All these tests these days

*Calendar Girl reaching 90 does not necessarily mean being in care and unable to cope. Mary Berry was 90 last week. Joan Collins is 90.

Those are famous people but I have known many people in their 90s, fit and well, and playing a part in the community, including several members of my own family.

My husband is in his 80s and undoubtedly still with us because of the miracles of modern science and while he cannot walk far and is quite frail, we have just downsized to a project house and while most of the work is being done for us. He is happiy dealing with much of the electrical work and preparing planning applications and sourcing materials and generally enjoying life.

A healthy lifestyle does not guarantee a long healthy old age and everyone seems to know someone who drank like a fish, smoked 20 a a day and lived to 100, but the facts are that you are more likely to have a long healthy old age if you have a healthy lifestyle when you were younger. The majority of heavy drinking, heavy smoking people die relatively young.

So right M0nica my Mother-in-law, now 101, was entirely independent and enjoying her book club, shopping, walking, U3A etc until very recently.

Being 90 is not an illness in and of itself.

MOnica and NotSpaghetti.

No, I realise there are many 90+ people who lead active and fulfilling lives.

And many below that age who don’t.

If you fit into the former category, that is good. But sadly, there are many who don’t, whose final years are spent existing, not living.

That is the point I was making in my earlier post.

My own take is that what the person themselves wants also has an influence on how long they live.

I have a theory that there is a sorta "cut-off point" beyond which at least some people can think "I've had enough" and just "decide and that's it". I was very very surprised - having always thought I was born into a short-lived family (ie middle age = heart attack = gone) to find that both parents actually lived to 93. I suspect a large part of the reason/maybe most of it as to why they went then eventually was it was 2020.

Yep "that" year. My father got shoved out of what they called "bed blocking" into a nursing home just before they called that Lockdown on us and he was gone within weeks (I had chosen THE most expensive nursing home I could see there - on the grounds they looked the best one) and I still haven't dared ring them and say "Did you use any of THOSE drugs that got used on some OAPS in some British nursing homes - because if you did I'm on my way to SEE you for a "few words"!" I'm just crossing my fingers they didn't do that and he hadn't realised his wife/my mother was refusing to accept him home anyway - which would have upset him a lot if he'd been as mentally okay as he used to be.

My mother wasn't that capable - and that was before she got Alzheimers (though no official diagnosis was ever made). But she was aware enough to know that "some woman" was going to come in and see her several times daily/check to see she had food in and cause my mother to say "I don't know why the woman just sits and talks to me sometimes - they don't seem to be doing anything other than chatting to me sometimes when they come" (that's basically what they'd been instructed to do - that's why....). So basically I'm pretty certain they'd both decided their illness + it being 2020 = they'd had enough.

Now sitting here trying to calculate how old I think my mothers "mother" (yep her grandmother - as I eventually realised) would have been when she went - and I think she would have been early/mid 70's in age). She'd threatened my mother that she mustn't go abroad with the armed forces husband she'd just married and informed her she would die before my parents came back to England if she did - in a bid to stop them doing so. It didnt work - my mother had deliberately married an armed forces man and duly did go abroad with him on his postings - as per her plan. So great-grandma did exactly what she'd said she would do - and died of a heart attack (presumably in her sleep) - in her 70's - as far as I can work out.

With you, CariadAgain, and would add the thought 'Who profits from all these tests?' IMO they are a marketing exercise for the drug companies

well you have all lifted my spirits, I think... I am 89 and enjoyed good health, now it gets to me, can`t move as fast etc..
I was told I had "kidney failure" last year after annual blood test, nothing else, ..as I "gasped" well it was a bit of a surprise the doc. said."wellyou aren`t on dialysis are you!" no other information, nothing, I do have high BP and some heart stuff, take several pills.. but mentally, o.k I won`t admit to being depressed exactly, but I struggle. dh died just before covid was announced, and as I said , having enjoyed goodhealth it is a bit a shock this "old age" lark!

Calendargirl

MOnica and NotSpaghetti.

No, I realise there are many 90+ people who lead active and fulfilling lives.

And many below that age who don’t.

If you fit into the former category, that is good. But sadly, there are many who don’t, whose final years are spent existing, not living.

That is the point I was making in my earlier post.

I think the reason so many people are now living to older ages, is not so much that they are kept going by more and more medication.

What keeps people going to 90 is often minor medical investigations, and some major medical interventions earlier in their lives. Antibiotics, screening tests that catch illnesses in the early stages. Specialist drugs, innoculations that have banished small pox and almost banished polio and diptheria. For many medication runs to statins, and pills to reduce high blood pressure. The obverse of this coin is the damage diabetes and dobesity cause.

