TheBanyanTree: Survival of the fittest

[Cecil]

At 7:12 PM +0930 11/9/03, JMoney wrote:
>My sister has had a rough time lately.  First she broke her ankle while out
>bushwalking one weekend.  It must have been an impacted fracture because she
>kept walking on it and didn't know it was actually broken until the X-rays
>were taken.
>
>The next time she went on a weekend bushwalking trip she came down with a
>terrible sore throat and after she got home the illness worsened.  It got so
>bad, my mother told me, that my sister said she felt as though this must be
>how it feels to be near death.  But now she's over it and has been on yet
>another bushwalking weekend with my brother.
>
>My brother, said my mother, is deeply impressed with my sister's toughness
>and fitness.  You should do something to get fit, she told me.
>
>The thought gives me chills.  I'm getting older and I don't want to be a
>physically fit aged person.  What if I dement?  That could happen.  One of
>my grandmothers went ga-ga and had to be carried off by pneumonia secondary
>to immobility due to treatment for a fractured hip that happened during a
>fall.  I'm already forgetful.  Do I want to have a fit body and an unfit
>mind?  No, no, no.  I'd rather have it the other way around.  I'd rather my
>body failed first.
>
>Years ago, when I was still a teenager, I worked in the geriatric ward of a
>psychiatric hospital looking after demented old ladies.  People who haven't
>had close experience of caring for such people tend to imagine that they are
>probably happy in their own way.  After all, if you've forgotten everyone
>and everything what could upset you?  But that's not how it is.
>
>I have recognised the moments of confused clarity and seen the misery those
>moments provoke.  Here I am, but where is it?  I am surrounded by people,
>but where are the ones I know and love?
>
>There was a woman who had been a farmer's wife, the mother of several
>children and a hard worker.  She was sitting in the day room, as usual,
>staring blankly ahead through the windows when a light came into her eyes.
>She looked around in bewilderment.  That turned to horror and she started
>weeping piteously.  It took a while for  her to forget again.  And then it
>was just a matter of time before she suffered her next moment of dreadful
>awareness.
>
>Being bonkers is not necessarily benign.  With a fit body you can be bonkers
>for a very long time.  The alternative sounds much better to me.
>
>Janice

Hi, Janice. I think you might have opened some eyes with this post. I
didn't know that such people have "moments of confused clarity" in which
they are aware of their awful condition.

> Theforgetting is bit by bit and the bits can be scattered all over the place.
>The connections that help you make sense of what you're experiencing and how
>that fits with the rest of your life are broken.  What you're left with is
>distress.

What a wonderful description! I admire people who have the ability to
expresss abstract thoughts so clearly. I think my wife is experiencing the
onset of dementia and has spells of crying.

I certainly  agree with you. I want my body to go first, and I think it's
well on its way. Even so,  I want to hang around for a while - as long  as
I can  work crossword puzzles and connect with my friends and relatives. As
for being a physically fit aged person, well, I'll take that.  A sound mind
in a wreck of a body is no fun either.

Cecil