This is a thread for ILXORS IN THEIR 50's

honestly anybody reading my thoughts has helped me today, I don't share much of this stuff but here among people with whom I've shared discussions for so long I feel free to unburden myself a little and it helps.

I'm very sorry for your loss, and really can identify with what you wrote. I am often struck by the loss of the feeling I had even 10-15 years ago, that anything was possible. This is definitely a time of narrowing options--but not no options at all. So I hope you can find something that gives you more peace.

update on my health: it was pneumonia & bronchitis. I'm now on a big ol cocktail of meds and just now took pleasure in eating for the first time in a week. I am mad as hell because I'm trying so hard to get back up to my long runs, running is important to me and I've been on a 2-year-plus injury jag but JUST this month I finally seemed to have turned a corner, ran 5k three times week before last....and then last week I was knocked down by illness and I know that recovering from pneumonia is yet another fuckin "take it easy on yourself" situation but there's only so easy I can take it, I'm back to work on Friday and my job involved two hours a night of being pretty energetic. main feeling right now is gratitude for the visit and feeling pleased with myself for resolving "just get your ass to the clinic as soon as you wake up" because I was in "I can't live like this, can I?" territory, it's still bad but the drugs are working.

attention bronchitis & pneumonia: 🖕

I am very much in a "is this gonna be my forever life?" place as well. Part of it's frustration with my publisher, who has not responded for a couple of weeks now to my emails about my upcoming book, but another part of it is getting itchy with the endless treadmill of writing about music generally. I'm starting to think more seriously than I have in years about Writing About Something Else For A Change. Sending three poems to a local literary magazine (no response yet) helped a little, and looking at some fiction projects with an eye toward self-publishing them is helping, too, because putting three older books out there will push me to finish a fourth that's fully plotted but only about 1/4 written. If my current "full-time" job lurches toward greater stability (which it might, soon), I will be in a position to make some decisions.

get well soon jclc.

running will come back soon enough. were you the person who recommended "what i talk about when i talk about running" on ilx? seems like you probly coulda.

possibly? as I am of the age to be on this thread, I do tend to forget a buncha stuff

How do you do, fellow 50 year olds?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMbxOUgPDsI

whatsuuuuuuuppppp … <coughs weakly>

Trayce, they didnt do a root canal before putting the crown on? I thought that was standard.

I never saw this before - they did say it was a better option, because its possible the tooth can still go south esp if I dont look after it. I dunno how that will pan out now - the tooth next to it just got pulled out completely lol. 3 days later and I still feel kinda run down and sore from it. There's another shitty thing about this age - everythign is so much bloody harder to recover from.

welcome, snoball! your orthopedic shoes will be arriving in time for your 4pm dinner reservation

Ugh tooth problems are the worst. Sorry your going through that, Trayce.

Thanks Sunny x I'm starting to feel better now. I really shouldnt have got drunk only 2 days after the extraction, ha ha. :(

I've experienced almost every dental thing mentioned in this thread: Broken teeth (w/ bonus infection), root canals, replacement of Classic 80s Metal Fillings, deep cleanings that required anesthesia, and even the laser gum surgery.

My daily hygiene routine includes: Floss, Perio-Aid tool, Waterpik, and finish with a soft bristle tooth brushing and some mouth wash if I'm feeling nasty. Plus, I sleep with a Night Guard because my jaw-clenching is probably caused the gum issues (if you get a Night Guard, consider occasionally doing your own enzyme wash with a vinegar/water solution). The only common thing I have never had to do with my teeth is braces.

These days when I go in for routine teeth cleanings (4x a year - two of them I have to cover out-of-pocket), it takes them like 10-15 minutes to do them (they still cost the same as one that would take 45 minutes, of course).

― beard papa, Thursday, March 14, 2024 6:25 PM (one month ago)

Fellow clencher and night-guard evangelist here. Absolutely recognise all of this, including the massive Eighties fillings now getting replaced because the teeth around them are finally splitting and splintering to pieces. I need to get a new night guard now because mine has split at the back. Before I do that, though, I need to get a THIRD root canal treatment and a crown which, I've been warned, might end up being useless because the tooth might be too far gone to support it for more than a few years.

Like you, I'm now meticulous about my dental hygiene and madly envious of people who don't have to be. We had friends over for a late night on Saturday night (dinner and Rummikub, because that's where we are now) and I spent most of Sunday watching films on the sofa with my night guard in, just in case I dozed off. That's how I broke a chunk off a tooth at Christmas, after all.

Did my annual physical last week and enjoyed this summary from the follow-up narrative from my doc: "well developed; well nourished; thin build; well groomed; no apparent distress" — I mean, for 54 I'm declaring victory. (Still waiting on cholesterol #s tho.)

