{"id":4794,"date":"2026-07-31T10:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/askmrsmom.com\/?p=4794"},"modified":"2026-07-31T10:03:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:03:31","slug":"as-we-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/askmrsmom.com\/?p=4794","title":{"rendered":"“As we age”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

As we age.\u00a0 This new phrase has drifted into my stratosphere over the last year or so. At first it was like a distant planet orbiting far, far away.\u00a0 I heard it occasionally. I read it in health blogs. But gradually it moved closer until suddenly it became the opening line to one sentence after another.<\/p>\n

I would go to a doctor about some new ache or pain, and the conversation invariably began with the same three words: “As we age…” At first it was in reference to senile purpuras (don’t even get me started on the name alone) those pesky ugly little bruises that blossom instantaneously if we bump an elbow entering a doorway or hang a shopping bag too long on a forearm. But, back to the doctor. What is this royal “we”? He is barely out of diapers, a mere forty or fifty.\u00a0 Still young enough to state his birth year without doing subtraction. He doesn’t get a purpura simply by carrying groceries. So who exactly is “we”?\u00a0 Not that I prefer “as YOU age”, but how about saying with maturity? Or with longevity? I will take that. That implies living beyond tomorrow.<\/p>\n

This reference seems to be coming to me from all sides. Food choices, hours of sleep, exercise routines. For instance, when did how to get off the floor without using my hands become my number one workout recommendation? Ten years ago, yoga stances went from the floor to stand up.\u00a0 Simply become erect with no instruction how to get there. I mean, throw me a rope but don’t assume I will be prone for the rest of the class.<\/p>\n

There are a few advantages to “as we age.” We get senior discounts at hotels, movies and on airline tickets.\u00a0 We have a senior discount day at my local grocery store. At first, I was too proud to accept them or if I did I wanted someone to look at me and say, “Oh you can’t be over 62.”\u00a0 Similarly, I used to tell people how many grandchildren I have and the response would be,\u00a0 “You are a grendmother?!”\u00a0 Now folks just ask me how many.<\/p>\n

When it started, it only happened occasionally.\u00a0 In the liquor store, the checkout person would wink and ask to see my ID.\u00a0 Now they don’t even bother asking. Or perhaps they assume anyone still buying alcohol is from another era now that science keeps nudging us toward CBD and THC.\u00a0 I am sure they are gentler to your liver but they are just not as convivial.\u00a0 I understand abstinace is the current drug of choice, but an old girl can have at least one vice.<\/p>\n

So one way I handle my evidently “old age” is to defy it.\u00a0 I did an hour of yoga (including lying down and rising) this morning and walked five miles this evening with my other aging friends.\u00a0 I do word games in the New York Times. I still finish Wordle most days. I have to say, Connections has become a young person’s game. Half the time I have to Google what the words refer to before I can even try to connect them.<\/p>\n

Then I had an experience that made me rethink one of my own assumptions. I tripped on the sidewalk a week before Thanksgiving and caught my entire body weight with my face because I was reaching in my pocket for my gloves. Now this fall had nothing to do with age. Just a loose piece of cement on my sidewalk.\u00a0 But I needed to have an emergency nose job as it was definitely ascew between my two immediate black eyes and a face that looked like the street cleaner had used me instead of a brush.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I was referred to a forty-something doctor who quickly worked me in his schedule. After looking at my face he asked for my license–not for my age but to see what my nose actually was supposed to look like. He offered to operate the night before Thanksgiving.\u00a0 I thanked him, after this no more than five minute consult, and said I would see him Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Then the morning of, I felt a little hesitant about going under for the knife with a doctor I knew nothing about. I am the uncrowned queen of researching doctors to an excruciating level of tedium. So I called his office and asked if he could possibly speak to him before surgery, thinking he might stop by in the hospital.<\/p>\n

An hour later, he called me saying he was told I had some questions. Without pausing I said, “Do you mind telling me something about yourself? Where did you go to med school?\u00a0 What is your specialty? How many of these operations do you do a year? ” With no arrogance, no hesitation, he led with, “Good questions. If I were having surgery I would ask the same.”\u00a0 He explained he performs nasal surgery at least 150 times a year and did a five year fellowship in the specialty before entering practice. He wasn’t defensive. He didn’t move the conversation to how his extensive expertise would apply to fixing my nose. He did not close with, “As we age, these things happen.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps that’s one of the unexpected gifts of aging. We stop apologizing for asking good questions. We become comfortable speaking our truth without worrying how it will be received.<\/p>\n

And what do you know? That young whippersnapper doctor set my nose–and my preconceived notions–straight.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we age.\u00a0 This new phrase has drifted into my stratosphere over the last year or so. At first it was like a distant planet orbiting far, far away.\u00a0 I heard it occasionally. I read it in health blogs. But gradually it moved closer until suddenly it became the opening line to one sentence after …<\/p>\n

>>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n"As we age" - askmsmom.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/askmrsmom.com\/?p=4794\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""As we age" - askmsmom.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As we age.\u00a0 This new phrase has drifted into my stratosphere over the last year or so. At first it was like a distant planet orbiting far, far away.\u00a0 I heard it occasionally. 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