What is the age when you realize
you are “middle aged?” According to “Dictionary.com,” the definition is “being of the age intermediate between
youth and old age, roughly between 45 and 65.” I am 55 years old
so I am in the middle of middle age.
The other
night, my son and I had dinner at a national chair restaurant. This was my
first experience using my “Over 55+ Menu.” I laughed when I ordered. My son
laughed too much I thought!
“Dude,” I
said, “You can walk home after you pay the bill yourself using my senior citizen's discount.”
I really
never thought about my age until my strokes happened. Sure, I was 50 years old,
but my mortality was a distant concept. My strokes instantly made me feel old
and vulnerable.
When I got
home from the hospital, though I could not “do math,” I tried to calculate
milestones. What age will I be when my son graduates high school? When will my 20 year life insurance policy end?
When does my disability and social security income decrease? With my strokes,
will I even see my son grow up? How much time is left for me?
I do not
think about that often anymore because I am so busy living. That is a good
thing.
Nevertheless,
the clarity of my medical issues is a palpable when you do any test. Last January, I was rear-ended. Despite
physical therapy, I still have neck pain.
Yesterday, my
doctor ordered another MRI and a MRA for me.
MRI lets doctors see very detailed images of the
inside of your body. MRI passes through bone and takes pictures of soft tissue,
such as tendons, blood vessels, and the brain.
“MRA” stands for magnetic resonance angiography. An
MRA scan gives a view of specific blood vessels (arteries and veins).
I do not know the results yet, but it will be interesting
to see if my brain has other different since my last MRI. I hope everything is the same. That would be
great news.
On January 6, 2012, I had an MRI because of severe
headaches. The MRI showed nothing. Three
days later, I had my first stroke followed by the massive one January 13, 2012.
If I had an MRA rather than an MRI, my life would have been so much different.
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