Michigan had a mandatory helmet law for motorcycle riders. A few years ago, that helmet law was repealed, as “freeedom”, but you still get a ticket for not using a seat belt in a car. My take is some “protected free speech” was at work, as a bike rider without a helmet is more likely to be killed outright, which is cheaper for the insurance company than paying for treatment of injuries. But a person in a car, wearing a seat belt, is more likely to not be injured at all, again, saving the insurance companies money.
My son-in-law says no seniors on high ladders (after seeing me precariously cleaning gutters, protect your eyes when cutting the grass, and no motorcycles- which is odd, since he is an avid cyclist.
Our son was in a bad skateboarding accident. When we got to the hospital, we were greeted by his emergency surgeon who came out holding his helmet. She handed it to us, saying “This saved your son’s life.” The helmet was a mess, he had a compound fracture of the tibia, (no bones left unbroken in his calf,) his hard head was happily still hard. We had drilled helmet wearing into him and luckily it was one of the few things he agreed with us on. He wears a piece of that helmet as a necklace to remind him of the risks that come with the joy of extreme sports.
While it’s not great having a cop knock on the door to tell you to go meet your kid at the hospital, it sure would have been worse to be directed to the morgue. That was an eye opening year of the joys of dealing with health insurance claims. DH felt it was a full time job.
I am surprised seniors on ladders did not make list. I have personally known two senior men that have fallen, one off a deer stand one off an extension ladder. Both died.
I think it was Huberman labs podcast about life extension that mentioned most causes of death we blood vessel related, heart arteries strokes, with cancer being pretty far down the graph in percentages. But, for those over 60, the life expectancy after breaking leg was about 12 months. Of course this is probably heavily weighted to nursing home patients.
To Steve’s rants, everybody that starts social security should get a free sports bike and kilo of cocaine. It would save Medicare and SS.
Uh-oh. DH (age 72) still cleans out the gutters and sweeps evergreen needles off the roof. He carried a 4 X 8 foot plywood sheet up a ladder to the garage roof after a tree fell through it.
Maybe this would be the time to hire people to do this.
Wendy
Probably, although the caveat is again that you have to look at the individual. Is he more like Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford (not looks, obviously, but activity) or more like Nick Nolte and Al Pacino? Everyone ages differently so the strength and body agility have to be judged according to one’s personal abilities.
I think the crux as you age is to examine, not what you still can do, but how much extra margin do you have as you do what you can do.
I can still skateboard, and last year hanging with my grand nephews even did some curb jumps and “spin ollies” as I had done thirty years ago with their father. He saw, and was furious with me, pointing out that if my grandnephews fell it meant some bruises and cuts, but if I fell there was rapidly increasing probability of permanent damage. Even worse, he was striving to teach his kids “sobriety” as more than merely avoiding over indulgence in liquor or drugs, but instead an awareness of inherent human frailty…. BAD BAD Uncle David.
I apologized, and told the kids I had been very stoopid.
Thinking over crippling injuries of oldsters I have long known to be sane people, I would say ladders are extremely attractive dangers.
I understand the sentiment, but the day I stop living full bore, I may as well be dead. Now I have never been a daredevil by any stretch of the imagination, and am still in my early 60s, but yes, I get up on ladders and play a serious game of pickleball, but I do make sure DH is around for time up in the air, which is the minimum ANYONE should do, and I wear safety sports glasses to avoid blindness from a ball to the eye. I am sure, you gave the good example of wearing a helmet, (insert serious scolding here if you did not!)
A few years back I was on a 5 day white water rafting trip, where I quickly became friends with a woman who was there with her husband in celebration of 5 years cancer free from his glioblastoma. I was the crazy one who asked to get out of the raft to paddle the class 4 rapids solo in the blow up kayak. I guess I looked as though I was having so much fun, that her husband soon was asking for a turn. She was trying to wrap him in bubble wrap so that nothing could happen to him, understandably, constantly nagging at him to be careful and encouraging him to just sit still. While the two of us were on a walk solo, I acknowledged her concerns but asked if she realized that she was essentially so worried about his dying that she wouldn’t let him live. Thankfully, (because it could have gone so wrong,) she heard what I was saying and the next day encouraged him to take the kayak. He had a blast. She reached out a couple of years later to let me know his cancer had come back and he passed. But in the meantime, he lived.
Though I certainly don’t want to pass before my time, I am more afraid of not living than dying. I try not to do things stupidly, but I won’t stop doing.
DH is 6’2" tall and weighs 160 pounds fully clothed. He is 72 years old and has smoked for 50 years. Until a few years ago he was extremely strong and spent a lot of time carrying a chain saw miles into the Olympic wilderness as a volunteer member of a group dedicated to clearing the trails of fallen massive old-growth timber. This photo shows him and a friend sawing a typical fallen tree with a 2-man logging saw.
For the past few years he gradually quit this activity and became extremely sedentary. He spends most days lying in a recliner watching TV. Unlike me, he doesn’t work out. He has lost 30 pounds of muscle.
A month ago, I strong-armed him into taking a low-dose spiral chest CT scan designed for long-time smokers. The CT scan detected a 25 mm X 12 mm solid nodule and 3 small nodules in his right lung and an 8 mm low-density nodule in his left lung. The CT scan also detected emphysema and calcification of his coronary arteries.
His primary care sent a referral for a visit to a pulmonologist. They were so unresponsive that I personally visited the scheduler’s office to demand an appointment while glaring into her eyes. She said she has any number of patients with lung tumors. I answered, “I only have ONE husband!” I was so mad I could spit nails! His appointment is April 28. The day before my cardiologist appointment on April 29.
I have collected resources to help DH stop smoking but he’s not cooperating. He’s still very strong physically but loses his breath when he carries a basket of firewood up the stairs. I don’t know how he would deal with surgery since he’s a terrible patient. He moans and groans and resists having me take his temperature if he has a cold.
Sorry to go on and on like this. Hard times ahead.
Wendy
However, I am about to go black diamond skiiing for a week, escorted by my three nephews in turns, but me tearing down a snow gully is waaaay safer than executing a spin board ollie over a concrete curb (even with helmet!). I was being stupid, endulging in “proving” my daredevil skill to (blush) some stunned athletic young men….
I am very sad to hear that your husband has passed. I lost my younger sister to glioblastoma, and found it a frightening disease to observe.
