My Aging Thighs Deceive Me, Part I

I have a big mirror in my bathroom. For the last 10 years I’ve been scrutinizing my body on a daily basis. First thing in the morning, before a shower, after a shower, before a date, after a haircut. Staring into the mirror one morning I thought about getting a new swimsuit.  I was in my early 50’s at the time and was about to take a July trip to Egypt where I knew it would be very hot. A new suit might come in handy.

Twelve years earlier when my friend Linda, from way back in college, and I were backpacking in Grand Gulch, we took photos of ourselves in bikinis. We had a feeling that now at age 40, this might be the last time for exposing ourselves, wearing a two-piece bathing suit. So we lived it up, goofed around taking shots of ourselves with a backdrop of orange sandstone cliffs and  cobalt blue skies. Chest out, hands on hips, one knee bent. No nudie shots. Back then someone at the pharmacy actually looked at the photos and censored such images. ???

So back to the bathroom mirror and a trip to exotic lands.

I drove off to a department store where they would hopefully have a large selection of bathing suits. It was just my luck they were having a end-of-the-season sale on beach wear. I chose several bright Hawaiian prints to try on. They were all of course, one-piece. No skirts, though, or high cut thighs. I pulled and wiggled on the first suit and stood back to take a look.

Now what? Those can’t be my thighs. They had dimples and ripples, on the front, on the sides and in the back. Something I associated with the Fat Lady at a carnival. I knew I had only gained 3 or 4 pounds in all those years, so it couldn’t be fat cells. How come I hadn’t noticed?

“Twisted Tree” photograph by Sondra Diepen

 

Well, back at home, the bathroom the mirror ends at the counter. My thighs had been hiding from view for all these years. Time had been having an impact.

I then began to wonder- what else I had been unaware of?

-To Be Continued: Part II

 

Shocked to Discover I Was Aging

“From Rust to Dust”  Photograph by Sondra Diepen

 The first signs of aging began one morning in my early forties.

I was an elementary teacher back then. I use to spend my summers with my sister Donna and my longtime friend Linda, backpacking among the Minarets in California, exploring Grand Gulch and Canyonlands in Utah, trudging along the trails of New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness—partly due to our love of the great outdoors, and partly to exercise our muscles, stay fit, and keep up our girlish figures.

I was lying in bed on a Saturday morning thinking about how to plan my day. Should I wash clothes, clean out the chicken coop, or get out there in nature. Nature won as a reward for a week of teaching 6 year olds.

Still contemplating, I glanced over at my arm resting on the pillow and got an up close view of my skin. (Being extremely near-sighted can allow me to examine something two inches from my eyeballs.) “What in hell are all these little criss crosses I’m seeing?” They couldn’t be wrinkles. I’m only 43.

I lifted my arm up just a little, twisted my wrist back and forth and they got even worse. Horrors! I instantly put my arm straight up into the air and poof! they all disappeared.

Must have been seeing things.

Growing Older: My Anxiety about Aging

I just have to write these things down. This aging process is hard to take. My body is eroding inside and out, along with segments of my mind. I’m only 66 years old. My mother lived to be 99.  And now I’m afraid I may have another 33 years of deterioration and coping with what’s to come.

I couldn’t comprehend these challenges my parents would complain about every time I visited. My dad would get up from his Lazy Boy and just stand there for a few seconds before taking a step forward. He’d give a little  embarrassed laugh, as though he too couldn’t understand why those legs wouldn’t just ‘get up and go’.

Now that I’m experiencing a little of this myself, I have some understanding and compassion for his teetering and leaning onto his cane before stepping forward. I wish he hadn’t died 20 years ago so I could tell him, “Now I get it. You just have to wait for the stiffness to subside so the feet, the ankles, the knees, the thighs and the hips can begin cooperating with each other once again.”

For awhile I was taking Vioxx for some ache or pain that I’m not remembering at the moment. Oh. My. God. It was heaven. In the morning I could bounce out of bed, waltz to the bathroom without a little staggering and feel like I could easily accomplish all those tasks on my list- including the ones that were carried over from days past. I was feeling like those old people I saw on TV, leaping across a  meadow and dancing into the twilight.

What Vioxx did was caused me to remember how I used to feel. What had crept up on me so gradually. What energy had been left behind.

A couple of weeks of feeling no pain, I had an appointment with my gastroenterologist for my first colonoscopy. It wasn’t as bad as everyone said, but I felt very tied down to my toilet for fear that at any moment…

The results? an inflammation at the upper end of my colon. The doc said, “Well, it could be Crohn’s disease or it could be an irritation from taking Vioxx.”

So much for feeling young and lively.