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altarflameSince I have so much studying to do, I took a really detailed life expectancy calculator that took many aspects of various categories into account. It was a university's website, and I was painfully honest on it, and it told me I would live to be 89 years old. I found that encouraging and a little surprising.
I grew up thinking I had extreme longevity in my genes, because my father's father's side all live to very old age. I have a great great uncle well over a hundred living independently, and that man's siblings have all been in their mid to late 90s before needing to depend on others, or dying. My father's father is also over 80 and continuously surprising doctors, despite some 60 years of drinking and probably more than that of heavy chain smoking. He's diabetic and "cheats" left and right. My Nana also had BOTH of her own grandmothers still alive until I was almost 25. That is partially the result of very closely spaced generations, but the women were still living in their late 80s and early 90s in their own apartments, walking to church, etc.
Those are all stories, though, mostly about people I barely knew. I internalized them, but these last few years of lived experiences with those I'm far closer to have been sobering. My mom's dad died suddenly, at only 62, albeit of liver cirrhosis in the midst of life long alcoholism and drug use. My mom's mom had multiple strokes, at only 62, that have left her bed ridden, partially blind, and incontinent - albeit as a reaction to kidney failure that has been ruled malpractice, from a shoddy surgery that was done as a preventative measure. Early 60s seems like a very young time to go or become completely dependent, to me, in our current society. It makes me think often about how my Dad's mom, who died when I was a teenager, was in her early 60s, too.
I didn't understand that then the way I do now. I was young, and unaware of her actual age - she SEEMED so old that now the real numbers are shocking. She had totally uncontrolled type 2 diabetes and never wanted to do anything for her own health - she was blind at the end, and weighed over 400 pounds at times during my life. That all underscores for me, looking back, that MY GOD she was only in her 50s during most of the years I knew her! I know homeschooling moms in their 50s, and they travel the world and get their hair cut at salons and take yoga classes and things! They're on the internet and throw dinner parties. My Ma was so, so infirm by comparison, totally isolated from everyone but family and needing help to get out of a chair. Begging us to rub her dark, swollen feet. MY MOM is 51, now!
Point being, 3 of my 4 biological grandparents have failed to make it out of their early 60s healthy and intact. And, now, I see my parents, both of them an utter mess health wise. There's my mother, 51 as I said, with probable COPD and possible SPAD (bad and worse lung diseases), with a string of what seem to have been TIAs (ministrokes) behind her, still smoking, still not eating, still not sleeping or exercising. And my father, 54, with continuously worsening rheumatoid arthritis that has never been addressed medically, and just a couple of teeth left. He's woken up with a booming and disturbing cough that generally turns into vomiting each morning, for my entire life. He doesn't exercise in even light or non-gym ways like walks, either. Although he does not take care of himself, I can imagine my father living a very long time regardless. Or...not. He's really old for his age since he was hospitalized for months and had multiple emergency surgeries, a few years back (for diverticulitis) - all his muscle atrophied, and his beard turned completely gray pretty quickly. The refusal to pursue dentistry is a whole other thing...
So, parents and grandparents, you know, damn - that does not look good, eh? I know people, who I am NOT related to, in their 70s who are much more spry and with it than my parents are in their 50s. I will be surprised if my parents make it to their 70s :/
The other side of the story of course is that all of these people are drinking and smoking and ignoring their sugars, etc, to death, where they aren't experiencing malpractice. There is no proactive medical care in the bunch, or even simple shit like making an effort to drink more water and eat some vegetables now and then.
Still, my concept of my inherited longevity has taken many hits and is no longer quite so uppity and nonchalant as it once was.
As for me in isolation, I'm really overweight. Fairly sedentary when I'm not making extraordinary efforts - meaning, my defaults that I have to very consciously break from are sitting in a computer chair, a desk at school, on the couch, at my dining table, or in a vehicle; or lying down reading with or cuddling a kid. Those things constitute most of my waking hours, unless I'm standing still attending to something in the kitchen.
The test made me count my blessings, such as those really old relatives. Cancer does not run in my family. I have perfect cholesterols and blood sugars. I can and choose to see doctors, and work on mental health, and I have a support system. I've never smoked.
