Spirited and Lively Older Women Thread

Hi everyone.  I just love the nickname "Fallen Women" for this thread.  Sounds sorta wicked, doesn't it?  I'm 61 (62 in January) and haven't fallen, yet.  I'm extremely careful but know it can happen any time, especially since arimidex is really doing a number on my right hip!

Kathy

oh Ducky - I do wish you hadn't fallen so often, but the way you tell the stories is wonderful! How did you get away without breaking anything? or did you?

lassie, I'm glad your LE is mild enough that you don't need to wear a sleeve all the time. most women who develop LE are advised to wear their sleeves daily, and many do not which results in a worsening of the condition, meaning pain and impairment that could have been avoided if they'd worn the sleeves as recommended. I would definitely prefer not to wear mine .. it's not a choice I make, it's a necessity to keep the condition from getting worse, and something that I just had to make a part of my daily routine. I truly hope yours never gets to that point, but I caution anyone who develops LE to follow the guidelines of a trained LE therapist and if that means wearing a sleeve daily, please do it so that your condition doesn't get worse. coming down off soapbox now

Thanks for your "soapbox" Marlegal. I totally agree with you that we should do what the specialist recommends.  I feel quite lucky that my LE has not progressed and in your circumstances certainly would do as you do. Sorry if I came off snarky - sometimes my words on screen don't sound like they do with sound.

Welcome & Happy Birthday Minus Two.

Nice pix (as usual!) Lisa - I do love to see people of good character get recognition.  In sports it's particularly important we promote that good character aspect!    ( I'm thinking of the stewpid 49er/Raider fans' brawl at the game last night)

Barbe, no offense taken.  A lot of our young people in the US join the military as a way to get 1) a job, and 2) an education.  With the economy in the tank, many youngsters joined or re-enlisted just as a way to have a job.  I come from a "military" but not militaristic,  family - few make it a career, but most serve, even after we became an all-volunteer military.  We have 4 nephews & 3 nieces, and all the nephews have or are serving; DH's neph is oldest of all, and is career air force;  one of my nieces is looking like she'll make the air force her career. My bro has 3 boys, the oldest where we went to the bbq was already in the Army at 9/11, and he did 8 years with I think 6 battlefield postings.  We were so relieved that he got out safely in '07.  Then his younger brothers, the two other boys joined.  We lost the youngest 10 months ago a casualty of this *($% war, and our lives changed forever.  So we are all really anxious about middle boy, and will be until he gets out in 23 months.  He is a Navy corpsman assigned to the Marines - which is cause enough for worry... All safe prayers gratefully accepted... We are particularly close with all four of the "boys" even tho one is no longer with us.  Anyway, I think everybody has some struggle in their life... When we lost the youngest last year, I drew strength from the women on this board - just dealing with their own struggles.  If they could get up & keep going in their ____whatever____ situations, then I could keep going and try to prop up my bro who was, and is, devastated.  You can imagine his fear for his 2nd boy... all of us...  So, I was hoping for an idyllic moment, cool and refreshing, filled with love and light, for him to take overseas... we got that, and I was happy.

Yesterday was a pleasant afternoon, ending with the usual "don't be a hero" warnings, lots of hugs and plans for skype or somesuch.  We are now planning a boat-in camp next summer, at that same lake. There are several primitive campsites only accessible by boat, and the guys did some exploring Saturday and have picked out spot, and we are all planning (at least hoping) for happy days next summer.  I'll go do the primitive thing if we have enough able bodies - we have enough bears and mountain lions around here that I think there may be some safety in numbers.

When I was young, and wild, (and bulletproof) I would have camped alone or with the boy du jour.

My most awkward moment involved cross-country skiis. When DH & I were first together (near 40 yrs ago), we lived in a cabin where you skiied in and out in winter, about 4 months a year.  One warming late-winter early-spring day, we were skiing in to the cabin and one of the streams was pretty full.  DH is tall and managed to cross with a side-step and lift his feet & skiis & keep his balance.  I tried it, and ended up so straddle-legged & strapped to 6' boards on my feet I absolutely couldn't lift either foot & keep my balance without falling in the water.  DH was laughing so hard he almost fell over.  I was fuming, and then he asked "well what do you want me to do?" --- "Give me a hand, *(#%it".... he's lucky I didn't pull him in the water.

add: Barbe, I love my wood floors. They're a little hard on my feet (pun intended), but so very easy to clean.  I just wear better shoes or cushioned slippers. My dog weighs 135#, and he sheds enough hair for one of these mini-dogs every day.

