Tag: health

TIME Magazine: 4 Ways To Get Happier As You Age

Time Magazine is publishing multiple articles on aging, which, as you can imagine, interest me greately. Although most of them repeat all the same (and often questionable) things, I liked this one, because it was not about “how to live longer”, but how to live happier when you age. And some examples form this article are really inspiring!

The article and the full text below.

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From My Monthly Health Check

I am enrolled in as many Apple Health studies as applicable to me, because I like to know things about my health, and because I understand thatconsicten Apple Watch warerers can make a valuable contributions to studies of human health, behavior, and their relationships

My answers “almost never” change, but I always wonder why questions 2 and 3 do not allow to reply “always” 😀

TIME Magazine: The Issue With Living Longer

In a recent article in Time Magazine, Diana Frank discusses the increasing lifespan and how the healthspan is not keeping pace with it – a topic I have been thinking about frequently lately.

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TIME Magazine: Americans Are Drinking Less

I can confirm that it is becoming more and more socially acceptable not to drink, to choose a non-alcoholic beverage or a mocktail over a cocktail.

Here is the link. I find it especially funny that they compare alcohol consumption over the party lines!

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The Day Before The Long Weekend

It is believed that the day before the long weekend is always quiet and uneventful, because nobody wants to start a new project, and half of the people are taking a day off, and the other half want to leave earlier. It could not be further from the truth for me!

First, I had my month-after post-op for the Lasik. It was scheduled for 10-30, and since it takes me no more than 30 minutes to get to the Rush Medical Center from my office, I agreed to do “something” for our UK team at 12-30. It took them a while to agree with this “something,” so I was happy we could wrap it up before the holidays, and I thought I would be back in time. Unfortunately, I was waiting and waiting, and nothing happened! I started to suspect that I might be late, but as it often happens in the medical building, my hotspot barely worked. I sent a WhatsApp message to my UK co-worker to tell the team what the situation was, and that very moment, I was called to the exam room. They took all the measurements, and then… dilated my eyes! I screamed that I needed to go to work, but they didn’t listen. That also meant it would be a while before the doctor saw me. My coworker asked whether we should postpone the “something” until 1 PM, and I said – yes, but I became doubtful. Finally, the surgeon dashed into the room, started talking to me, but then slapped his forehead: Sorry – I forgot something! One moment! And he disappeared from the room! When he finally appeared, and we discussed my concerns and next steps, I knew I had a very slim chance of being on time. I practically ran out of the building (as fast as I could, having patients in wheelchairs all over the place), and ran to the Polk station, only to see the train leaving! The next train would be in 11 minutes, so I went down and called Uber. It was the most expensive 10-minute ride of my life (which also ended up being 15 minutes because of the insane lunch hour traffic). In the car, I was able to slack the team that I was on my way, and was at my desk three minutes to 1PM, which also allowed me to grab lunch (they stop service on our floor at 1 PM, and I would have no time to go to another floor).

Anyway, everything was great until after “something” was completed, the team stated that they experienced some problems. It took another 2.5 hours to check that it was a false alarm, and I was tired beyond anything imaginable.

Then, I went to LensCrafters. Although I can go without glasses or contacts most of the time now, I still encounter situations where my eyes do not work well together, and I also do not see the stage in the theater with the precision I would like to. We discussed options, and I ordered new glasses. We then tried several combinations with contacts and agreed on the best one. By that time, it was a perfect pre-holiday traffic situation, so I walked to the Red Line, fearing that bus 147 might take forever. When I was at home, it was almost 7 pm. My CSA order had been sitting downstairs for over three hours, but everything except the strawberries had survived! Still, I needed a moment of tranquility, so I pulled on a new (just-delivered!) swimsuit and headed to the beach. It was one of those days when I was especially thankful for living by the beach, just a ten-minute walk away from the sand, and the sounds of the waves, along with a mild, descending sun.

I can’t say that “that was it,” because earlier in the morning, I promised one of our Singapore team members to get online at 9 PM, which I did!

And One More Eye Surgery

It’s funny that something that should be a major event in my life is just one of many good things that happened during the last week.

Since the time my left eye became so much better than my right eye after the lens replacement, I knew I wanted to do something with the right eye :). Who would have known things could be so much better! The same surgeon who did my last surgery and who is a true miracle worker, told me he can do Lasik on my right eye, and that was enough for me to say yes! With any other surgeon, I would be skeptical.

It took a while to find the date when the surgery could be done (I had to stop wearing a contact lens five days before, and I was traveling non-stop). I chose May 23, so that the surgery would be “after everything”. Also, I ordered temporary glasses for these several days. It was a complete waste of money, but I was glad I did, because I had five events during these five days! It was still extremely uncomfortable, but I managed 🙂

The surgery itself was very quick and uneventful. (I felt mildly stressed because I had to wait for a long time before they started, but that was it.) I asked not to administer sedatives, because I didn’t want to ask anybody to escort me home. They still gave me a local anasthesia, and everything was fine. It’s weird when you see and feel somebody messing with your eye😀, but not a big deal. I saw better immediately, although it was supposed to happen later. I still feel like my eyes do not work completely together, so it’s like I see with each eye better than with two together, but we will figure it out 🙂

And if you think about it, it’s amazing how much medical science has advanced in recent years!

A Friend Who Is Shorter Than Me

Three years ago, I experienced this effect in full: for two consecutive days, I walked and talked with two friends, both shorter than I was. Something in this situation throws my spine out of balance, and my left side pains return. I didn’t have it that bad for quite a while, although I had less severe cases sometimes when I walked with my mom, and I forgot about it.

Two weeks ago, my pains returned out of nowhere, and it took me a while to figure out that the root cause was the same – for two days, I was engaged in long walks and conversations with a friend who is shorter than me (it’s not easy to be shorter than me, that’s why it does not happen often!)

By now, I know what I need to do to fix the problem, so I asked my doctor to renew my high-dose ibuprofen prescription and went to physical therapy, but I am wondering whether I will ever be able to talk to people who are shorter than me without pain 🙂

Time Magazine: Balance

I know that the abilityh to balance is a very important indicator of how you are actually aging, and this Time Magazine article talks about it in-depth.

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One More Note

One more note about this eye surgery and how it differed from the previous ones: although the surgeon told me it would be “more serious” than the initial cataract surgery, it didn’t feel this way. Two days after the surgery, I already felt like a normal person, and when, a week later, I was allowed to go completely “back to normal,” it was surprising and exciting but totally expected. I felt like that!

Last time, I felt like my whole body was negatively affected, I felt as if I got older, and I looked older, and I do not feel like that this time!

(Not to mention that this procedure costs literally three times less than the first one, and that’s without inflation adjustment. I was able to cover it entirely from my FSA)

Vision Updates

Since I already received a couple of concerned messages, I wanted to let my friends know that everything is great, and the reason I didn’t blog much is that life happens multiple times every day :).

I had a second post-op today, and there was something going on (not with me), because the surgeon had to dash to other rooms multiple times, and I spent more than an hour just waiting.

However, the news is positive: everything is healing very well, and I can do all my regular activities, provided nothing hits my head and I am not lifting something heavy.

The vision is still fluctuating, however, as I already said, even the worst it was during this week is tons better than it was before and better than I was hoping for.