This is a thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 50's

Our cohort is few, but mighty.

abbott being a sexy cold war scientist

OH MY GOD WHY WAS I NEVER THAT

I remember Howdy Doody.

and i thought i was old for remembering leaded gasoline!

madonna, michael jackson, prince and ME -- i am now 50 and 1/2.

sept 1968 was like the gayest time to enter high school

everyone cool in those days were entering college

there is truth lurking here -- people in our sub-generation have a complicated relationship w/our older sibs, the 60s baby boomers. this usage of "gay" is uhm, anachronisitic, or something. (I entered HS in 72 FWIW.)

anachronistic! edgy, you mean!!1!

so is bimble part of this exclusive club?

I didn't expect to get shoulder and back hair this late in the game.

ha was wondering what you meant in the 40s thread

what's up y'all

had a cardiologist call me at 7am to cancel my appointment (snow)

this morning the dentist said that my teeth with metal fillings will all eventually need crowns; seems legit, the youngest of those fillings is 40+ years old

i went to the dentist for lots of work this past year, first time since forever, and it was all space aged nano whatever shit and i think the dentist and his assistant were legit smirking at my one old iron ore filling from when i was a teenager, fifty years ago, in an eastern bloc nation

oh hi, I'm 54 now

peeing takes a long time

backache is a thing

(knocks on wood)

As hinted above, I have a cardiologist now! My primary doctor, who has pretty amazing raw skills -- like hearing -- apparently, thought he heard a murmur in my heartbeat last month. GREAT!

It turns out I have an "unconcerning" prolapse which is a "2" (not a 3 or a 4), so it just has to be checked every year from now on.

Aging is a motherfucker.

all the best morbs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murmur_(album)#/media/File:R.E.M._-_Murmur.jpg

i am two years older than william hartnell in this picture :D

https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1920x1080/p01hg14p.jpg

(obviously i have regenerated several times: also did not grow up in poverty etc)

He got paid five times more per ep than Anneke Wills was, to make up for the poverty stricken childhood!

what a feelin'

mainly feeling it in my lower back today

Rapidly approaching Sammy Hagar milestone.

Minutemen?

Can you hear me, Dr. Mu

Imagine my surprise

Just realized that the “ordinary guy” in Pavement’s “Stereo” is maybe a reference to “Dr. Wu.” I still got it!

Oh wait

I just went through all the tests you are supposed to do when you get to 50, only 7 years late.

Anyway, all passed 100%, so hey!

I guess that lower back pain is gonna go in the "what do you expect at yr age?" cart.

Thanks for reminding me. I just did the same with one test, the biggest of all, remaining to be done in the next few months. If the news is bad I will speed post my remaining backlog of screennames.

I was Big C diagnosed about five months after turning 50, so maybe i didn't get the other tests.

(i'm mostly OK now, just medicated)

He got paid five times more per ep than Anneke Wills was, to make up for the poverty stricken childhood!

― calzino

for two months and then he got sacked. quintessential "being in your '50s" experience tbh

Definitely another bummer about being in your 50s. If you lose your job, you can't necessarily bounce back. You might never have a salaried position again.

Definitely another bummer about being in your 50s. If you lose your job, you can't necessarily bounce back. You might never have a salaried position again.

HI DERE. Raise your hand if you have been rendered depressed, rudderless, and without direction because you've structured your life around a eight-hour, salaryman working schedule for so long that when you were inevitably disrupted out of your career you've become addicted to the anxiety and panic of not being able to focus. oops TMI

raises hand

in my case it took several years to work through the trauma of being ejected and to figure out other ways to live ... I won't trivialize the difficulties involved, but now the only thing I miss from my salaryman days is the income

i need the med coverage

As mentioned on the other thread, in January I was made redundant 7 days before I hit 50.
my skills are probably no longer in demand (manual software tester) due to an increased focus on automated testing, and to be honest, I think I have had enough of software/corporate culture.
The last few months I have been a stay at home dad, and will probably remain so while mk2 goes through his teenage trials and tribulations (3 more years).
The very idea of being the Office New Boy at the age of 50 fills me with dread, and I know it would bring on a lot of stress and anxiety.
I am in a 'fortunate' position in that due to life insurance, I have no mortgage and get a small occupational pension from BH so will not be made homeless or starve, but coming to terms with a very different financial outlook is still the big stumbling block.
That and daytime TV.
Thank goodness for 'Walter Presents .. '.

In other news : re lower back pain.
Having sat on my arse in an office for 30 years the last 2 years were very problematic re my back.
My solution : swimming.
I have started swimming 4 times a week (roughly 1km each time), and the change has been very noticeable.

Slightly overlapping with what I said on the Forties thread, but I was made redundant at 51, also due to having skills which are no longer in demand. My partner has always earned a lot more than me, so we were OK - but then he was made redundant last year, at 58. Thankfully his skills are still in demand, but he refuses to re-dose himself with the poison of corporate culture - so it's taking a while to sort things out, and we are having to be careful with money, for the first time since our twenties.

I cover my monthly outgoings with DJ-ing (a weekly gig and a monthly gig) and Discogs selling (I inherited a rare and valuable collection, and am being ruthless with my own). We also have a lodger, for the first time in nearly thirty years - a good friend, also in his fifties, going through a divorce and coming to terms with being on the gay side of bi. He hates his job and wants to change back to his old career, but it would involve a precarious salary drop, at least to begin with, which isn't great timing when you're getting divorced.

Despite this difficulties, my net life satisfaction level is still hugely in credit. I feel busy, fulfilled, and grateful for all I've got. But I can't deny the presence of a persistent low-level background hum, which says "You are uniquely unemployable. Everyone else can get jobs, but you haven't got what it takes." It's bullshit, but it's there.