The other factor is that most of those reaching extreme old age now spent at least part of their cchildhood and formative years during WW2 and its aftermathh, when food was rationed and the healthy feeding of children made paramount. It meant many impoverished children were better fed through school dinners and things like supplements of cold liver oil and Vit C through ornage syrup and everyone ate less, but aate better.

I think this is now coming through as we age and benefit for our scientifically balanced eating as children, that stopped early damage to our health caused by malnourishment ( not the same as being undernourished.)

I have stage 3 CKD that was found while testing for something else. I'm glad it was found as a stent is keeping me at stage 3, I would have definitely got worse by now without it.

In my view prevention is better than cure. I insist on an MOT every year now I have turned 75 as then I can know if things are seizing up. I refuse to be written off because of my age and have said so to the professionals.
My gynaecologist expressed that I am “ remarkably fit” and long may it continue. If I find out something is wrong then I can make an informed choice as to how to proceed!

How coincidental can you get? I asked for a blood test because, with an underactive thyroid and on a small dose of thyroxine, I'd begun to experience some symptoms e.g. eyebrows falling out, feeling cold, feeling sleepy in the afternoons, terribly weak nails etc. all things my mother had before she was diagnosed. Apart from that, I'm fit as a flea. Of course the GP listed several other tests to be done. That was Wednesday and the results are back today. Phone call just now asking me to make an appointment within a week! Heaven knows what's shown up! I'll find out on Thursday... And I'll worry until then! If it's just an increase in my thyroxine dose, surely they could've told me that and prescribed accordingly? Rats!

6 years ago I had a urinary problem so was sent for tests not the most pleasant but as they couldn't find anything wrong they sent me for an ultrasound of my abdomen.
While looking for a urinary problem they noticed a dark spot on my bowel.
Since I had not long before had a clear result for the sample you send away when your older.
I wasn't worried but after a colonosopy they removed a malignant polp.
It was so small that it just had started growing.
5 years on I returned for a follow up this march gone.
All clear
So thankfull for these tests

Being on an inadequate dose of thyroxine can cause increase in blood sugar and cholesterol. It may be worth looking at the thyroid U.K. site.

Oreo

Some really interesting reading here 😃
I did read that most men die with an enlarged prostate and often cancer, but that’s with not of and there are many men with serious side effects where they’ve been treated, sometimes wrongly.
It’s a minefield isn’t it?

Enlarged prostate is apparently a side effect of age. But there are 2 types, non-malignant, which can be reduced with drugs, or removed and the kind that spreads. So yes many older men with pee issues may ignore them and autopsy for cause of death may show it, but it is not the cause.

For me the question is: do I want to spend the last years of my life (however many they may be) having tests done, waiting with a certain level of anxiety for the results, perhaps then waiting even more anxiously for further tests to be carried out, then wait for the results, then begin treatments?

It can very easily become a vicious circle, can't it?

No, I do not want to spend the remainder of my life on numerous visits to the doctor and the local hospitals.

I shall certainly go to the doctor if I observe worrying symptoms or a general decrease in my health, but I have come to terms with the thought that I too will die one day.

I hope the day does not come soon, because as yet I am emjoying life. I hope, when life becomes, if it does, a burden that I shall be ready to go.

I certainly do not want to drag out a half-life in a care home, any more than I want to waste my own and doctors', nurses and hospitals'¨time with tests and worries that probaby are unnecessary.

AuntieE

For me the question is: do I want to spend the last years of my life (however many they may be) having tests done, waiting with a certain level of anxiety for the results, perhaps then waiting even more anxiously for further tests to be carried out, then wait for the results, then begin treatments?

It can very easily become a vicious circle, can't it?

No, I do not want to spend the remainder of my life on numerous visits to the doctor and the local hospitals.

I shall certainly go to the doctor if I observe worrying symptoms or a general decrease in my health, but I have come to terms with the thought that I too will die one day.

I hope the day does not come soon, because as yet I am emjoying life. I hope, when life becomes, if it does, a burden that I shall be ready to go.

I certainly do not want to drag out a half-life in a care home, any more than I want to waste my own and doctors', nurses and hospitals'¨time with tests and worries that probaby are unnecessary.

AuntieE surely what matters is the quality of your life between these hospital visits.

DH has quite severe heart problems, so regular tests and hospital visits are part and parcel of his life. He grumbles, but he would not have it otherwise. He is enjoying life, keeping active, still able to enjoy many of his lifelong interests, loved and loving his family. Why should he choose to peg out just because he has to see a doctor somewhere or another frequently?

