A Personal Lesson in Elder Adaptability

In his first TGB Geriatrician column yesterday, Dr. Bill Thomas wrote about the new skill of adaptability old people develop as we accommodate the natural effects of gravity and time. That adaptability, he notes, is not a one-time achievement after which it’s all smooth sailing:

“An older person wakes up to a new body with new requirements and limitations not once,” he said, “but many times. This reality batters our relationship to the status quo.”

Over the past ten days, I’ve been having a close encounter with that reality in a big way, and I do feel battered.

During the two years since I moved to Maine, I have led a simple life. Awake early, I devote the greater portion of most days to whatever is necessary to produce this blog about aging. In good weather, I walk an hour a day or so, play with the cat as he demands and in the evenings, I read or watch a movie or putter around at whatever amuses me before bed at 9PM or 10PM.

When it became evident a few years ago that I could no longer tear through housecleaning in one morning a week without losing the rest of the day to exhaustion, I spread the work over time, one room a day. I’ve slowed down in recent years, but as Dr. Thomas discusses, I’ve adapted, and without much effort.

Routine is my friend, giving me the freedom to work hard when necessary and not overdo. When that routine is interrupted, as with a trip away from home or houseguests, I’ve been able, in the past, to accommodate the disruption by planning and pacing myself so that I can enjoy the interlude to the fullest without the need for excessive recuperative time.

This time it was different. My recent houseguest, an old friend I’d not seen in a long time, is younger than I by 20-odd years. We were up every evening until hours past midnight (we are both great talkers with a wide variety of interests) so that rising each morning became increasingly difficult for me and I tired earlier in the day. But I was loath to admit it to my friend, so I did not and kept going. Stupid.

Beyond stupid, in fact, because my friend had arrived after I had barely crawled out from under three days of excruciating back pain of no known origin which had kept me trapped in the apartment; the flight of stairs to the street may as well have been a sheer mountain cliff for my ability to get down them during those days.

So I had started the visit already exhausted and tried to behave over the four days as if I were 30 years younger than I am.

When I returned from dropping my friend at the train station Monday morning, I fell into bed and hardly moved from there until yesterday afternoon when I finally began to feel my normal self again. Now I am eager to see if I am recuperated enough to get through today without an hour or two time out later.

It is not my intention to give you a blow-by-blow of my recent distress. Instead, it is an opportunity to think out loud about the infirmities of age, how we deal with them - and Dr. Thomas’s first column on elder adaptation arrived in my inbox right on cue for that.

Until this past week, I had adapted easily to waning energy much as Dr. Thomas describes and without putting much thought to it. When difficulties with such as housework in one morning and late nights become evident, I have made the changes necessary to maintain a schedule I like. And when I travel by plane, an tiring endeavor these days (more particularly from Portland, Maine, from which there are direct flights to nowhere), I plug in rest time so that I can be sharp and smart when I need to be.

Dr. Thomas seems to say that adaptation is a quality that arrives naturally with age. That is apparently what happened to me in the past, but which I ignored last week. I behaved, through false pride in wanting to keep up with a much younger person, as though I am 37, not 67, and I paid for it with several days lost to the misery of zero energy this week.

I have been wondering, as I've rested a lot, if pushing myself beyond my limit is an artifact of the constant cultural pressure to pretend that we are not old and that we should not reveal to others that we – or, in this case, I – cannot do everything that was once possible. Maybe yes, maybe no, but I suspect it was, in addition to enjoying the visit, part of my reason.

It will not happen again. I have spent too many years now lobbying on this blog for acceptance of normal, natural aging to fall victim to indoctrinated bias against being old. In the future, I will allow myself to adapt as Dr. Thomas describes:

“As we age, we encounter an unexpected and highly significant rise in the power of adaptation. The emergence of adaptability is perhaps the most important and least acknowledged of the virtues of aging.”

Yes, IF you pay attention. I experienced that adaptability on my own long before I learned from Dr. Thomas that it is a common phenomenon. From now on, I will trust those instincts as I “watch and marvel," as he says, at my own and others' “miracle” of adapting to new realities.

[Postings at The Elder Storytelling Place will return on Monday.]

