Sunday, May 1, 2022

72 revolutions around the sun


I have a fairly high tolerance to pain, or I thought I did before this, and I think women in general have a higher tolerance to pain than men which some experiments have shown but which any woman who has cared for a man with a cold or flu knows intimately (no insult intended to my male readers). Maybe we have a higher tolerance to pain to help us through childbirth though we all, those of us who have gone through childbirth undrugged, would argue that notion. Childbirth is intense and transition is intensely painful but a different kind of pain. Childbirth never brought me to tears, too inwardly focused at that point, while the excruciating pain in my toe did bring me to tears a couple of times which I stifled as crying not only would not help the pain but it would add its own sort of discomfort...runny stuffy nose, red and puffy eyes. My toe was ugly enough, didn't need an ugly face to go along with it.

I don't like to cry. Every time I've been reduced to tears it's been out of emotional pain from sadness or misery or hopelessness or cruelty or any combination thereof and has just added to my misery. I've laughed myself to tears many many times but that's not crying and those tears have a different chemical composition anyway, and when my kids were young, even early teens, but worst when they were elementary school age, when I would have to go up against 'authorities' to protect or support my kids I would invariably quiver fighting back the tears. Now though, I don't cry. I spent too many years where I cried almost everyday until I was finally able to erect a protective emotional barrier. Oh certain things may still bring me to tears but those are external, like the scene in Forest Gump where he learns that Jenny's son is his. That brings me to tears every time no matter how many times I've seen it. But that's not crying either. I don't subscribe to having a 'good cry'. There's nothing good about it. Maybe that makes me emotionally stunted but sobeit.

Anyway, the toe is healing but it has kept me off my feet for the most part. I've been up and around since last Thursday but after a couple of hours my foot is tired and the swelling increases a bit. Minnie got her first, short, walk in a week on Friday. When we got back to the driveway she was all about keeping going, kept stopping and pulling in the direction of the long walk. Not today puppy, not today. Also Friday I took a picture and sent it to the doctor via the patient portal on the internet...is this normal? Got a reply this morning and he says it looks good, is healing properly. So that's good.

This is what it looked like Friday.

This is what it looks like today.

Needless to say I'm missing the last couple of weeks of work-out-in-the-yard-without-sweat-running-down-my-face weather. I have managed to take some pictures.

In general, the yellow clasping leaved coneflowers are in full bloom, the purple coneflowers have started blooming, the poppies are almost done, the love-in-a-mist and the rocket larkspur (what few that came back this year) are late but have started blooming, the Easter lilies, the last of the spring bloomers, all have buds but none open yet. The big backyard, with the exception of the clumps of yellow coneflowers here and there, is extremely ragged with everything going to seed and dying down. Hopefully it will get mowed soon and look tidier.

And yesterday was my birthday. I've made it through 72 revolutions around the sun. Here's me, 72 years and 1 day old...creases, wrinkles, droopy eyelids, thinned out lips, age spots, thinning eyebrows, and all. Hair is still dark though there's more and more gray scattered through it as time marches on.



 

26 comments:

  1. Happy birthday, celebrate yourself! And thank you for the flowers.

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    1. Thanks. It was a quiet day and my daughter came over for a long visit.

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  2. Crying. Sometimes I want to cry so bad it's an ache. Today has been one of those days where the tears are pooled and ready to go anytime I have a certain thought or memory. I can't remember the last time I really let loose and cried. I wish I could, honestly. Or, perhaps "would" is the better word. I am afraid I'll scare someone though, if I do.
    I hardly ever cry from pain. Can't even remember doing that. In childbirth the tears come with the baby- joy. And on the third day with the milk- exhaustion.
    That toe has certainly caused you grief. It makes me shudder to think of how it must feel.
    Happy birthday, woman. I love that picture. You are so strong and the face you wear is one that shows much laughing. Beautiful.

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    1. This face was hard earned, that's for sure. I know what you mean though about tears pooling up when you think of certain things. Same here when I allow myself to remember those emotionally painful years. That's something I don't need to relive so I mostly don't think about that part of my past. And yeah, no tears in childbirth, just hard word work and unimaginable joy at the end.

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  3. Love the 72 and 1 day photo. It's good to be 72 (and 7 months) years old with you. It sounds like the worst of the substantial pain in your toe has passed and that you will be able to be out working in your beautiful garden again soon.

    Your thoughts about pain and tears got me thinking about times that I have been in physical pain or in tears, not usually at the same time. I have not experienced the pain of childbirth, but the pain of migraine headaches and low back pain at times during my life comes to mind. Also, having a doctor attempt to remove a Dalkon shield when I was 21 years old. The Dalkon shield was causing intermittent excruciating pain that would cause me to double over when I was walking. The pain of him trying to remove it caused me to cry out in anguish and so he gave me a shot of Demerol, after which I felt nothing and didn't even recognize myself when I looked in a mirror when I got home. My face looked relaxed and peaceful in a way I have never seen it before or since. Demerol took away both physical and emotional pain.

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    1. I had a dalkon shield too. Got it because I couldn't take birth control pills, so painful going in. I had it for about 6 years. Had never really had cramps with my period until I got that thing and then I had really bad ones for a day or two. Was so glad to have it removed and it was just as painful coming out but my OB-GYN at the time was a man and I don't think he liked me very much. Didn't offer any kind of pain relief. I used to get migraines when I was young but those didn't make me cry either. I think intense pain just sort of causes the world to contract down to just the pain and dealing with it.

