AT MY AGE

I have already had a good old moan about Doctors receptionists this week,in fact I have done so much grouching about one thing and another that I seem to be rapidly becoming a grumpy old woman. Let us do what the medical profession always do when faced with a woman patient and put it down to my age.

It really is true that if you happen to be female ,and you happen to be at all under the weather,in a bad mood or perhaps feeling just a little pensive some wise acre will subscribe your condition to “your age”.. As a child I remember lying on the sofa,covered with a rug because I was a little unwell. My mother,grandmother and Aunt were talking in whispers and I heard my mother say, “Well,she's at that age!”.....What age, I wondered?

Later, in my early teens I became prone to a kind of moody lethargy which my Grandmother insisted was because “I was at a funny age!” Actually it turned out to be Glandular Fever and by the time anyone took it seriously I was extremely ill indeed. Even my G.P insisted that there was nothing physically wrong with me, so I asked him why, if all was well did I have huge bumps around my neck and under my arms. I was on my way to hospital before I had time to call my mother to let her know why I would not be home.

When at the great age of twenty nine I became pregnant with my son I was considered, quite old to be giving birth for the first time. There is a name for this which I cannot now recall. both the Doctor and the maternity nurse talked about me as if I was positively geriatric. Once again, my age was the problem.

When a woman enters her late forties the cry of “It's her age” or worse “She's at a funny age!” Is everyone’s answer to what ever ails the poor soul, from flue to fallen arches!

Now we come to the serious bit. By the time they reach their fifties most women are sick and tired of being dismissed by all and sundry in the above manner. At a time in her life when a woman needs to be a little careful about any odd or unusual symptoms she develops an aversion to the attitude she finds every where when she is unwell.

She ignores these niggling little symptoms until they become to intrusive to ignore and by the time they visit their Doctor it is often too late. A close friend is dying of bowel cancer and when her daughter asked her why ,if she knew there was some thing wrong she had said nothing about it,she replied that ….........she had supposed it was just her age ! It,s tragic.

I am now sixty years old, I have arthritis, high blood pressure kidney stones and I take anti depressants.....obviously I am in a good deal of pain most of the time, and guess what my G.P said when last I visited him..........can you guess? When I mentioned that my eye sight was getting worse he replied.”Well, it's to be expected.....at you age.”

How I stopped myself from beating him to death with my walking stick I shall never know!!!