Pinnacle of Adaptation

[EDITORIAL NOTE: I am proud today to launch a new category at Time Goes By, The TGB Geriatrician. It's been a long time in planning and I'm proud that Dr. Bill Thomas has agreed to take on the duties of writing this column which will appear in the first and third weeks of each month.

Dr. Thomas is a world-renowned geriatrician and advocate for the dignity of elders. Long-time readers of TGB will be familiar with him from the many times I've quoted from his book What Are Old People For? You can find out more about Dr. Thomas here, and he also keeps his own daily blog, Changing Aging. I know you will welcome him to the TGB fold.]

I am excited about guest blogging here with Ronni Bennett. TGB is a terrific blog and if I can add something of value to this community, I will be happy.

I am a physician and my background is in Family Medicine and Geriatrics.

My approach to medical issues tends to focus more on the big questions of emphasis and interpretation and less on specific remedies. (Although I do get into that from time to time.) In medical school we used to joke that certain professors seemed to have favorite molecules that they studied exhaustively. That's never really been my thing.

What do I mean by big ideas? Well, how about this: I believe that older people are the healthiest people on the planet.

Huh?

Aren't old people sick most of the time? What about all of the billions of dollars we spend on Medicare? What about the statistics that show older people using the most health care resources per capita of any age group?

Those objections are valid, but they miss the deeper reality. In order to become an older person one must first have a healthy childhood, then it is on to decades of healthy adulthood. When the second half of life arrives, a person can already boast of a long span of very good health. The people who are really unhealthy, sadly, do not make it to old age.

Furthermore, statistics show that almost half of all Medicare expenditures are made in the last six months of life. Before the last six months, older people do pretty darn well.

It is true that the second half of life includes experiences related to loss, but it is also true that elderhood is not limited to these things. As we age, we encounter an unexpected and highly significant rise in the power of adaptation. The emergence of adaptability is perhaps the most important and least acknowledged of the virtues of aging.

The young grow accustomed to running faster and jumping higher with each passing year and the middle decades are marked by a struggle against the workings of gravity and time. Fortunately, elderhood provides us with new and supremely useful perspectives on flexibility and the reality of change over time.

An older person wakes up to a new body with new requirements and limitations not once, but many times. This reality batters our relationship to the status quo. Mental, physical and spiritual changes require elders to develop and deploy a string of enterprising strategies and subtle adaptations.

While it is true that muscles weaken in late life, it is also true that older people are less likely to report symptoms of depression than younger people. Hair may turn white, get thin and fall out but, when surveyed, older people often report an enhanced sense of wellbeing. We grow shorter rather than taller, our toenails turn yellow and our arches fall and still, many older people report that their health is good or even very good.

These seeming paradoxes are actually the fruits of adaptation which grow in tandem with and are nourished by the decline in physiological function.

A young man, transported magically into the body of his 80-year-old self would struggle to complete even the most basic tasks. Sitting, standing, dressing and walking would be difficult for him because the thoughtless ease of youth had left him ill-prepared for life in elderhood.

We need old age because it allows the body to instruct the mind in patience and forbearance while the mind tutors the body in creativity and flexibility.

Our culture discounts the fruits of aging. For example, we value (without even realizing that we are doing so) the long springy stride and narrow tandem gait of youth. The young trumpet their virtuosity, wearing preposterous shoes and paying no mind to the terrain underfoot. Actors and politicians have long understood how we unconsciously judge others by their stride. They lengthen and narrow their stride when they are in public and, in doing so, give the appearance of youth.

Trackers can easily determine a person's age by examining their footprints. Compared with the fluid stride of youth, the marks made by an older person can seem tentative and ungainly. This appearance is deceiving. The reality is that when elders walk, they execute a highly evolved, richly detailed strategy that maintains upright ambulation even into the last decades of life.

Old people alter their gait in specific ways that account for very real changes in strength, endurance, coordination, sensation and reaction time. The "shuffling gait" keeps the feet close to the ground and maximizes input from position sensors. The stance is widened to improve balance. The number of steps taken per minute is decreased to accommodate changes in endurance and to allow for increased reaction time.

