This morning when I got up, my body was as stiff as an ironing board. Every muscle felt like it had frozen in place.
The stiffness stayed with me for a while. I reached to put my socks on and it felt like I was stretching a rubber band beyond its capacity. Why I was so stiff?” Cleveland Clinic says, “As we age, our muscles get tighter, our tendons and ligaments become less flexible, and our bodies take longer to heal from injury.” (1)
Is this what old age is? Scary thoughts raced through my brain. How long will it be before I can no longer reach my feet? Tie my shoes? Clip my toenails? I stopped polishing my toenails because I couldn’t see them, not because I couldn’t reach them. It was too much trouble, and no one ever sees my toes anyway because my feet are always covered with socks.
Donald Ford, MD of Cleveland Clinic, says just because our muscles and tendons shrink as we get older “it doesn't mean that we're destined to become shrunken robots. It means that we have to work harder to get the same thing. So you have to dedicate yourself to exercise, and particularly stretching… Your muscles stay pliant when you use and stretch them.”
I used to be limber. I’ve always stretched after I exercise. But when bursitis kept me from exercising for six months, I din’t stretch. I’m working to regain my flexibility.
My cat stretches every time he stands up. Maybe I should do that. But I might look like someone at a revival if I stretched my arms to the heavens when I stood. If I shouted “Halleluiah!” people would think I was crazy (or crazier) for sure.
And lately, when I stretch in bed, my calf or foot muscles seize and I jump up like someone on fire. Dr. Google says you’ll get charley horses if you are a slug during the day or if you have tired muscles (which means you were too active during the day). Just how much activity should I get? You’re also more prone to charley horses if you are AFAB (No, it’s not a heart condition – it’s assigned female at birth – a new term for me), AFABs have a 60% chance of getting nightly leg cramps. Another possible cause; taking naproxen (Aleve) can increase your risk. So a pill for aches and pains can cause different aches and pains.
Doctors used to recommend bananas as a charley horse remedy, but I didn’t see that remedy in any of Dr. Google’s articles. Reliant Medical Group’s Medical Myth Busters says, “Increasing the intake of foods that are high in electrolytes like potassium has not been shown to have much of an effect in warding off muscle cramps.” (2) That’s good. I can stop buying the bananas that seem to turn black on my trip home from the store. Today’s remedies include stretching, exercise, hydration, massage, and heel walking. (3) Caution: If you do heel walking in public, you’ll look like a member of the Ministry of Silly Walks (Monty Python – September 1970). (4)
Speaking of aches and pains, this past year has been a year for mystery maladies. It started last July when I got bursitis in my hip. I can’t remember injuring myself. I just woke up one morning with a painful hip. It took months to go away.
Now I have a swollen foot. Again, I had no obvious cause. I didn’t twist my ankle, step into a divot, or bang it into anything. I just woke up one day with a painful, swollen ankle. And to add injury to injury, yesterday when a woman scooted past me for a seat at a concert, she lost her balance and stepped on that foot, which was hidden under the chair. Figure the odds of that.
My friend Mary said she also had a mystery injury. She woke one morning with a painful wrist. It took three months for her wrist to return to normal.
So what’s happening? Is there a ghost visiting us at night and inflicting injuries? In a Doc Martin (PBS) episode a man was getting mystery bruises when he slept. They suspected sleepwalking. But after a non-conclusive sleep study, they filmed him sleeping with his wife. She was punching him at night. But my friend is single so it must be ghosts!
As seniors, our conversations frequently drift to medical issues or aches and pains. When I get aches and pains I tend to compare myself to others. When I’m in a good mood, I look at people who with more aches and pains than I have and think, “I’m doing pretty good.”
On gloomier days, I look at my friends who play tennis, ride bikes, and walk several miles a day, and think – “what a slug I’m getting to be.”
I have to remind myself as I navigate the stiffness and mystery injuries that seem to come with age, that even with the aches and pains of aging we still find joy and humor in our friends, our families, and our experiences.
References
Dr. Donald Ford, Dealing with Common Aches and Pains as We Age with Dr. Donald Ford, Cleveland Clinic, November 21, 2018
Medical Mythbuster, Does Eating Bananas Help Prevent Muscle Cramps While Exercising?, ReliantMedicalGroup.org, January 18, 2020
Dr. Abhinav Singh, Jay Summer, Leg Cramps at Night, Tips to Reduce Discomfort, Sleepfoundation.org, January 16, 2024
The Ministry of Silly Walks, Wikipedia.
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