Calling all you 'silver foxes', need your wisdom

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Thanks for that, Dear_one (That reads strangely as I have never said that to a stranger before ). My condolences on the loss of your Mother. I agree, your situation would be difficult to arrange at present, but the hope is that by creating pressure we can force agencies/authorities to ensure they can work to support everybody.

I hope that I can stay in my own safe haven for as long as possible and if it is looking likely I would have to go into some form of sheltered accommodation then I will be 'taking a trip to Switzerland'. In case you don't get that euphemism, the Dignitas Clinic is a legal assisted dying association. Not cheery but a logical solution to my fears; not that I am advocating anything to anybody else mind you.

Hopefully, the future support provision will allow me to age and face decrepitude on my own terms without 'checking out' early.

I'd feel quite justified in refusing care as a senior, since I was refused care all through my youth and prime of life. The sums spent on vegetable maintenance are appalling. Near-Death experiences are almost always amazingly pleasant, so I'll be glad to move on when my powers for good diminish more.

^^^
for most of us, that long final corridor of agonized senescence is almost interminable.

I am trying to focus my mind more these days on what the kindest exit is for all stakeholders - me being the major stakeholder in this case, as it is my eventual exit that I am pondering.. I can see the need to balance various interests and impacts, as well as my self-interest and potential impacts on me. There's no rush as I'm not planning on an imminent departure (though nature may have other plans, you never know, so live every day to the max if you can, when you can.... ) I think as we reach this last stage of life, attitude becomes an even greater impact on health, though it's only one factor of many.

I've never been able to fuzzbust my brain into thinking "if I don't mind, then it doesn't matter." the most I can do to make the final approach of the dreaded corridor as uneventful as possible, is to take the kind of proper care of my health that I should have done from the very beginning, and hope that it is not too late to do any good.

It's never too late to make more positive choices re health and most have more immediate impacts than people think. Keeping inflammation down in the body generally is currently the emerging factor in the overall health status of older people (and not just older people). That's relatively easy to do and quickly achievable

the enaction [a word I invented] of the proper anti-inflammatory health practices can indeed be done on a dime, but the results often don't come for quite some time, that was the way it was with me. only after several months did I notice a difference. I guess my body can be a bit dense.

If you can tolerate it, aspirin helps and has a relatively fast effect compared to fishoils and other reducers of inflammation.

I am a longtime user of stout NSAIDs such as ibuprophen and diclofen. my back and joints in general have gotten to that point where I need the larger guns. aspirin has basically limited effect on me.

I use cold packs for my joints - especially my neck and lower back. They are a strange little plastic bag of gel you keep in the freezer and apply as and when. I saw a Chiropractor for my back years ago and he said that rather than putting more heat into an already inflamed area, use cold to shrink the nerves. I was sceptical, but I have to say it works well for me. My neck pain is due to my involuntary twitching which happens when I get a bit stressed; that in turn tightens my neck and shoulders up, which in turn leads to more pain in the form of headaches! Deep joy!

I take a full range of multivitamins and magnesium for the headaches - I read on a migraine website that it had been utilised to really good effect by some. Still early days for that, but dare I say this out loud, it seems to be making a bit of a difference.

Maybe we should be looking towards our funding authorities to pay for daily vitamins for our supported living service users? I'll not hold my breath on the money, but maybe it is worth looking for supporting evidence?

Getting old is not for wimps is it! Magnesium helps me sleep more deeply if I take it before bedtime, makes quite a difference. I take so many vitamins etc these days it's a wonder I don't rattle when I move!

You're not wrong! Luckily I have two Leonberger dogs who keep me active, they don't do sitting around and they are too big to be ignored. I spend a lot of time at a local dog training centre with them, meeting and greeting all the other dogs. I like it there, the humans know they are all playing second fiddle to the dogs and are quite happy for it to be that way!