*Calandergirl I'm with you.

lizzypopbottle

How coincidental can you get? I asked for a blood test because, with an underactive thyroid and on a small dose of thyroxine, I'd begun to experience some symptoms e.g. eyebrows falling out, feeling cold, feeling sleepy in the afternoons, terribly weak nails etc. all things my mother had before she was diagnosed. Apart from that, I'm fit as a flea. Of course the GP listed several other tests to be done. That was Wednesday and the results are back today. Phone call just now asking me to make an appointment within a week! Heaven knows what's shown up! I'll find out on Thursday... And I'll worry until then! If it's just an increase in my thyroxine dose, surely they could've told me that and prescribed accordingly? Rats!

The results may well be on the NHS App if you’re signed up.

AuntieE

For me the question is: do I want to spend the last years of my life (however many they may be) having tests done, waiting with a certain level of anxiety for the results, perhaps then waiting even more anxiously for further tests to be carried out, then wait for the results, then begin treatments?

It can very easily become a vicious circle, can't it?

No, I do not want to spend the remainder of my life on numerous visits to the doctor and the local hospitals.

I shall certainly go to the doctor if I observe worrying symptoms or a general decrease in my health, but I have come to terms with the thought that I too will die one day.

I hope the day does not come soon, because as yet I am emjoying life. I hope, when life becomes, if it does, a burden that I shall be ready to go.

I certainly do not want to drag out a half-life in a care home, any more than I want to waste my own and doctors', nurses and hospitals'¨time with tests and worries that probaby are unnecessary.

With you on that one. I wasn't exactly joking when I said to my parents some years before their deaths that "Your social life seems to consist of medical appointments these days". Previously it had been a few long weekends away a year, pub lunches or coffee out when my mother took it into her head to do so and my mother going to church every Sunday.

I'm seeing the same thing has been going on for years now with a good friend of mine that's now up in her 80's and her husband (whilst he was still alive).......and yet the NHS had proved they didn't really care about either of them - by the fact that, when they told him he was to have blood transfusions every so often and he "asked" (being him he would have "asked" - rather than "told" them as I would have) for that blood to be clear (not from any donor who'd had Covid jabs) they refused and said it was impossible. No - it isnt impossible actually - there is a way - but they cba to even try and find it....though, in the event, I blame their refusal for the fact that I would say they foreshortened his life by insisting on "blood + any Covid jabs any donors had had blended in with it" - rather than just "blood and that's it - as per prior to 2021".

...and yep....there'd even been people who were strangers to me (never mind my friends husband) offer to donate blood for the NHS to take across the country from Wales to England for him - so that he could be sure of what he was getting (ie only blood). Total strangers even to me - and they were offering to help.

I have stage 4 kidney disease, and am about to be referred to the kidney consultant. He will show me various graphs as to how my kidneys are functioning, and he will talk to me. Unfortunately there is no cure for kidney disease, so I'm not sure of the value of seeing him.

I very rarely do any tests. I am 72 and have only had one cervical screen test. No mammograms either. I do blood tests when I am obliged to, and that's about it.

The problem with testing is that they are practically guaranteed to find something wrong with you.

I take the attitude that if I feel well, I probably am. I don't want doctor's testing and probing until they find something that would probably not affect me very much.

Breast cancer screening can be very problematic, in that today's technology can find miniscule tumours that would never develop into a life threatening issue, yet the result will cause untold stress and worry, which is extremely bad for you anyway.

If you are taking statins try British supplement Plant sterols just read the reviews.

Rightly or wrongly, at 66 I don’t have tests for the sake of it. I feel they ate ‘touting for business’ and its a way of pushing more medications when not always necessary. When I look at the huge list of meds my MIL took and then the side effects of some which were counteracted by another med, I lost confidence in GPs.

fancyflowers
Agree with you 100%!

nanna8

I was thinking of the numerous blood tests etc we have these days. Far more than when I was younger and far more technology available. They pick up all sorts of things before you are even aware of any symptoms. Mostly this is a good thing but sometimes ,well, I’d rather not know especially when there is no way of treating what is found. I have been told I have chronic kidney disease but it doesn’t warrant any treatment, not that bad. Did I want to know this? Also there are cholesterol issues - well I take tablets for that and don’t want to take a higher dose because of side effects. Other things which can’t be treated anyway. Sometimes it seems we know too much! Ignorance is bliss ?

Ignorance leaves you helpless and powerless.

There are things you can do, changes to diet, habits and lifestyle, to support impaired kidney function. (or counter high cholesterol, or pre-diabetes, etc)

Staying as well as possible for as long as possible, doesn't necessarily depend on medication.

It seems all medication has side effects - not something they are very clear about. You just have weigh up whether the advantages are stronger than the side issues. I personally think in the case of statins they are ( especially for someone like me who has a family history of heart attacks and very high cholesterol readings ) but we all have different opinions. I don’t have high blood pressure, so far but I eat tons of olives and olive oil so I would rather that than tablets.