AGING WITH AN OSTOMY

Aging with an ostomy is no different than aging without one, but that doesn’t make it any easier. You have to pay attention to your diet, but for slightly different reasons than before. Clothing choices, you discover quickly, take into account something other than “Does it make my butt look good?” Staying in shape takes on a whole new level of factor consideration. And travel…that can get even more complicated than usual. I once had an airport security guard confiscate from my carry-on the scissors from my ostomy kit. I shouldn’t have packed it there. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that I ease into the little life style changes that accompany the process. I like animals more and dislike children less. I watch the gray whiskers push out with a philosophical shrug and only cut it about once a week. [The beard is long gone.] I still find it irritating that I have more hair growing in my ears than on my head. There’s always going to be those choices over which you anguish regularly. Should I do it, or not? Should I eat it, or pass it up? Should I say something, or let it go? “You can live to be a hundred,” said Woody Allen, “if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.” I’m sure there’s a country music song somewhere with a line advising the down-to-earth, blue-collar staple: you gotta keep on keeping on (even after you’ve been flushed from the bathroom of her heart).

Keep on keepin' on; maybe so. However, I have a couple of favorites that I find I have been singing more now that I've reached octogenarian status…

🎼🎶Drop Kick Me Jesus Through The Goal Posts Of Life🎶🎶

🎼🎶Prop Me Up Beside The Jukebox If I Die 🎶🎶🎶

I like "Don't Let the Old Man In" by Toby Keith.