On Mortality and Ageing

[Danny McG]

My chess partner, who I mentioned

One of my 'things' about chess is the actual pieces.
Whoever decided that a knight should be symbolised by a horse's head?
I mean it could at least have been a knightly helmet, maybe with a plume, or even a sword, but no!

Someone said
"I'll tell you what, let's get rid of the knight altogether, we can just use the head from his transportation"

 

[BAYLOR]

My chess partner, who I mentioned above having stage 5 prostate cancer, was given a drug that perfectly suited his condition. Originally he was given only a few years to live but now the symptoms have totally disappeared.

Unfortunately he now has bowel cancer and is having a section of his bowel removed in a few days.

His medical history is one of luck and bad luck.

On retiring as a teacher he retrained as a tree surgeon. He fell out of a tree and broke his spine. Surgery fixed him up ok wit a couple of steel rods.

Later during a checkup on his spine the x-ray revealed a cyst on one of his kidneys. It was removed.

Later a checkup revealed his prostate cancer. Drug treatment did the trick.

Now another checkup has revealed his bowel cancer.

It could be argued that if he hadn't fallen out if the tree he'd probably be dead by now.

Falling out the tree likely had nothing to do with the bowel cancer. A family history of cancer is a probable factor here. One thing I have heard on the subject of this type cancer is that smokers seem to be at risk for it.

As far as mortality is concerned , there are no guarantees whatsoever . You can do everything right in terms diet and exercise , reducing stress , not smoking or drinking , limit sun exposure, watch your weight , take vitamins and have regular check ups etc and still die at an early age and, you can do everything wrong and still end up living to a ripe old age .

 

[Montero]

True, but the do everything right probably does help quite a few people. And do everything wrong and live to a ripe old age - well there is always the possibility you could have lived even longer, or lived healthier to that old age. As you say with bowel cancer, there is still the genetic factor, as in it is thought that with some cancers there is a predisposition and to avoid the factors that trigger it seems wise. There may yet be other genetic factors to be found with all sorts of diseases. Living healthy and active into your old age is a target worth going for, not just the total in years.

By the way, on the subject of active, I'd like to recommend Stecco treatments - Home - Manipolazione Fasciale - it can be hard work to find a practitioner, because the Stecco Institute only advertise people who have taken all four levels of qualifications. For the UK, you have to search around podiatrists, physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths to find ones who've also trained in Fascial Manipulation (and avoid the Stucco websites...). What you are looking for is fascial manipulation and it will only be practiced by someone who has already trained in a hands on medical specialty that includes a thorough grounding in anatomy - as in physios etc as per earlier. There is also Fascial Relaxation which is not the same and is an alternative therapy. So having said that, what I am on about? Well, the deep fascia encloses the body and the organs and is an interwoven web of tissue. When you are injured, or even just from wear and tear, it can get bunched up into knots. That then restricts movement and makes it harder work. I've been having treatments for over a year, six points at a time (there are a lot of points) and it has made a massive difference for me in terms of bending down, walking, picking things up, twisting to the side - it is just easier, and far less tiring. I'm not at retirement age and in any case the practitioner I see was telling me about an 80+ y.o. who'd been struggling badly to walk upstairs, but after treatments to release the fascia around his hips and thighs, stairs were now easy. In the UK there are a limited number but gradually increasing. I gather there are a couple of training courses each year.

 

[Elckerlyc]

One of my 'things' about chess is the actual pieces.
Whoever decided that a knight should be symbolised by a horse's head?
I mean it could at least have been a knightly helmet, maybe with a plume, or even a sword, but no!

Someone said
"I'll tell you what, let's get rid of the knight altogether, we can just use the head from his transportation"

It might be the other way round. The knight not symbolised by a horse's head, but the horse's head associated with and named a knight.
The game (and I assume the way the pieces look as well) were 'invented' a long time ago. Before the very first knight. Or the first bishop.

In Dutch several pieces are called differently:
knight - horse
rook - tower
bishop - walker
The question is, what do the pieces really represent?

EDIT: Oops, sorry. Slightly of topic, except perhaps for chess, an age-old game.