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  4. I love seeing your face on your 72nd birthday. Happy trip around the sun day. Interesting thinking about crying. How often do we cry? There are so many things to cry about but the tears seldom come. Now I'm wondering why that is. I hope your toe heals and heals well. Your flowers make me smile. Thank you for that.

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    1. Thanks.
      I think we tend to grow out of crying as we age. We learn how to cope instead.

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  5. Happy happy birthday!! You look marvelous! Thank you for the flowers, and I'm glad your toe seems to be healing.

    I don't like to cry either, for the reasons you mentioned. It just makes me feel worse - especially because in general whatever is making me cry doesn't change anyway.

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    1. Right? It seems like an exercise in futility. Just makes you feel worse.

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  6. Happy birthday Ellen. I spent part of this morning reading down to the 12th. Happy birthday!!!! to you, but not to your toe. Gosh what a disaster it is and I own one that matches it. If I still cried, I would cry over that toe. Hugs at you.

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    1. Thank you Mage. It seems we stop crying over things as we get older although now that I think about it when I went through the ablation for flutter and was in the hospital for observation while they started me on the med for afib, at one point I thought the ablation didn't work, that I went through that unpleasant procedure for nothing and I did cry a little but the doctor assured me the procedure did work.

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  7. First of all, happy birthday. Once you pass the biblical three score years and ten I think you are entitled to congratulate yourself. As for whether women tolerate pain better than men, I really don't know how to quantify this, and different people of either gender would surely have different pain thresholds. I think I tolerate pain fairly well and I am certainly not a whiner. The worst pain I have ever had was gout. Even wind coming in through an open window and wafting over my foot would cause agony. I didn't respond to conventional treatment and ultimately I had a steroid injection right into my big toe, an experience I would not recommend to anyone.

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    1. Thanks David. I agree that it's solely an individual thing as to pain tolerance and I think the type of pain (and I meant no slight to men). My admitted opinion is really based on an experiment I read about whose purpose was to determine pain tolerance re women vs men. They had the individuals plunge their hand into icy water and then timed how long the individual kept their hand in the water. More often than not, women stayed longer. But even us stalwarts succumb to some type of pain.

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  8. Happy Birthday! I always enjoy the stuff from your head!

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  9. Happy birthday! May your healing continue at a good pace. You have the face of an artist, full of character and classical beauty. Have you ever done a self portrait?

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    1. Thank you! I don't know about classical beauty but my face does reflect my life I suppose. No, never done a self portrait. I tend to shy away from drawing or painting people. Not confident enough and the few times I had to do faces in glass I usually wasn't happy with how they came out.

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  10. Happy birthday yesterday. Your gardens are lovely and thank you for limping around to take all those pictures for us.

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    1. For you and for me. So much stuff is late from the long winter. About all I'm managing to do is a minimal amount of watering until the toe gets over the trauma.

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  11. Happy birthday Ellen, keep it up!
    That toe looks, well, I am speechless. But as long as your doctor is happy.
    I used to be tough with pain, especially almost two full days in labour but when I had what we now call the great dental disaster (three oral surgeries in the space of one month) I was convinced that this was bigger than me and about to finish me off. In the end, I got morphine and now it's all a distant memory but anything with toothache gives me a sleepless night.
    Also, I do cry for too many reasons, mostly fury or fun. It took a while because we were brought up to never cry and my parents would mostly ignore us in disgust if we did. But now I do, not often, but with feeling.

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    1. The toe is better every day but right now I'm ready for the rest of the swelling to go down. re the fury or anger. I guess that what was happening when I would have to deal with people about my kids. I would be angry that they were not being treated fairly and frustrated against the authority in charge and mad at myself for getting emotional. Oh well, those days are long gone.

      My father was unhappy in his job, unhappy in his marriage and when he had had a particularly bad day he would take it out on one of us kids with emotional and verbal abuse until we were a puddle of misery. I think maybe I wouldn't be so adverse to crying if it didn't make my face and eyes swell up and be red with a snotty nose and really just exhaust me. And I think as we age we learn to cope better. At least I have. I just don't go down the path of emotional distress, have learned to put a stop to it or as the counselor put, I go around the pit instead of falling into it.

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  12. Happy Birthday, Ellen! Glad your toe is coming along and sorry you had to suffer with so much pain! I turn 72 in August so at least 2 Ellens born in 1950! I am pretty much all gray and I am impressed that you still have so much dark hair. Wishing you a fabulous year filled with good health, fun adventures and lots of love!

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  13. Happy belated birthday! Your toe is improving, albeit slowly. I can imagine your dog wanting to go, go, go and you're saying 'no, no, no!' LOL Do continue to baby that toe and rest. Hope your birthday was a happy one. Many wishes for many more birthdays to come.

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  14. Happy belated birthday. I'm sure the best birthday gift would be a healed toenail! Soon enough, I suppose. It does look from the photos like the swelling has gone down.

    That's an interesting theory about women and pain -- perhaps being able to endure more pain because of childbirth. It makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint.

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  15. I never worry about being late with birthday wishes any more. The way I figure it, we have Easter and Christmas seasons, so why not birthday seasons? At least there should be a birthday week; maybe as we age, the celebrations should lengthen, like our lives have. As for crying, I once read an interesting article that suggested women's tears often are caused by anger rather than grief or physical/emotional pain. That makes some sense to me. I can remember in past decades tearing up in frustration or anger -- I don't do that any more, and I suspect it's because of what you said. We learn to cope as the years go by. As I hear a couple of acquaintances say from time to time, "Ain't nobody got time for that."

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.