Because mastodon is like a 99% male audience, I will say this: if you have an aging mother you are in relationship with and care about, do NOT make her go through medical stuff alone. I am skilled & mean enough to fight through medical stuff and even so you would not believe how bad it is. Just accept that you cannot imagine.

I talk to a lot of people's aging moms and they are abandoned & alone even in nice families. I don't care how awkward it is, you have to try to ask them about it.

Our moms are suffering because no one cares and they aren't telling anyone. They're getting diagnoses 15 years late, they're being bullied about medications, they're silent about what they're going through.

The difference between the younger women and the older women in the patient groups I'm in is horrific. I have listened to many, many people's moms describe years of suffering that could've been prevented. I am not trying to lay on any guilt. I'm just saying a little bit could go a long way.

It doesn't have to be this way. I have helped multiple older women argue to get past primary care and get to specialists and learn that there is better science than decades ago, that has studied more women, but there's only one of me in these chats. You can't fix the system but if you have an older woman in your life you can ask if you can research something for them, or go to an appointment and make sure they're heard, or suggest the random pains they have are a thing that needs attention.
@grimalkina Not just moms. My wife is 71 (seven years older than me), and there's a reason she still spends all day every day in the garden doing heavy stuff, and walks for miles with her friend, and our love life is even better than it was when she was 40: we've both fought to get her the right medical care instead of letting them let her get "old." Hips, heart, hearing, hormones. Next up: cataracts, and then she'll see better than she did at 20!

@msbellows β™₯οΈπŸ’œπŸ’šπŸ’›πŸŒž

Playing in mud is good for us!!!!

If I were there I would sing Rick Charette's song, "I Love Mud" to her-

Chorus:

"Mud, mud, I love mud!
I'm absolutely, positively wild about mud.
I can't go around it. I've got to go through it.

Beautiful, fabulous, super duper mud."

@grimalkina

@BrambleBearSnoring @grimalkina Oh, that is superb. I'm finding that and playing it at an opportune time. Thank you!

@msbellows @grimalkina

I have loved that song for decades, and sing the chorus at every opportunity. Your post reminds me there are probably mud puddles waiting for me at the dump. They often have cool rocks hiding on them.

Mud luscious and puddle wonderful-what is that from???? Yhink, think, think

[in Just-]

in Just- spring          when the world is mud- luscious the little lame balloonman whistles          far          and wee and eddieandbill come running…

The Poetry Foundation