A post US holiday greeting to you retirees and those who are thinking about retiring, and to you Grand Duke of the muck-ferrets, welcome to the Senior Forum. I guess retirement is what you can make of it.
I retired in 1996 due to health problems (emphysema) on social security. I went downhill health-wise through the stages of emphysema (COPD as it has come to be called) Diagnosed with stage 4, the final stage and told to get my affairs in order if they were not already. In 1999, I had a heart attack which weakened me further. I was getting my health care through the Veterans Administration and my doctor advised I get a civilian doctor as the VA doctors were not available on weekends and holidays, and I was prone to lung infections with a weakened immune system, so short of breath I could hardly get around the house.
My daughter, a nurse, recommended a young doctor who had been a lung therapist before becoming a M.D. The young doctor prescribed Pulmonary Rehabilitation at a local hospital. He also changed my medication. I improved, I got better, now thirteen, nearly fourteen years later, I still have my affairs in order. I don't get out and go too much, the grocery store, visit my son and his family, out to eat every once in a while. I do the dishes and a little house cleaning. I have lost one eye, I still drive, and life is good.
A recent visit to my lung doctor in OKC, revealed my last three FE1 breathing tests showed progressive improvement and he wanted to know what I was doing to achieve such results. He gave me an option of coming back to see him in six months or a year. I told him I'd see him next year. He said he couldn't do any thing further for me but to keep doing what I was doing.
All I do is hang out on the internet and blow and draw on a harmonica, stretching my lungs and diaphragm. I play a diatonic harmonica, a chromatic harmonica, a Hohner Echo harp, and I jam with my musician son, my grandson, and my ten year old grand-daughter who plays an upright bass.
I take life one day at a time. I don't spend more than I take in. My roommate has suffered some health problems and we help each other. I use a walker, one of those with wheels, and a cane sometime. Im on oxygen 24/7 but I have been for a long time and I keep adjusting to changing conditions and a changing world. Seems to me I've got it made in the shade, but miner is not a working retirement. Good luck to the rest of you whatever you decide.
