“At your age”…

Those of you who have followed me for a while will know that I have a confusing cocktail of conditions (the CCC’s) one of them being of course Parkinson’s aka Parkies.

It is sometimes difficult to find the cause of a particular symptom or pain because of this. I have back pain, but have undergone major surgery in February 2025, so not even a year has passed yet. Prior to the surgery the problem with my back caused excruciating pain in my legs, particularly my left. Now I have a strange symptom in my left foot, where it alternates at times being numb and being painful and also somehow sometimes at the same time! It is hard to express what a pain is like sometimes. How can a pain be painful and numb at the same time? Well, it does, but it does sound a bit weird. The thing is amongst that collection – the CCC’s – is arthritis and that can cause stiffness and pain. But, not only do these other conditions cause me pain, it is known that Parkies causes stiffness in joints and in the body in general. It is difficult to know which is the primary cause and therefore find any treatment, if indeed there is any!

I had a follow-up with a member of the surgical team by phone today, catching up post-operatively to see if all was going well. He told me my scans were good, with nothing of concern showing up. That was good news, that my recovery seems to be on track. I do feel fortunate that although I do still have some back pain, it is manageable and not excruciating any more.

So, I told him about my funny foot and one of the things he responded with was along the lines of “Well at your age..” one of my favourite things for a doctor to say.. NOT! I can apparently expect to experience the joy of if not constant pain, at least frequent pain, if that is an improvement??!!??

Anyway, advice was to go and see my GP to check I have a pulse in my foot. I certainly hope so! I have made an appointment to see my GP and will see what he has to say. He, however, has been forewarned sometime ago, that if he started a sentence with “Well, at your age…” things would not go well. So, at least I shouldn’t have that line trotted out by him.

I suppose it is not unreasonable to expect some discomfort or pain due to the many conditions that inhabit my body. The trouble is, because it is so frequent and part of my ‘normal’ when someone asks me to rank it out of 10, I struggle because I have trained myself not to focus on it and just get on. So, as unhelpful as it may seem to be by those asking the question, I find it challenging giving it a ranking. I am truly not trying to be difficult!

So, this young 64-year-old will not necessarily accept the above-mentioned edict, I will continue to question any new pain and expect to have the usual response from my long-suffering husband. The response? When told of a new pain, he will often say something along the lines of “Oh, another one?!” Fair enough!

So, life is about managing symptoms and treating them regardless of their origin I guess. There are only so many medications you can take without it becoming a bit ridiculous. I might have to pay excess baggage when next we go overseas, just for the medications I am on…

Now that I’ve had a wee offload, I will endeavour to go back to not paying it too much attention.

Life is still good and pain will not be allowed to stop that being so.