Keeping a human body upright and moving is a spectacular feat of coordination and reaction under any circumstances. Doing so in the ninth decade of life magnifies rather than diminishes the beauty of this achievement.

When the world's best golfers come together to play a tournament, the course is lengthened and the rough deepened so that their skill might be tested fully. Olympic divers challenge themselves with the most difficult dives, not the easiest. The Tour-de-France includes the most taxing climbs on its route, including some that are rated as "beyond category" in difficulty.

When you see an old woman walking, you are witnessing a similarly exciting, high-level performance. This is a tightly choreographed ballet, the product of decades of refinement. Watch and marvel. Miracles are all around you, once you know where to look.

[NOTE: You are welcome to suggest topics for future columns of The TGB Geriatrician by leaving a note in the Comments section below or sending an email via the Contact link in the upper left corner of this page.]

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, an announcement.]

Still Old and Tired

Yesterday’s post was meant to be a place holder, not a health report, but I appreciate the good wishes from you all. Thank you, thank you and thank you. I’m feeling better, but not at full capacity yet, so I’m taking another day off.

Have you noticed as you’ve gotten older that whatever event or exertion took a night’s sleep to recover from 10, 15 or 20 years ago, now takes several days? And as much as you are ready to get on with living, there is nothing to do to speed it up – it takes as long as it takes.

So this post today is another place holder while I take some more time to catch up, but it comes with an important announcement:

Tomorrow, Wednesday, will be the debut of The TGB Geriatrician, a new, bi-monthly column written by Dr. Bill Thomas. You know him from his Chautauqua lecture posted to This Week in Elder News recently, mentions of his book, What Are Old People For?, over the years at this blog, and in a TGB interview last year.

Given my current need for patience while my body reminds me this week that I’m not the kid I used to be, Dr. Thomas’s first column tomorrow is intriguingly appropriate, as it will be to you too. Titled Pinnacle of Adaptation, it explains why old people are the healthiest age group on the planet.

I am excited and proud to have Dr. Bill Thomas join us at Time Goes By as The TGB Geriatrician, along with Jan Adams who covers Gay and Gray issues each month.

Please stop by tomorrow to read Dr. Thomas’s inaugural column and welcome him to the TGB family.

[There is no story at The Elder Storytelling Place today. That too will resume tomorrow, although you might want to stop by there if you haven’t caught up with the excellent collection of Mother’s Day stories from the past week.]

Feeling Old and Tired

Due to events of the past few days, I am slow of mind and body today, unexpectedly in need of quiet and solitude. Be back as soon as I can.

[At The Elder Storytelling Place today, a Mother’s Day extra – a great great grandmother story - titled, A Day for Dancing with Poseidon.]

For All You Mothers Out There

The final story in the week-long series for Mother’s Day is posted at The Elder Storytelling Place today: Happy Birthday, Mother. Where Are You?

This Week in Elder News: 10 May 2008

Because it has been an unexpectedly busy few days and I have a house guest, there is no This Week in Elder News today. It will resume next weekend.

But don’t forget the continuing Mother’s Day series at The Elder Storytelling Place where there are new stories today and tomorrow, Sunday. Today, Remembering Mom Mom McGarvey.

Elderblogger Survey - Part 5

I learned the hard way why there aren’t more write-in answers offered in professional surveys. One reason is how difficult it is to place them in a reasonable number of categories to make useful graphs. The other reason is the number of messages that instead of answering the question, take the surveyor to task for how the survey is constructed. The Crabby Old Lady in me pitched a minor fit about the second reason:

“Run your own damned survey if you can’t be polite about your critiqueing. Crabby spent several full days creating it, making graphs and sorting answers like yours that didn’t make it easy and screwed with the statistics.

“And to those who wrote in “none of the above” – ahem, that’s what the text box is for: an answer not available in the choices.”

Do I wish I’d asked some questions differently, or supplied other choices. Sure. I learned a lot about what is needed for graphing answers, and a lot about how people answer open questions. Future surveys will be better.

As to the data itself, what stands out for me is elder use of technology. That so many of us taught ourselves to use computers and use so many other modern devices should put to rest the media’s love affair with the idea that elders are technology-phobic or idiots about it.