 

[mosaix]

My chess partner, who I mentioned above having stage 5 prostate cancer, was given a drug that perfectly suited his condition. Originally he was given only a few years to live but now the symptoms have totally disappeared.

Unfortunately he now has bowel cancer and is having a section of his bowel removed in a few days.

His medical history is one of luck and bad luck.

On retiring as a teacher he retrained as a tree surgeon. He fell out of a tree and broke his spine. Surgery fixed him up ok wit a couple of steel rods.

Later during a checkup on his spine the x-ray revealed a cyst on one of his kidneys. It was removed.

Later a checkup revealed his prostate cancer. Drug treatment did the trick.

Now another checkup has revealed his bowel cancer.

It could be argued that if he hadn't fallen out if the tree he'd probably be dead by now.

More bad news for my chess partner. Diagnosed with a kidney tumour (removed surgically), then prostate cancer (fixed with a new wonder drug) then bowel cancer (surgery and a stoma fitted) he now has some spots on his liver - biopsy in a few days.

 

[mosaix]

Falling out the tree likely had nothing to do with the bowel cancer. A family history of cancer is a probable factor here. One thing I have heard on the subject of this type cancer is that smokers seem to be at risk for it.

As far as mortality is concerned , there are no guarantees whatsoever . You can do everything right in terms diet and exercise , reducing stress , not smoking or drinking , limit sun exposure, watch your weight , take vitamins and have regular check ups etc and still die at an early age and, you can do everything wrong and still end up living to a ripe old age .

Just seen this. I wasn't implying that falling out of the tree caused his bowel cancer @BAYLOR. My point was that falling out of the tree led to a series of scans that identified his bowel cancer.

But for his fall his subsequent diagnosies of kidney, prostate, bowel and now liver cancer may have been missed.

 

[Montero]

A girl I was at school with, barely knew her, fell over playing netball and broke her leg - and it was a minor fall. That led to the discovery she had bone cancer. (They amputated the entire leg, but it came back with a vengeance and she was gone a couple of months later. Aged 11 or 12.)

 

[BAYLOR]

Just seen this. I wasn't implying that falling out of the tree caused his bowel cancer @BAYLOR. My point was that falling out of the tree led to a series of scans that identified his bowel cancer.

But for his fall his subsequent diagnosies of kidney, prostate, bowel and now liver cancer may have been missed.

I do understand what you saying , you're absolutely correct and I apologize.

 

[BAYLOR]

A girl I was at school with, barely knew her, fell over playing netball and broke her leg - and it was a minor fall. That led to the discovery she had bone cancer. (They amputated the entire leg, but it came back with a vengeance and she was gone a couple of months later. Aged 11 or 12.)

There was couple that my father mother friends with . The wife was the lunch room monitor in my elementary school. One day while visiting she suddenly got a very sharp pain in her knee , it kept getting worse as the evening progressed. they left early . She went to the doctor , they ran tests and examined here and it revealed be bone cancer . She tried treatments but it did nothing , she lived a few short months and died. Her husband lived a few more years but he was never quite the same . There was some family history , Her mother had died from the same thing and years after , one of her daughters died from it too .

 

[mosaix]

I do understand what you saying , you're absolutely correct and I apologize.

Absolutely no apology required @BAYLOR.

 

[Karapace]

When I was invited to the local surgery for a ‘well man check’ a couple of years back the specific doctor I saw was not really enthusiastic about whole process. He told me that the three main things that determine life span are ‘your age, your parents and your gender. As long as you don’t smoke, keep relatively fit and look both ways before crossing the road then there’s not a lot more you can do.’

Kind of go with this too. I am pretty much in the same position as you. Fit, don't smoke, eat healthy (do drink a little) and parents died late (my aunt at 110) but I saw five friends die in close successon. I do think about death but more in an abstract way and am fairly sanguine about it. My philosophy is "Well I'm alive today and that's good"

 

[sknox]

Being alive beats being dead, but there are some aspects to age that range from annoying to downright disheartening. I'm 73, for context.

I've been reading extensively since I was quite young. My eyes are having problems. Macular degeneration in one eye that makes it noticeably harder to read. More generally, I just plain get tired. If it's a physical book, my eyes get tired, my hands get tired, my back starts to ache. I miss being able to lie on my stomach on my bed and read away the afternoon. Also, my attention wanders. I can read for an hour, but not for hours.

