99.5 and Still Counting

I imagine at some time during our lives some of us look at the stages of aging and how we perceive them. For example, when we're about 3 - 7, the one-half a year is important. We want to feel older so we say our age is 4 and one-half or six and one-half. Yes, we want to be older but for no particular reason. We arrive in our teens and we want to immediately become older so we can drive, drink a beer and make our own decisions.

Then we hit the famous middle ages and don't put as much emphasis on our age. We're usually too busy with other things and we don't look in the rear view mirror and see that age is creeping up on us. And then comes the time when we begin to think about retiring and a bolt out of the blue makes us realize we are getting older. Sometimes we find it difficult to accept this fact and wish we could be younger. Heck, this can't be true. We've only completed 50 percent of the items in our bucket list.

But there is one redeeming fact, we're retired and can revert to our days as a teenager. And then, after several years we finally admit we are getting old and we find ourselves really enjoying life. We have swapped the bullet train for the slow local train and we again count that one-half year to our age just as we did many, many years ago.

We often forget that each day is a gift. Some days may appear to be a huge box filled with every thing we want, wrapped with beautiful paper and tied with a bright orange ribbon. Other days may look like the box came from the trash dump, is completely empty and with a bad odor. How fortunate we are to have the opportunity to make every day a day to remember regardless of what we are dealt.

ICATiger

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Gotcha beat by a little 50 & 360/365th

May 26, 2021, 4:10 PM

But mine has come with a battle. October 13th, 2010, 40yrs old in London for work, and dermatologist from Greenville calls and says, "Sorry, I have bad news! You have Melanoma and you are scheduled for dissection incision surgery in 5days!" Surgery happens and they remove a 2cm x 7cm piece of skin off my neck. Unfortunately, the oncology surgeon, who was a Coot and wore a Coot scrub beenie into surgery, didn't read the staging report accurately from lab and didn't realize that the 3-5 closest lymph nodes needed to be removed for safety and for testing which would determine my future treatment. Since this didn't happen, my oncologist (not surgeon) said we were in a wait to see status as further treatment couldn't be prescribed without knowing if cancer had traveled.

That said, November 2011, I am in Vegas, again working and i notice a sore nodule on my neck. Call my oncologist, immediate biopsies are pulled and they confirmed Metastatic Melanoma. Surgery scheduled for Jan 2nd, 2012 for dissection, exploratory and tissue removal to include saliva gland with immediate radiation treatments to neck region which killed every taste bud on my tongue. Then came 7yrs and 5 different types of chemo as the metastatic melanoma continued to move into lungs with multiple tumors and into my adrenal gland.

In 2012, the Dr's primary nurse practitioner that kind of handheld patients to walk them through processes told me that my normal prognosis at that time is 6-9mos, and that I needed to have my Will prepared and assets directed properly and they had a support staff to help with all that.

Needless to say, I turn 51 next week, so I learned the lesson that half years mean a lot, and unfortunately I learned the lesson the hard way, I learned it at much younger age than most but I am happy for every birthday, everyday at this point. I am not cancer-free today. Still have 2 small tumors in lungs that are being quite difficult to manage and some treatment is in my near future again.

But Joe, I admire you with your wit, your stories, you are much more cognitive than several posters on this site and always enjoy your posts and interaction.

HAPPY 99.5 JOE! I will be proud to say I am 51, a hard fought 51 next week! Wish so many others could be happy with life, realize that it isn't a guarantee. To much hate in world today, with people bored in their miserable lives that they want others to be miserable as well, while we fight to see the next half year, and happy to see it!!! Cheers!

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Keep those halves coming Joe

This is a VERY good post....

I'm 50 & 7/8ths

Gotcha beat by a little 50 & 360/365th

Re: 99.5 and Still Counting

Re: 99.5 and Still Counting

Joe, my secret to aging well

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