It helps, no doubt, that we’re an intelligent bunch with a lot of higher education, but I’m not the only elder who went no further than high school who does well with technology – at least when I see a reason for it and it enhances my life. I have no need for Twitter or text-messaging, and I was grateful to give up the interruptions of instant messaging when I left the workforce.

I am surprised at how many live on farms or in rural areas – one-fifth. I didn’t expect that. And I am concerned about the 25 percent living on less than $25,000 a year. I have no mortgage or car payment, carry no other debt and have no costly diseases or conditions, but that cannot be true of everyone in the low-income category, and when I see estimates for the price of heating oil next winter, not to mention sticker shock at the grocery store recently, I wonder how we will manage.

Although I suspected it, I'm disappointed at how white we are. It would be good to have more diverse input as certainly there are assumptions, ideas and nuances about getting old, ageism, politics, healthcare and public policy in regard to aging that we are unaware of and are not considering as we might.

Those are the standout results for me. Now that all the results have been posted, I wonder what your overall impressions are.

As some of you noted (and I appreciate the appreciation), running this survey and preparing it for prime time was a lot of work. I woke suddenly at 2AM Monday morning realizing that I’d screwed up the layout of the graphs for most of the questions including all of them for the first post that day, and spent the next few hours making the fixes. Nevertheless, I enjoyed pulling it together and some ideas for more surveys came to mind while I was doing it.

But I would also like to hear from you. What topics would you like to have surveyed? I’m paying some minor bucks for this polling service so we may as well get our money’s worth, and it’s fun to see what we’re thinking and doing. Plus, I’ve developed some routines now for getting the slog work done and it won’t be so time-consuming in the future.

Thank you all for taking the survey and for your enthusiasm for it.

The ElderBlogger Survey - Part 1
The ElderBlogger Survey - Part 2
The ElderBlogger Survey - Part 3
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 4

[Continuing in the Mother's Day series at The Elder Storytelling Place today, A Mother's Goodbye.]

Elderblogger Survey - Part 4

Today, the final group of findings from The Elderbloggers Survey is all about blogs and blogging. It is the longest section, but graphs are easy to read.

Before we get started, here again is the standard reminder about this Survey:

• It is not balanced against the general population


• It is not balanced against even the elder population


• Respondents are self-selected, so not a representative sample


• Therefore, the survey has no statistical validity

Nevertheless, because the survey was distributed mostly among elderbloggers themselves and other elders who read blogs, we can get a bit of an idea of who we are and what we are like, particularly in relation to one another of us who took the survey. 373 responses unless otherwise noted in parentheses following the question.

36. How did you find out about blogs and blogging?

“Other” includes such sources as television, offline classes, and work.

37. How much do you participate in blogging?
More than one answer was allowed.

38. What method do you most often use to read blogs?

39. How long have you been reading blogs regularly?

40. How much time do you spend reading/commenting on blogs?

41. How many blogs are on your regular must-read list? (371)

42. Why do you read blogs?
This is a tough question to graph because 56 write-in answers were difficult to categorize. Some of the groups into which I put those answers are fairly arbitrary, but some order had to be put to it not have dozens of categories.

For lack of space on the graph, some answer choices are shortened and may not make sense, so here are those two full answers: To connect with others/friendship and To be part of a community.

The “other” category contains five answers each under what I termed “to learn about the human condition” and “inspiration.” Some fell into categories with fewer than five responses:

Find opinions
Stay informed
Read stories
Help others
Personal validation
Promote my art
Writing

43. How long have you been blogging? (263)

44. How many blogs do you regularly publish? (244)

45. What blog platform do you use? (210)
Quite a number of respondents wrote in WordPress only in the text box not distinguishing between .com and .org, which are different platforms, so I combined them all into WordPress.

In the “Other” category, one each for Drupal, Greymatter, Tinderbox, OpenDiary and Hurricane Electric (which appears to be a hosting service), along with one answering “I don’t know.”

46. On average, how often do you post to your blog(s)? (199)

47. How would you describe your main blog? (205)
This question contained a text box for respondents to enter other answers. All but one (link blog) could be categorized with the other choices, which I’ve done.

