As I get older, so of course, do my parents. My parents are currently 78 and 82. My mom has had a knee replaced, but that's the most major surgery either of them has experienced for as long as I can remember. They have bad teeth, which the rest of us inherited. But that's about it. For years, we have had a family "joke" about how "young" my parents are. And really, considering their respective ages, they are in remarkably good shape.
But there are starting to be signs that they are in fact getting old. Finally.
My dad had a small stroke. He was having a problem with dizziness. He went to a neurologist. The tests showed that he had had a very, very minor stroke. According to him, it was essentially a non-event. But it was a sign.
A couple of days ago, he had an episode of diverticulitis and ended up in the emergency room having lost quite a bit of blood. In Pittsburgh. Where they had been for a funeral. (They live in Gaithersburg, Maryland.) Now, it's probably good in some ways that they were there because they were staying with a friend who is a doctor. And so he knew whether to be worried, how much, and what to do. If they had been home, it would have been my mother who had to deal with those decisions.
Still, it's another sign that Dad is getting old. That we are going to have to acknowledge that fact. At some point, you can't ignore the signs any longer.
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