This was spurred by a facebook thread about what exactly constitutes being "middle aged." And that was spurred, of course, by the need to study. Which I will now resume.
I grew up thinking I had extreme longevity in my genes, because my father's father's side all live to very old age. I have a great great uncle well over a hundred living independently, and that man's siblings have all been in their mid to late 90s before needing to depend on others, or dying. My father's father is also over 80 and continuously surprising doctors, despite some 60 years of drinking and probably more than that of heavy chain smoking. He's diabetic and "cheats" left and right. My Nana also had BOTH of her own grandmothers still alive until I was almost 25. That is partially the result of very closely spaced generations, but the women were still living in their late 80s and early 90s in their own apartments, walking to church, etc.
Those are all stories, though, mostly about people I barely knew. I internalized them, but these last few years of lived experiences with those I'm far closer to have been sobering. My mom's dad died suddenly, at only 62, albeit of liver cirrhosis in the midst of life long alcoholism and drug use. My mom's mom had multiple strokes, at only 62, that have left her bed ridden, partially blind, and incontinent - albeit as a reaction to kidney failure that has been ruled malpractice, from a shoddy surgery that was done as a preventative measure. Early 60s seems like a very young time to go or become completely dependent, to me, in our current society. It makes me think often about how my Dad's mom, who died when I was a teenager, was in her early 60s, too.
I didn't understand that then the way I do now. I was young, and unaware of her actual age - she SEEMED so old that now the real numbers are shocking. She had totally uncontrolled type 2 diabetes and never wanted to do anything for her own health - she was blind at the end, and weighed over 400 pounds at times during my life. That all underscores for me, looking back, that MY GOD she was only in her 50s during most of the years I knew her! I know homeschooling moms in their 50s, and they travel the world and get their hair cut at salons and take yoga classes and things! They're on the internet and throw dinner parties. My Ma was so, so infirm by comparison, totally isolated from everyone but family and needing help to get out of a chair. Begging us to rub her dark, swollen feet. MY MOM is 51, now!
Point being, 3 of my 4 biological grandparents have failed to make it out of their early 60s healthy and intact. And, now, I see my parents, both of them an utter mess health wise. There's my mother, 51 as I said, with probable COPD and possible SPAD (bad and worse lung diseases), with a string of what seem to have been TIAs (ministrokes) behind her, still smoking, still not eating, still not sleeping or exercising. And my father, 54, with continuously worsening rheumatoid arthritis that has never been addressed medically, and just a couple of teeth left. He's woken up with a booming and disturbing cough that generally turns into vomiting each morning, for my entire life. He doesn't exercise in even light or non-gym ways like walks, either. Although he does not take care of himself, I can imagine my father living a very long time regardless. Or...not. He's really old for his age since he was hospitalized for months and had multiple emergency surgeries, a few years back (for diverticulitis) - all his muscle atrophied, and his beard turned completely gray pretty quickly. The refusal to pursue dentistry is a whole other thing...
So, parents and grandparents, you know, damn - that does not look good, eh? I know people, who I am NOT related to, in their 70s who are much more spry and with it than my parents are in their 50s. I will be surprised if my parents make it to their 70s :/
The other side of the story of course is that all of these people are drinking and smoking and ignoring their sugars, etc, to death, where they aren't experiencing malpractice. There is no proactive medical care in the bunch, or even simple shit like making an effort to drink more water and eat some vegetables now and then.
Still, my concept of my inherited longevity has taken many hits and is no longer quite so uppity and nonchalant as it once was.
As for me in isolation, I'm really overweight. Fairly sedentary when I'm not making extraordinary efforts - meaning, my defaults that I have to very consciously break from are sitting in a computer chair, a desk at school, on the couch, at my dining table, or in a vehicle; or lying down reading with or cuddling a kid. Those things constitute most of my waking hours, unless I'm standing still attending to something in the kitchen.
The test made me count my blessings, such as those really old relatives. Cancer does not run in my family. I have perfect cholesterols and blood sugars. I can and choose to see doctors, and work on mental health, and I have a support system. I've never smoked.
This was spurred by a facebook thread about what exactly constitutes being "middle aged." And that was spurred, of course, by the need to study. Which I will now resume.
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