48. On average, how much time do you spend preparing a blog post? (207)
Don’t even ask how long it took me to prepare these survey posts with all the graphs; it’s way off the scale.

49. Why do you blog? (Check all that apply) (209)
There are almost as many reasons for blogging as there are respondents. Multiple choices were allowed as well as write-in answers. Some write-ins matched the categories given and were folded into the percentages in the graphs. To make the results more easily readable, they are divided into two graphs with answers in descending order of popularity.

There were so many interesting individual answers that didn’t fit categories, I’m listing them for us:

To store sites I like
Publish my writing
As a spiritual practice
To inform family (avoid email) of what I’m doing
Show my photos
Links to websites
Share my gratitude
Job duty
Feel good
Understand blog technology
To share thoughts
Entertain
To remember after a stroke
Addicted to blogging
To rant and vent

50. Right now, as you take this survey, how interested are you in continuing to keep your blog(s)? (208)
Some write-in answers that did not address the question have been placed in the “other” category. Some write-ins closely matched categories and have been folded in. A handful of people had answers that did not match categories:

I’m quitting, but I may return
I’m committed to blogging, but don’t match categories
I may post less often now

Here are the main responses. Although there are only eight categories, I’ve divided them into two graphs because some answers can’t be easily abbreviated.

51. Have you met people through blogging whom you now consider to be friends? (187)

52. How do your blog relationships compare to real-world friendships? (373)

53. Have you met any blog friends in person? (373)
This was a multiple choice question.

54. Thinking of one blog friend you have met (if you have), how did it work out? (116)

55. How much do you trust the information you read on ELDERblogs? (373)

56. Do you specifically seek out blogs written by elders? (365)

57. Do you read Time Goes By regularly? (373)

Tomorrow, in the final post about the Elderbloggers Survey, some commentary.

The ElderBlogger Survey - Part 1
The ElderBlogger Survey - Part 2
The ElderBlogger Survey - Part 3
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 5

[In the continuing Mother’s Day series at The Elder Storytelling Place today, A Mother’s Last Best Lesson.]

Elderblogger Survey - Part 3

Today, day three of The Elderblogger Survey results, we’ll take a look at the questions about technology and the internet.

Before we get started, here’s the standard reminder about this Survey:

• It is not balanced against the general population


• It is not balanced against even the elder population


• Respondents are self-selected, so not a representative sample


• Therefore, the survey has no statistical validity

Nevertheless, because the survey was distributed mostly among elderbloggers themselves and other elders who read blogs, we can get a bit of an idea of who we are and what we are like.

390 people responded to today's questions unless otherwise noted at the end of a question in parentheses.

26. What kind of telephone(s) do you use? (Check all that apply)

27. What kind is your primary computer?
Two answers fall outside the graph numbers. One person uses a computer of unknown type at the library and another uses all.

28. How did you learn to use a computer?

29. How long have you been using a computer?

30. What is your level of computer proficiency?

31. What other electronic equipment do you use?
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that elders don’t or can’t keep up with new technology. We are using a lot of electronic stuff. iPod on the graph is shorthand for any type of handheld music or video player. I singled out Wii from other game systems in the survey because it has become so popular at retirement communities. To make the graph more readable, I've divided it into two parts. Multiple answers were allowed.

One or two people each wrote in additional electronics that are not included in the percentages above:

Satellite radio
Broadcast radio
Ham radio
Stereo
E-reader
Heart Rate monitor
OnStar

I did not include write-ins of DVRs, Tivo and DVD/video players because undoubtedly others who checked TV also use those technologies, and as they were not listed as choices in the survey the numbers are not useful.

32. How long have you been using the internet? (388)

33. What is the speed of your internet connection? (388)
Most of us are using the fastest speed possible to get to the internet. I feel for the 6.4 percent of you still on dialup and hope you will be able to upgrade soon. “Other” includes a few users on FiOS, wireless, satellite and one person with microwave.

34. How do you spend your personal online time? (388)
Multiple choices here and we’re all doing a lot of different things, although I didn’t list and no one wrote in online sex, which is the most popular search term. Due to so many choices, I’ve split the graphs into three to be more readable, showing activities in descending order of popularity in the survey.

