On being 66 without transplant, wcf

[Guest guest]

I turned 66 this year, and the shock nearly did me in. Somehow I made

it past 65 without a hitch, but 66--now that is OVER senior citizen, Me

dicare age, senior discount age and the ultimate, being referred to as

a " Lady! " for the first time ever--I assume that it was intended as a com

pliment. One would have to see me to realise how silly that one is. I

mean Dame Edna has a better claim to that one that do I. I wander around

here in California in T-shirts, short pants, tennis socks and what

for all intents and purposes look like " Girl Scout " shoes as the company

(SAS) no longer makes my huge size in " pretty colors. " I am a mother,

a grandmother, a godmother (no hassle here; they are not jews, but I

took my oath nonetheless), and live in a housing complex for seniors and the

disabled (since last December). Having given the good stuff to

my children and younger cousins, I live here with my computer, etc., tons of

books, the blender, the food processor, the Sacred Coffeepot,

a teapot and a fully equipped and supplied kitchen. We are not discus

sing the rest, though my attendant of 12 years dusts, vacuums and does

all the stuff that I cannot do because of arthritis, or as she calls it,

" Arthur

itis, " gigglingly. I have lived in this area so long that I know everyone

and their kids and their kids and vice versa, and I have changed varying

doctors more often than I have changed computers. I do have a land

telephone (no cell phone) and a car and I drive like mad.

So that's the real life stuff; I cannot use TOBI as it takes my voice per

manently and makes my chest hurt; ditto Pulmozyme--so I save Medicare a bit.

I take Albuterol so my doctor can sleep at night,

and hordes and hordes of pills, tablets and capsules, including

enzymes and vitamins etc. When I get really sick they throw me in the

hospital and put me on I.V.'s. They won't let me do them at home any

more for a variety of reasons, amongst them, allergies in the past.

I toddle on, wandering through the universe and am astonished that

Hal and I and Kathy and many others are still here. I do use

O2 at night--seems to perk me up--but don't use it during the day.

The point to all this senior citizen rambling is that life goes on and so

do I, and so may your child, if all does not fall apart medically in this

country. Here in California, I am baffled as to why they are trying to re-

call the best governer since my childhood, but I suppose Arnold Schwar

zeneger will prove interesting, if not exactly totally politically

sophisticated.

I still watch the Persiads, look at the full moon (right now), gawk at na

ture and have a fine time. I go out to dinner with friends and we find that

we have been there four hours--just chewing the fat, which is about all

the food is anyway. For me it has been a medically trauma-filled life,

but I had a great family of origin, all but my parents and eldest sister

still living, and heaps of cousins in their 70's wcf still toddling along,

too,

and those that do not have cf seem to live to between 102-106, for what

ever reason. My mother thought it was vegetables. My father thought

that it was beef. So, I eat stew, and here I am.

No big point here except to point out that dogs and cats and birds,

puppies and kitties and baby quail--these things make life real.

Love to all at conncoll and to cfparents, and to the newcommers--this is the

kind of drivel that they let me get away with on these lists.

n Rojas, mom of 3 INDIGNANT adults, grandmom of 6, " god

mother " to one, and without dogs or cats for the first time in my life,

which is why , my neighbor's cat, practically lives here. Now,

unless one of those Persiads hits us, things are o..k. for the moment!