Griping

Hi - Anyone bored enough to trade being 50 or younger for 71?   I'm offerring good rates; I'll hardly charge anything in exchange for 20+ years of life-experience...

I'm beginning to feel like a clone in a sci-fi movie that is wearing out.  Don't worry, this is all just a gripe; not depression.  I'm happy enough with life not to feel depressed.  But things are creeping up on me.

I'm tired of the muscle cramps.  Oh sure, they happen sometimes even when you are younger when you over-exert yourself, and that is normal.  Around 60, they started getting a little more common, but still mostly when I did too much yardwork.  You hold a shovel tightly enough while digging, a cramp a few hours later isn't that odd.  I push myself a lot.

Living alone means having to do "necessary things" that would be better off with 2 people doing it.  

I suppose an equation would be:  Doing 2x times 2y projects times AgeZ = 2 cramps...  OUCH!

It is almost becoming a daily routine.  I go outside and do some yardwork.  I've gotten smart enough to take breaks after 1/2 hour, wear padded gloves, apply some muscle rub...  MOST days are OK.  But more often lately, preparing dinner a few hours later results in hand cramps as I grip knives to cut veggies and meat and hold a wok spatula, etc.  And if I apply a muscle ointment then, the knife handles are hard to hold.

And sometimes the surface muscles on one side of my ribs or the other will cramp.  That's the least ones.  Bending over slightly and waving my arms below me resolves that in a few minutes.  Definitely not heart problems.  Very surface and no dizziness or other discomfort.  

But night-time is getting worse.  There can be any of several kinds of muscle cramps when I lay in bed.  The least is when the ankle muscles "harden".  It doesn't actually hurt, but it is annoying.  Next are the calf muscles.  That hurts some, but I can stretch my foot back and forth and it stops in a minute.

The backside thigh muscles (hamstring?) are the bad ones.  I will suddenly wake up feeling a cramp that feels like the muscle will tear loose from the bone.  I have to walk around for 15-20 minutes before it stops.  Sometimes I'm lucky enough to be awake and feel the first pull and I jump out of bed before it gets worse.

I saw a basketball game once where a player had that cramp and use a rolling stick to press along the muscle like using a rolling pin.  I bought one.  It is hard to use on yourself...  So I walk around until it goes away.

There isn't much connection between yardwork and that cramp.  And it isn't like I sleep all pulled together with my legs pulled up tightly.  My cats sleep against me (which limits my movement sometimes), but it happens without them around me too.

I may get dehydrated.  I'm sometimes very good about drinking a lot of water, but then forget for a while.  But I typically get a lot of water from meals.  My first meal of the day typically is a sandwich with a mug of green tea, a mug of milk, some small amount of Coke, and celery, cucumber, carrot; so that's a fair amount of water.  After I work outside, I often drink a pint of water and-or Gatorade.  

Dinner and dessert involves a fair amount of water.  I eat a lot of fresh veggies and they are mostly water (meat is usually about 3 ozs).  Dessert is always assorted fresh fruit and lots of it.  Aside from keeping me from drinking that 3rd glass of wine, I'll enjoy a peach, a plum, a handful of grapes, some cherries, apple slices, some melon cubes, and  they are mostly water.  

I may be alternating between hard work and sitting too much.  Daytime means outside or inside work;  evening means watching TV or being on the computer.  When I sit in the easy chair to make a lap for the cats, I put an ankle onto the other leg.  And shift legs when one feels stiff.  My right knee is getting worse.  Maybe I am warping my legs indulging The Mews.

Maybe I should start taking a walk down the street after drinking a pint of Gatorade.  And standing more instead of sitting.  I've been a "stander" in the past; sitting is new.  I was a "stander" in my office whenever I had the chance.  Really, I spent a lot of time on the telephone and got a long cord so I could pace back and forth.  Maybe it would be good to get back into that habit.

I feel too young to be old...

Gripe...