Other activities with fewer than five responses each include: politics, radio listening, instant messaging, reading books, politics, message boards, investing, job search, translation and karaoke.

35. What social media do you regularly use? (388)
Multiple choices were possible. It’s hard to define social media these days. Facebook, MySpace and Twitter – which I think of as group grope sites – come to mind first after blogs, but respondents had a wider definition than mine. Many listed membership in special interest groups on Yahoo! and message boards which I’ve folded into chat rooms/forums.

If the labels are too small, they read, left to right: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Chat/Forums, Blogs, Sr. Sites, LinkedIn and Other.

Included in "Other" activities with fewer than five responses each: Flickr, YouTube, instant messaging, BlogHer, Second Life and ShoutLife.

One last group of results will be published tomorrow – blogging.

The Elderblogger Survey – Part 1
The Elderblogger Survey – Part 2
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 4
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 5

[Continuing the Mother’s Day series this week at The Elder Storytelling Place today, a story titled simply, My Mom.]

Elderblogger Survey - Part 2

Today, day two of The Elderblogger Survey results, we’ll take a look at the questions about Living Arrangements, Employment and Financial Condition.

Before we get started, here’s the standard reminder about this Survey:

• It is not balanced against the general population


• It is not balanced against even the elder population


• Respondents are self-selected, so not a representative sample


• Therefore, the survey has no statistical validity

Nevertheless, because the survey was distributed mostly among elderbloggers themselves and other elders who read blogs, we can get a bit of an idea of who we are and what we are like.

Today, we can further refine the description of an average elderblogger to a woman who lives in a small city in the U.S. with her spouse or partner and a cat. She is retired, lives in a house she owns and has an income in the mid-five figures.

(A total of 402 people participated in the survey, but some did not answer all the questions. In today's group, there are 390 respondents unless noted otherwise in parentheses at the end of a question.)

13. What country do you live in?
We overwhelming live in the U.S., but I am surprised and pleased to see how many other countries are represented even if only by one or two people each.

Other countries with either one or two residents:

Austria -1
Denmark – 1
France – 2
Germany – 2
India – 1
Israel - .5 (lives in U.S. half the year)
Italy – 1
Mexico- 1
Northern Ireland – 1
South Africa – 1
Sweden - 1
Switzerland -1
Turkey - 1

14. What size city do you live in?

15. What kind of housing do you live in?
Write-in answers were allowed. I’ve folded answers of co-housing (one) and condo into apartments because I was looking to distinguish between single-family homes and multiple-person dwellings.

16. Do you own or rent your home?

17. With whom do you live?
Multiple answers were allowed.

18. Are you a full- or part-time caregiver? If so, to whom?
The total is larger than 100 percent as multiple choices were allowed.

19. Do You Keep a pet or pets?

20. If you keep pets, what kind do you have? (257)
Multiple choices were allowed for this question. “Other” pets include hamster, chinchilla, guinea pig, ferret, mice, turtle, and rabbits. Farm animals include horses, chickens, goats, oxen, cows and ducks, some as working/producing animals and others as pets.

21. What is your employment status? (390)

22. If you work, how many hours a week do you do so? (260)

23. Do you do volunteer work? (If so, how many hours per week?) (390)

24. What is your annual gross income (in U.S. dollars)? (390)

25. What Are Your Sources of Income? (390)
This was a multiple choice question so results add up to more than 100 percent. I’ve folded all sources of earnings – commissions, freelance fees, book residuals, sale of artwork, etc. into salary, and such income as property rentals and royalties from mineral rights into investments.

Remaining in the “other” category of income sources are a few such as alimony, and “private.” I don’t know if private means, “I won't tell you” or if it might be something more – well, interesting. My favorite “other” answers of one each are none, gambling and gifts. None is intriguing, gambling undoubtedly has its ups and downs over time, and gifts leaves open a lot of questions.

Tomorrow we’ll look into our use of technology and the internet.

The Elderblogger Survey - Part 1
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 3
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 4
The Elderblogger Survey - Part 5

[The week of Mother’s Day stories continues at The Elder Storytelling Place today with The Best She Could.]