Get Well!

Good buddy of mine had a health scare over the weekend and he is facing some rest and recovery after his successful surgery that is coming up in a few days.

It’s all that’s been on my mind, and it shocked me when I heard that he was facing the battle because I’ve known him since we were kids, and it’s like it suddenly dawned on me that we are at that age where health scares can be the top story on the news of the day.

“There’s a few things I should think about cleaning up,” I said. 

“What do you mean?” Kathy asked.

“I haven’t had the best diet,” I said. “My sleep patterns aren’t tremendous. Too much pressure every day.”

Those are the things you think about when you hear news of someone else being sick.

There’s a lot that goes into a person’s general health.

Diet and bad habits are part of the equation for sure.

A lot of what were bad habits are in the rear-view. I don’t drink more than a dozen drinks a year. I’ve never been a smoker, but use tobacco.

I’m not stagnant because my job makes me move and climb and walk and walk and walk.

No meds for cholesterol or high blood pressure. I’m definitely not sickly.

At my physical at the end of the year the doc told me that I had a pretty clean record.

“How do you feel?” She asked.

“I’ve been tired since the late 80’s,” I said.

And I don’t always sleep perfectly. A bit of insomnia that strikes here and there every couple of months or so.

Lasts a few days. I’ve often wondered about the sleep apnea thing.

But the dread is in knowing that the human body eventually wears out.

Muscles and tendons get tired.

And we are reaching the age where a lot of people who make the obit page...

...are younger than me!

That’s not how you want to make the paper.

But I often think of the old Redd Foxx line where he spoke of physical fitness nuts who watch everything they eat, run for miles each morning, and stay away from red meat, alcohol and cigarettes.

“Some day they’ll be laying in a hospital bed, dying of nothing.”

I’m often very fond of saying that I’m going to be the first person to get out alive.

But I’ve lived long enough to be shocked by health ailments that have knocked down good men and women.

I have no worries that my buddy will be fixed up and as good as new very quickly.

But man, a little concerned about the next 20 years and those visits to the docs where the annual physical doesn’t go quite so smoothly.

This goes out to my lifelong friend...

...and to all others who are battling...

...feel better!