The Great one turns 50
Yup, Wayne Gretzky is hitting the big five oh. I didn't start this because of hockey, but because we all hit that milestone, if we live long enough. This is a public awareness thread because I care about my fellow beings. I may come across as older than I am, but I only turned 49 last month, for the umpteenth time, and will again for the next few years at the same time, until I start turning 59. I don't feel old, but I feel like I have lived three lifetimes. I have done a lot in this time though I have little in material possessions to account for it. Many of our friends are well into their 60's and 70's, I guess because my wife and I can seem to relate. I have my coveted Glenn Miller 78's and enjoy doses of big band and such.
Again, that is not what I am getting at; the 50's seem to be the most dangerous for us men, and probably women. A cousin of mine died of a heart attack many years ago while hunting, he was in his early fifties. A friend and co-worker retired early, at 54, and succumed to cancer, (the same type I had at the time though I was ten years his junior) at 56. Another co-worker, who I worked with in the bush nearly 30 years ago, who I also credit for saving my soul, and who never smoked and only drank on accasion , was a part time preacher and got many street people off the streets, aslo passed at 53. Another co-worker and fellow union rep, who regarded partying as a normal way of life, also passed recently at 51. And most recently another younger cousin died suddenly from a heart attack at 51. Those are only a few the casualties I could recount, there are many others, and they are all men, though I have had two women cousins pass at an early age. The women folk in my extended family are gifted with longevity. My mum turns 80 in a couple of months and is still pretty sharp.
I bring this up because I survived cancer in my 40's, and have been screened ever since. I have two doctors, one is my family doctor, the other is our Transport Canada doctor. I have to get a medical every 6 months, and the last two have turned up some anomalies. I have been tested a lot since June of this year. Yesterday I had a cyctoscopy, and ladies, neither a PAP smear nor getting your boobs squeezed in a vice is as uncomfortable or invasive. I have had three colonoscopies, the worst part of that is the prep, where you can't eat for 24 hours and have to crap every twenty minutes. The procedure is the anticlimax. With the cyctocopy the discomfort starts at the procedure and ends... well... I'll let you know. I am so far clean, though I have more, (less invasive) tests to endure, but I pretty much know what ails me, and it is genetic and there is no cure, but it is managable.
But by all means folks, get yourself tested, especially when you hit that magic decade. It seems that if you can get through it you can live to a ripe old age and enjoy your grandkids.
