‘The ailments that run my life: I feel like an old car in need of new parts’

It takes a bit of work to get up to the computer to write a blog; it’s not easy picking a subject and thoughts keep going through my head. I often don’t know what I am going to actually say or blog about but eventually it all comes together and the writing starts.

A little about me: I’m in my 70s have had an interesting life with many ups and downs (like everyone else), and I feel honoured to have made it this far thanks to a lot of fortitude and general guts. I’ve been unwell for the past 20 years and it has been a trial. I’ve had cancer three times and it’s never managed to get me (thank the Lord), but it is a consideration when you have to take many pills and see surgeons constantly.

I am also a type 2 diabetic so that has to be managed as well. Body maintenance takes up a big part of my day but its worth it, I’m still here and fighting fit so to speak.

I’m off to see the colposcopy clinic surgeon in the coming weeks and am not looking forward to that encounter at all. The procedure is uncomfortable to say the least. Hopefully I’ll have a friend to take me this time. I usually go with the Driving Miss Daisy franchise driver, who sits in the waiting room for my entire consultation and then drives me home. I am agoraphobic so I cannot go anywhere on my own, hence she comes in with me. My friend, if she can take me, will at least be able to come into the consultation to hold my hand whilst its done.

I have so many different things wrong with me I wonder how I survive each day. I take hands full of pills and medications for just about anything you can think of, plus an insulin pen. By God it’s tough to jab yourself with a tiny needle every morning. It takes guts and a deep breath, but it has to be done or evidently I’ll end up six-feet under fairly quickly.

Currently the newest health issue for the GP is the excess water in my feet and ankles – makes for tight fitting shoes and they throb a little bit when I walk (which isn’t very far if I can help it) so I’ll probably be up for another pill. I’ll be calling him tomorrow to see if he wants to prescribe one for it. I also had a bone density scan, which turned out to be a bad one so the GP has ordered me an infusion and then more pills for the rest of my life. Evidently if I fall over it’s one in 12 that I will break my hip and that’s evidently a high number. I suppose at some point I’ll be doing the one-and-a-half-hour transfusion and then a pill regime – I’ll just add it to the others I take.

This blog was supposed to be about blogging and how I do it – well as you can tell I’m just rambling on about my body and personal life – which for most would be not in the least bit interesting but its my daily grind and I do it with pleasure otherwise I would go down hill pretty quickly – so I’ve been told.

I feel like an old car that has been put in a garage for the past 20 years with no maintenance done to it at all and now it needs a new this, that and the other plus a full new set of body parts.

Living alone means I don’t get to see many people other than my daily caregivers and I have hours to fill in during the day. I often listen to music and watch far too much Netflix, Acorn and Neon for my own good but it does keep the boredom down to a minimum. Oh my God, have they got some raunchy stuff on Netflix! It’s often enough to make me blush! But I do watch it and often laugh at how they portray other human behaviour.

I have one friend I talk to every day and she and I can blather for over two hours sometimes. I don’t know what we have to talk about as she also lives alone but we manage to right the wrongs of the past and make plans for the world’s future every day, and that’s enough for me for now.