I've mentioned my inner worries about getting older and becoming sick to my friend, Mary. She was very quick to reply, "don't worry because we (she and Faye) will take care of you". Now, doesn't that warm your heart?