It’s been over a year since I posted anything to this blog. I’ve become accustomed to updating my daily comings and goings over on Facebook.

There are new things going on with me, however, that probably don’t need to be broadcast all over the Book of Face — health issues that just don’t concern everyone in the world.

This month begins my Medicare coverage, which is a good thing. I’ve signed up for a Medicare Advantage plan that includes hospitalization, doctor visits, and prescription drugs. First thing I did was schedule an initial physical exam. The good news is that my blood pressure was only 118/74, which seriously surprised me as this is even lower than when I was working back in New Orleans. Unfortunately, my cholesterol is up, as is my A1C.

It isn’t necessary to spill all my numbers here, of course (although I probably will, at some point). Being single and not having someone in-house with whom to talk this stuff through, I probably tend to divulge too much to strangers (like on FB). Unfortunately that leads to a lot of well-intended ‘advice’. Facebook is not my medical team, and I don’t need advice. What I need is merely encouragement and support as I navigate this new reality that comes from having a body that feels like it is betraying me.

I don’t have (to my knowledge) some weird catastrophic disease, and what is happening with me is common to a huge chunk of the population. This means there are treatments and coping mechanisms. I’ve reached 65 years old (on Nov 27) in fairly good health. And now that is changing, so I have to navigate this new way of living. And I have to do it alone, because there’s nobody else here, so it’s sort of scary.

So, that’s what I’ll go doing here on the Blog — documenting things that are new to me, things I have to change if I expect to live out my days with continued good health. Since I’ve only just begun, with the initial visit last Monday, there’s not a lot to say here yet. I have four more visits already scheduled to explore other things, and which will require changes. Some, or perhaps most of those changes will involve daily habits. But some of it will involve adjusting my thinking to deal with changing — not just the agony of changing, but the self recriminations for having not paid much attention for most of my life. The privilege of having a fairly healthy body all along has meant I didn’t have to pay attention to “issues.” Now I have to pay attention.