Getting Old

My mom is doing much better.  She's actually walking with a walker now, with help, but moving about slowly, and hopefully at this rate, she'll be ready to come home soon.  She's still in a great deal of pain, but that's partially because she still needs surgery on her left hip.  She broke her left hip several months ago, she had surgery and it (putting in pins) didn't work.  Then before her scheduled re-surgery on her left hip, she broke her right hip and had emergency surgery on that hip.  After THAT surgery, it didn't go well and they had to go back in and replace the thing they put in her hip in the first place.  That's what she is recovering from now, but she still has to have surgery again on her left hip eventually.  She has really been through it. 

I found out today that Jason and the kids are coming to visit on Monday - I'm very excited!  He has the kids and the week off, so he wanted to come and see his grandparents.  I haven't told my mom - I want it to be a surprise.  She will love to see her great-grandchildren, and this will be the first time she's seen Jade.  And I can't wait to see my grandchildren!  I only wish my Ashanti was coming too.  But I'll see her in a few weeks at the end of July and I look forward to that.

I find it odd when I look in the mirror and I don't recognize who it is looking back at me anymore.  I remember what I looked like when I was young and somehow the person looking back at me now looks so unfamiliar.  It seems like it just happened one day and it's a very unusual feeling. 

I have these ugly red blotches on my face that I'm told is Rosacea. I mean, it looks like I have the measles or something. And then there is a vacant circle the dermatologist froze off which was some sort of skin cancer, right next to my nose. It's white but there are tiny red spots around it so it looks like ringworm. Of course it's not, but it does look strange. Where did my clear complexion go?  Albeit, that was over 40 years ago, but why couldn't it have stayed that way? And these awful brown spots on my arms just send me over the edge. They used to look like freckles, but now they're merging into one another and I have brown blotches all over (mostly) my right arm. I don't know why it's being selective, but I'm told they are "age spots." Great. Just another indication that I'm truly getting old. I could deny it as long as I want, but your body eventually shouts it out loud and clear.

But then, growing old isn't all bad. For me, it means I don't have to work any longer, it means that I have wonderful grandchildren to enjoy and not have to worry about supporting or raising, it means that I have friends and family I now have time to spend with, it means I can relax and choose to do whatever I want to do every day, and it means that I am just one step closer to heaven.  Yeah, getting old can be a real blessing as well.  I suppose it's all in the way I look at it...