Fuck those cry baby under 50s in that other thread. Here's to getting Saga Holiday ads and people ringing me to ask if I want to cash in my pension and/or release some equity from my home and to being told I can't increase my life insurance because YOU R 2 OLD.

Also I just put up a desk, not too shabby eh? I'll be paying for it tomorrow mind.

it doesn't start getting real until you can't remember your 40s

xp Incidentally my pension is not worth the paper it's printed on so who's laughing now Mr Random Cold Caller?

it gets really real when your pathetic gig income and Obamacare fast-track you to bankruptcy

what a feelin'

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Monday, July 2, 2018 8:55 AM (one year ago) bookmarkflaglink

Right in my knees.

oh hi, I'm 54 now
peeing takes a long time

― WilliamC, Thursday, January 4, 2018 12:24 PM

Seven weeks shy of 56, but I found the secret: constant impotent rage keeps me young.

momus is almost 50

He’ll be 60 in February.

Fuck those cry baby under 50s in that other thread.

They're just coming to grips with their ultimate mortality, poor dears. Be kind to them.

I’m 55 and having a pretty good time.

I seem to have rediscovered my mojo this year: got serious about my job, holidayed in Japan, rekindled my interests in art and photography, good clothes (lost 40lb weight which helped), and the joy of short breaks by Eurostar.

I had my first colonoscopy today, which was something I’d approached with some trepidation to the point that I delayed it til now, but fortunately everything came back clean. I’m in a daze and can barely remember it, which seems ideal.

The absolutely bizarre nature of the prep is the worst part but it really wasn’t too terrible, I just didn’t sleep well at all and that plus a combination of light eating for three days has me down 7-8 lbs.

I've been thinking I need to do this ^^^^^

but my GP said the newer poop-on-the-paper tests can actually detect the DNA of polyps

1st meal afterwards is always such a treat.

lol I've had two CPs now and I know I shouldn't be a baby but I don't handle fasting well at all. It always feels like something terrible has happened to me and my composure is paper thin. Ironically the anaesthesia doesn't bother me and I'm always totally fine and happy to have it over with afterward.

but my GP said the newer poop-on-the-paper tests can actually detect the DNA of polyps

― Andy the Grasshopper

I used Cologuard two years ago only b/c my doctor said it was cool with no history of cancer on either side of my family.

Re grandparents: my mom and dad look better at 76 and 75, respectively, than their parents did.

accidentally, but appropriately, i passed the sleepless night watching episodes of the new Harry Hole series on Netflix.

the appropriateness of the title was accidental, that is

"Hole, that is!"

https://i.ibb.co/tPNjQ7T3/YKDH4d-P.jpg

The miracle of anesthesia makes it all worthwhile. I feel a little drifty, close my eyes, and open them with it all over. All behind me, so to speak.

I would do that shit recreationally if I could.

Anal probes for everyone!

I didn't mind the prep *or* the procedure, and the results were pretty productive (both the prep and procedure, lol). It's great to have a baseline idea of what is going on in there, or an idea of what they should pay attention to going forward. They found a rare, slow growing and very tiny form of malignant polyp after my first one, a variety almost always discovered by accident. They were able to remove it and, when I went back 6 months later, confirm that it was not coming back.

FWIW, the first time I did any of this I used Cologuard, too, but Cologuard is apparently close to 100% effective at confirming no cancer but only 80% effective at catching something that *is* there, which means 20% likely to miss something that would otherwise be very treatable. And if Cologuard *did* catch something you have to get the real deal anyway. So even before I had to go in for a colonoscopy for a not regular maintenance reason I had been planning to go full monty vs. Cologuard anyway.

xpost you're always saying this.

So... I woke up a couple of weeks ago with a very painful shoulder and shooting pains down my arm as the morning went on and the inability to grip. Eventually... I went to a&e.

Once they'd ruled out a stroke they were slow but methodical and I saw two different orthopedics guys. Who referred me to their consultant a couple of days later.

Talking to him with pain relief so I could explain better what was happening, and him looking at 30+ years of records he's referring me for various MRIs (the first of which was due tomorrow but I'm having to reschedule).

Basically he's 99% sure I've got herniated discs all the way from c6 to c9 and as soon as he gets confirmation I'm going straight to spinal surgery.

I don't know what to think. It'll be nice to see the end of recurring weakness in my right hand that I've been having on and off since the late 80s but the concept of spinal surgery is pretty terrifying, I can't lie. I also don't know what exactly it is they're going to do, but I guess that's what the surgical consultant is for. Estimates seem to be between a couple of days and a couple of months in hospital and recovery from 6 weeks to 9 months.

So yeah... old.

I don't like that for you one bit.

Look at the bright side, you found a doctor who understands that arm pain can come from a pinched nerve in the spine.

That saves enormous amounts of wasted time on treating the place where it hurts, instead of the source of the problem. I had weakness and pain in my arm that everyone thought was carpal tunnel / RSI - so many completely ineffective wrist braces and suchlike until I found someone who would treat the actual trouble.

Good thoughts to you, aldo. Spinal stuff is definitely scary. But hopefully can bring relief! Speaking of carpal tunnel, I'm 95 percent sure I'm dealing with it in both hands. I get this array of pains from them — not all at once or all the time — that have ranged from knuckle and joint pain to burning sensations on the back of my hand. I've always known carpal tunnel or some kind of repetitive stress pain was possible because I type a whole lot and also I'm sure it's been made worse by constant phone use. So I've been trying to cut down on the amount of time I spend holding a phone, and also doing lots of wrist and arm exercises every day. When I remember to do the exercises, it definitely helps. If it keeps getting worse I'm sure I'll consult someone at some point. (My favorite treatment for my hands is this paraffin wax machine I got. It's just palliative, but feels amazing.)