A similar set of complains attend the process of writing.

Being alive beats being dead, but it's not the dying that gets to me, it's the aging. Being a sedentary creature, I'm okay that I cannot run as fast, that outdoor camping does not appeal, that rock climbing holds no charm. It's that the things I've always loved, the things that are dear to me, come with more difficulty, arrive tardily, leave too soon. I don't long for youth, but I could do with a bit more endurance.

And better eyes. And better hearing. Oh what I wouldn't give to hear, just once more, the songs of my youth with young ears.

 

[mosaix]

More bad news for my chess partner. Diagnosed with a kidney tumour (removed surgically), then prostate cancer (fixed with a new wonder drug) then bowel cancer (surgery and a stoma fitted) he now has some spots on his liver - biopsy in a few days.

Biopsy with micro surgery not possible - position of spots too difficult to reach without possible damage to the liver causing bleeding. Apparently bleeding of the liver is difficult to stop.

He awaits further info from the surgeon.

 

[mosaix]

I'm probably older than most contributors here on the Chrons so I thought it might be worthwhile to pass on some of the affects of aging that I've been experiencing.

@nixie's post regarding mixing up words has triggered some more thoughts on my part.

I've already mention earlier in the thread about sight, hearing and smell deteriorating but there are things that can be done to lessen the affect of these. Other things can't be 'fixed' but just require patience.

One thing I've noticed recently is poor, what I refer to as, pattern matching. By that I mean finding something that is in plain sight but mixed up with other things - the contents of a drawer for example or most commonly in my case - on the top of my workbench. Maybe I'm looking for a pair of pliers amongst other tools such as spanners, screwdrivers, wire strippers, hammers, solder etc. I know the thing is there as I used it moments ago and I haven't moved away from the bench for a while. Some years back my brain would instantly pick out the shape of the tool that I required amongst the others. Not any longer. It takes minute or two to examine things in detail before the shape of the pliers emerges from all the other shapes.

Of course, the answer is to keep a much tidier worktop. But that involves remembering to put each and every tool back in its place as soon as I've finished with it rather than just putting it down randomly and if I could remember stuff I'd probably be forty years younger!

 

[Montero]

I have to say that I've been able to lose things in plain sight all my life. Sometimes it is because the picture in my head of what I am looking for is the wrong way round - like the handle is pointing in the opposite direction, or the handle of the screwdriver is red not blue. It is often when I am tired or distracted, but pattern recognition does fail me. My late mother used to refuse to look for things for more than about five minutes, on the grounds that "it'll turn up eventually". The things did. Sometimes several years too late.

 

[Ursa major]

I have to say that I've been able to lose things in plain sight all my life.

Same here...

...but that isn't my only "superpower": with a related "superpower", I can, in addition, absentmindedly** pick something up and just as absentmindedly put it down somewhere else... so when I haven't spotted something that is in plain sight, I then have the "opportunity" to waste even more time looking for it elsewhere.

This is also a problem when I'm doing a codeword puzzle. (To those who don't know, it's a crossword-like puzzle, but with no clues, only each letter identified by a number, from 1 to 26, with the identities of two or three of them being revealed from the start.)



** - Before I became self-employed (and later, retired), I used to do this with random (company-supplied) Bic pens, picking one up from the desk of a colleague I was talking to and then delivering it to the desk of the next colleague I spoke to (who may have been in a different office, or even a different building, on the company's site).

 

[Eyeball]

I'm probably older than most contributors here on the Chrons..

Oh yeah? I'm 76 years old, 'survivors' Bear Grylls and Ed Stafford have got a long way to go before they survive as long as us oldies..

 

[Eyeball]

I have to say that I've been able to lose things in plain sight all my life..

Me too but it got worse since I moved into a flat in the heart of Plymouth's spooky old cobbled lanes area because there were no less than 6 ghosts and things up and down the street at the last count, so if i lose anything I can blame it on a poltergeist..
Below: the council run guided 'Ghost Walks' for people interested in the paranormal; here's a group in my street, I keep meaning to prank them in some way; a ghostly illuminated face peering out of my window perhaps?-