All these tests these days

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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!

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.

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.)

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

*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.

Skydancer

Calendargirl

We are all going to die eventually.

Do I want to end up in my 90’s in a nursing home, unable to do anything much, and taking a plethora of pills to ward off potential heart attacks, strokes etc?

Reading here on GN about care of elderly parents, in their home or in care, I really don’t know if prolonging life to great age is how it should be, and the medication all that keeps them going.

I agree with this. Modern medicine is keeping many people alive longer than nature intended. I include myself in this so of course am pleased it is happening.
But when is the government going to introduce how to lead a healthy lifestyle to the school curriculum. If children were taught the benefits of exercise and healthy eating this would save the NHS millions further down the line.

Quite!

One can still get hit by illness even with a healthy lifestyle.

But my erstwhile younger brother started getting seriously ill in his 20's and has gone downhill from there - with all sorts. He had to have a heart operation before middle age even/youngest in the ward at the time. But he eats unhealthily, certainly used to smoke, spent a lot of time outdoors in the sun (despite our father having all sorts of skin cancer all over - so yep...he got that skin cancer problem too).
Basically - absolutely terrible ill health problems and every bit of it his fault as far as I can see. Okay I had the advantage of being much more questioning and intelligent than him - but my health is better in my 70's than his was 50 years ago. So a lot IS under our control.

Calendargirl

We are all going to die eventually.

Do I want to end up in my 90’s in a nursing home, unable to do anything much, and taking a plethora of pills to ward off potential heart attacks, strokes etc?

Reading here on GN about care of elderly parents, in their home or in care, I really don’t know if prolonging life to great age is how it should be, and the medication all that keeps them going.

Quite!

I'm with you on that one - after all the trouble I had to go to to manage to buy a house (courtesy of being low-paid and single) and the starter house was 10 years late because of that = no-one but no-one is going to grab at any of my money tied-up in my house (ie by stealing it chunk by chunk to pay for a carehome for me).

Add in my own temperament as well and there's zero chance of anyone else making my decisions for me ever. If it's my decision = I'll make it. If it's a communal decision = I expect absolutely everyone involved to make it and not go "They're management = they will make our decisions for us". Not a hope in hell of that happening ever....

I can just see a row 3 times per day every day for a start-off - ie at mealtime - when I said "I eat in a healthy varied interesting way....trying new dishes out regularly and I don't eat meat". Followed by them saying "What we've done for everyone is x dish and maybe a choice of y dish as well" - at which point there would be a row.

Or if they thought I'd follow their routine - rather than living my life as I decided and I wouldnt expect to even tell anyone if I'd decided I was going to go out (other than to the extent of "I won't be here for dinner tonight"). If they tried to restrict me - there would be another row.

...and so it would go on....

Well, I was feeling much more positive about needing a knee replacement until I asked the GP for a b/t, not having had one for many years. And am now ( as a worrier) feeling really deflated having been told I have very high cholesterol and am anaemic. I know it’s silly of me but I wish I hadn’t had the b/t as I’ve lost all the motivation I’d had from doing the exercises for my knee and being able to walk better. I can remember my mum being sent for a colonoscopy and how upset I was waiting to speak to the hospital ( they thankfully found nothing but she did die soon afterwards ) so I don’t tell my kids of any health concerns I have. I have read that most cardiologists take statins so wonder if I should take up my doctors advice and start taking them .

This is interesting to me because I've been thinking the same thing.

I also have had kidney disease diagnosed from a blood test, no treatment required. AFAIK kidney function declined with age, so ...

Then it was decided I needed a 24 hour BP monitor. Next thing, my BP is fine, but there was one incidence of irregular heartbeat (unnoticed by me) so ...

I've now been referred for an ECG - and I keep checking my pulse!! 😂

Before all this there was "nothing wrong with me"!

I had a doctor friend who used to say "If you test enough people enough times you'll find something wrong with most of them" 😂

Calendargirl

We are all going to die eventually.

Do I want to end up in my 90’s in a nursing home, unable to do anything much, and taking a plethora of pills to ward off potential heart attacks, strokes etc?

Reading here on GN about care of elderly parents, in their home or in care, I really don’t know if prolonging life to great age is how it should be, and the medication all that keeps them going.

I agree with this. Modern medicine is keeping many people alive longer than nature intended. I include myself in this so of course am pleased it is happening.
But when is the government going to introduce how to lead a healthy lifestyle to the school curriculum. If children were taught the benefits of exercise and healthy eating this would save the NHS millions further down the line.

It’s preventive intervention. I’m one of many with stage 3 ckd, diagnosed over thirty years ago. Providing I drink plenty of water it doesn’t increase.
I have bloods every eight weeks because of the meds I take to control RA. I feel fortunate

I have had chronic kidney disease for over twenty years and am still here! One can live well with very limited kidney function. I always cook from scratch, avoid salt and that means no take aways or ready prepared foods as they always have lots of salt.

Nanna8, I have had that kidney result before but managed to move myself out of the range by watching salt and potassium, eating well and making sure I drank a lot of water.
However, at the moment, they are keeping an eye on my kidneys as I have had a couple of increases of my BP medicine which is hard on the kidneys. Again, they are stressing I must drink lots of water.

We are all going to die eventually.

Do I want to end up in my 90’s in a nursing home, unable to do anything much, and taking a plethora of pills to ward off potential heart attacks, strokes etc?

Reading here on GN about care of elderly parents, in their home or in care, I really don’t know if prolonging life to great age is how it should be, and the medication all that keeps them going.

Sorry nanna8 - I forgot you are in Australia so Kidney Care UK wont apply.
Hopefully there is something similar there that can help you.

nanna8 interesting to read your post as I have also been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease.
Mine is caused through high blood pressure and I've also been told it doesn't warrant any further treatment.
I am now on medication to treat the blood pressure.
Do look at Kidney Care UK.
They have informative leaflets they can sent you and also some one at the end of the phone to ease any worries you may have.