Lassie 11...........yes about 2 years ago I broke a vertebrae......tripped over my dogs covers on the way to the washer, landed on my face............twisted my body in such a way it snapped my back.......... after finally getting up after 10 minutes I drove myself to the emergency room........Dr. said "you broke your back"...........I said "get the hell out a hear.............if its broke how come I can stand straight........he shook his head and said "trust me X rays don't lie"..............had a procedure called Kyphoplasty, and I'm ok.............by the way I was 74 when I pulled that stunt

I have always been clumsy...........fell off the back steps at 3 years old, and fractured my skull...........so I started young.....hahaha..........just plain clumsy...............

Ladies I am as old as dirt............I graduated in 1953................by 1969 I had 6 kids......you guys are toddlers compared to me.................and yes I'm still falling....................Sign me up as President for the Fallen Women's Club..........................

I think my most spectacular fall was when I was coming down the stair with a laundry basket and tripped about 3/4 of the way down and flipped over the top of the laundry basket and landed on the hall rug at the bottom of the stair flat on my back.  Daisy the dog just came over and started licking my face.  It took me about 15 minutes before I had the courage to even try to move!  Fortunately nothing was broken, but I was really sore for a long time.  Since then I do not carry anything up or down the stairs.  DH does that for me.  I graduated in 1968 and flunked out of Univ. of Houston due to majoring in the "Cougar Den".  Finally convinced my Dad that I was not ready for college.  I finally did go to college and graduated in 1989.  Took me awhile to grow up.

you guys are a hoot... i took my "fun" to RIsland, and downtown Boston.. '68' also, barbara.. thise were the days.. theres' a million stories for everyone of us, im sure... things were REAL different then, than nowadays......thinking of you all......3jays

Hello everyone. 

This thread has been fun to read.  I'm 58 and was going to post here the other day that I hadn't fallen recently...but then before I got around to that I did trip and fall.  It was notable because I had set a couple of shelves in the middle of the livingroom floor, DH was going to carry them downstairs after he did something else.  I went upstairs and yelled down to him to remember that they were there and to not trip over them.  Five minutes later I went back downstairs and promptly tripped over them myself, splitting two toes open.

I have made a game out of getting dirty laundry down the stairs.  I have neuropathy and have to be careful on the stairs - DH has a fit if he sees me carrying anything, also my stairwell has a very high ceiling which is hard to dust so I throw dirty laundry from the top of the stairs, aiming at the high far edge where it falls to the bottom of the stairs.  I almost never have to pull out the long handled duster thing, the laundry usually takes care of any cobwebs. 

Love it riverrat

HAHAHAHAHA Ah riverrat you gave me a laugh!!! Reminds me of the time I told the neighbours to dial 91 and hover over the other 1 because my DH was going to use a chainsaw. Turns out it was ME that herniated 3 disks in my back helping him and it was ME that went out of the backyard in a guerney to the ambulance. Neighbours were quite shocked to see the ambulance tho.....

quick fly by:    Earthquake, 5.9 

Apartment manager says all is being checked.    Good thing is we have no natural gas lines at all in the complex.         Nancy 

Hey Ladies............was over my daughters....(with the kids ...usual job while she works...........my grandson got up late, around 11am, ate, and I told him "you have to eat again before Dad gets home from work, or you won't get lunch".......he said "fine", and around 1:45 I decided now is lunchtime........both kids were in the finished basement when the "girl, 10, a real "drama queen" ran upstairs screaming ......"Nan, its an earthquake".........previous to that I had just struggled with a jelly container that would not dispense the jelly , and in shaking it broke the cap, and got jelly all over the granite counter.............then the milkshake I was making him spilled out of the blender, so I was not in the mood for "her"..........She again screamed........"Nan, an earthquake"...................now my granson, who is very lay back, and very calm said "Nan, Mom just called from work, and we had an earthquake.............and Nan, we felt it in our video chairs..............well him I belive, cause he is quite reserved in his thinking..................at that point I said  "I didn't feel a thing....................of course not I was too engrossed fighting a blender, and a jelly jar......................well anway, my grandson said to me "not to be insulting Nan, but you know the way you sometimes "walk",(and then proceeded to show me how I walk)..................maybe you just thought it was "you".........................then the drama queen said......................."Yea Nan, you know how that medication always makes you "dizzy"..............you probably thought it was that...................gotta love the honesty of kids...................well we did have an earthquake, and for Philly , that is unusual..............Now we are bracing for "Irene" who is gonna hammer the Jersey coastline (as of today), and that means no shore this weekend ....................Boo Hoo................oh wellwe went from flooding, to an earthquake, and a hurricane in about 1 week...................oh well...where's the Vodka.