(My wife says it sounds like a listing for animal adoptions at the local shelter)

Healthy coat

Everything being said about dental routines and suffering is painfully OTM.

(I lost my mouth guard, in my own damn house, a month or two ago. No idea where it could be. So far my jaw has been OK somehow.)

(I'm with a large Northern California-based HMO group and they don't seem to do annual physicals anymore, I wonder if I should request one.. think my last blood work was maybe 2021?)

I have a few late 40's/early 50's buddies that totally are afraid to go to the dentist, even if they have insurance.. I'm like 'Just fucking go, get it over with, things won't magically get better'

I actually take pleasure in the misery of a dental visit, I didn't have any sort of insurance in my 20's which is precisely when we should all have universal dental insurance.. our bodies were healthy but our teeth were fucked

I let my dental health lapse twice and paid for it in money and pain. Never ever again.

Or: Andy OTM

I like getting the annual physical, not least because in good years it's the only time I see my doctor and I like her to remember who I am. And I like the labs and screens, just making sure everything looks OK. I even agreed to a separate preventive screening my doc recommended — a "coronary calcium score" — to check for arterial plaque buildup. Not covered by insurance, it's like $125 and I'm sure she gets a cut for the referral, but what the hell. I like to know what's going on in there.

I go to my doctor about four times a year but haven't been to the dentist in decades. Sometimes I worry about it but then I say fuck it.

I have been blessed with (mostly) good teeth, which aiu is party genetic and also breastfeeding can help? thanks mom!

still had a litany of horrors starting with braces, and I am missing a back molar currently cuz I cannot afford a $4K implant.

dental care is imho the starkest example of class differences in the US

really that should read:

"dental care/insurance is imho the starkest example of class differences in the US"

yeah, it's always baffling to me that the teeth were medically separated from the rest of the body many years ago: their own offices, their own insurance systems, etc.
Like what if we had to get podiatry insurance, or spleen insurance?

Dentistry wasn't considered a medical field until the late 19th century.

They're luxury bones. Only the rich and lucky are allowed to have them; if your teeth are in bad shape the assumption is that it's your own damn fault for not taking better care of them

Toothpaste is bone soap.

The fact that none of these manly-man grooming companies has yet put out a line of toothpaste called Bone Soap (or advertised toothpaste with "Polish Your Bones") is baffling to me.

'Hey fellas, get your chompers pumping with Axe BONE SOAP - now in Sinful Cinnamon Schnapps flavor'

yeah I could see that working

Would try White Russian flavored bone soap

'Super Whitening Russian', you mean

really that should read:

"dental care/insurance is imho the starkest example of class differences in the US"

― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Tuesday, May 7, 2024 9:29 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

When I first went to my current dentist, it was for a dental emergency (filling fell out) AND I didn't have insurance. They were super nice about it and apologetic about charging me the cash rate, but then when we got insurance again through my wife's job suddenly they were VERY happy to see me because I was worth a lot more money to them. It's all so weird, what a dumb system we have.

whenever I go in for for a cleaning, I get a statement from MetLife - 'THIS IS NOT A BILL: You dentist billed $234 - we paid out $179 - you owe nothing'

It's all such a weird racket

My dentist has a weird scheme where they make me sign a sheet of paper listing what they're are going to do, how much insurance will pay and how much I need to pay. So I sign it and pay them then within a week I get a bill for, usually, around $500. I call them and they always say, oh don't worry about that. Umm okay.

this sooo true. also i hate making the extra effort to sit thru 15 minutes of phoneapp disclaimers and releases and pay obligations, being told "this pre-process will save u time!" then getting there and having to like, do what appears to be the same shit all over again.

this is not an olds thing tho. in a way it is i guess, because i am here on the olds channel just complaining like a fucking old. topicality is where u find it.

Thanks to Facebook I just found out I’m almost 10 years older than The Beach Boys when they released/filmed Kokomo. I thought those fools were in their 70s when that came out.

Spiritually, yes

I was lucky enough to see Blondie this past week. My 13-year-old son was with me. It struck me that I have had a crush on Debbie Harry since I was his age, which was . . . forty-five years ago.

Thanks to Facebook I just found out I’m almost 10 years older than The Beach Boys when they released/filmed Kokomo. I thought those fools were in their 70s when that came out.

― Esteemed character actress (sunny successor)

i see this as an unqualified victory

Yeah i was at blondie and my 20 y/o muso super nerd son loved it even more than I. With his youth insistence he dragged me up to about 10 ppl away from stage. that was useful.

when i was reminded post hoc she’s 78 i was pretty— i dint know how to be, tbh. I felt pretty god damned ancient.