Spring Cleaning, Excava-intentionally

Monday would have been my mother’s 76th birthday.

I’m embarrassed to say that I didn’t automatically remember her birthday. I have a new OB/GYN, and the realization dawned on me while she and I were reviewing my family history during my first visit. My doctors are generally horrified when they notice that Mom died when she was 66, and yeah, I routinely add to that horror by pointing out that her sister didn’t even make it to 60.¹

I’ve just started the late fifties to sixties gauntlet.

I am in much better health than my aunt was when she was my age, though the kidney stone I got last year did scare the crap out of me for a while² since she did pass due to renal failure. I am also healthier than my mother was; I’ve never smoked, and I added ‘cardiac health’ to my routine of regular checkups years ago because I would really rather have some warning of a potential heart problem in advance than having to deal with the aftermath of having experienced one. The regular checkups have also helped me get a handle on some issues that I could do something about before they became things that required medications to manage.

Not that I’m opposed to medications if they’re necessary. I’d just prefer it if they weren’t, for as long as possible. Like antihistamines, augh. Two weekends ago, I promised myself that I’ll make a habit of taking the damn things every day that I plan to go dig in the dirt this year instead of suffering for weeks or, worse, winding up in my dermatologist’s office because I have a histamine reaction I can’t get under control without help.

So far, I’ve kept that promise! The side effect of keeping that promise, however, is that it deprives me of a ready-made excuse to lounge on the couch and doomscroll instead of gardening. Eh, making myself do things I enjoy is for my own good, right?

1. On the bright side, I’ve had blood relatives who lived deep into their nineties and even a little beyond. Many of these allegedly had most of their marbles up until the end. However, the truth of this might have been obscured by their pre-existing mental aberrations and/or their storytellers’ magical thinking. ↩︎
2. …until the cause was pinned to excessive dehydration triggered by mono and COVID. ↩︎