An OA

“The elderly population, consisting of persons aged 65 or greater…” was the first sentence of a 2025 medical article.

The term elderly has not been recommended for many years due to stereotyping older adults as sick, frail, and dependent.

It’s an ageist term.

Older individuals, of the same age, can be very heterogeneous.

One may be sick, frail and dependent, while another is healthy, active, and independent.

The International Longevity Center recommended using the term older adult (OA) many years ago.

I agree and multiple surveys have concluded the same.

I’m totally fine with being an OA, with OA (osteoarthritis).

But…I’m not elderly! 😏.

Introductions to another physician

My family doctor, who I had seen yearly for over two decades, and was my age, had the audacity to retire almost two-years ago (said sarcastically).

I recently went to see a new family physician, whom my wife had help to train and whom she recommended I see.

He was in his mid-to-late 30s.

In general, everything went fine except for the following:

I introduced myself by my first name when I stood to shake his hand.

He introduced himself as “Dr.,” followed only by his last name.

That annoyed me, as he knew I was a physician.

But it’s no surprise that I was annoyed.

I’ve always introduced myself to other physicians by my first name.

A physician who introduces himself as “Dr.,”  followed only by their last name, when acknowledging my introduction, has always been a pet peeve, especially if I’m older or we are about the same age.

But, I’ve always made it a point of getting to know their first name so as to only use it when we subsequently cross pass professionally and/or socially.

I wonder if that annoys them?

Improved driving skills

Many retirement experts recommend remaining a life-long learner.

That won’t be difficult for me.

While I admit that my medical journals have been mainly un-read for the last few months, I’ve currently been watching too numerous to count instructional videos daily, in addition to investigating many other topics of interest that I previously didn’t have the time to even begin to consider.

One outcome of my most recent life-long learning is that my driving skills have significantly improved…but I still need a lot of work on my short game, uneven lies, and getting out of bunkers! 😀.

Showered, groomed, and dressed

Although my wife and I never worked together, we always left for work at about the same time, showered, groomed and dressed.

Lately, since being retired, I’ve been sleeping-in until about 7 am during the weekdays.

By that time, my wife is already about half-way through her pre-work routine-usually in the hair curler and finishing make-up phase.

When she heads off for work at about 730 am, I’m typically drinking coffee, un-showered, un-groomed, and wearing my sleep garments (usually a wrinkled, baggy T-shirt, and gym shorts).

She has always said variations of, “Love you babe, have a great day, you look really nice,” before we went our separate ways, and I still say variations of the same to her.

But, “you look really nice,” is no longer applicable for me in the morning and I completely understand.

However, I always make an effort for when she arrives home.

Fortunately, she gives me a heads up text message when leaving work for her 30-minute commute home.

It allows me to get re-showered, re-groomed, and re-dressed due to having spent the day doing yard-work, working out, golfing, playing pickleball, reading, blogging, running errands, etc., often looking the same as I did when drinking my morning coffee.

Happiness and peace of mind

“If you got by without a work identity for the first eighteen or twenty years of your life, you can certainly get by without one for another twenty years - or for however long you live after you retire. Thinking that you need  a career identity to be a whole person is to deny yourself happiness and peace of mind.”-Ernie J. Zelinski, How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free.

(Although I wouldn’t mind occasionally being “identified” as an excellent pickleball player in my retirement years, I know it’s unlikely to happen, especially since I keep incurring musculoskeletal injuries whenever I go at it too hard on the court, and it’s just not necessary for me to be happy and have peace of mind! 😂)

A change of heart

When I was the medical director for a large medical team, many women, on the team, got pregnant.

Due to our generous maternity leave policy, as well as the amount of vacation most had usually accrued prior to getting pregnant, it was pretty much the standard that all would be absent from work for at least 6 months, once the baby arrived.

We never had the ability to hire temporary staffing.

So, whenever told by someone that they were pregnant, I would, obviously, always say, “Congrats! That’s great, wonderful news!”

But internally, while immediately contemplating a future prolonged staffing shortage would think, “Yikes (actually, I’m ashamed to admit…Crap)!”

Our first grandchildren, twins, are now almost 5 months old.

Their Mom has had an extended amount of time off, which has been a wonderful blessing, but must return to work soon.

She’s done an amazing job.

I really wish she had more (paid) time-off.

For some reason, I’ve never pondered a possible staffing shortage on her team, or had any inappropriate internal thoughts 😉!

RIs

I’ve been exercising a lot.

An earlier post reviewed my first retirement injury (RI) almost three months ago-a strained lower back sustained during a yoga class-I’m not kidding.

My 2nd RI occurred last evening-tweaked my left hamstring playing pickleball.

(I know-at least a lot easier to comprehend how than the yoga class injury!)

Luckily, it didn’t occur until after a couple dog walks and 2 hours at the driving range.

I’m going to lay somewhat low today but still plan to get to the gym.

I’ve got to do a shoulder strengthening routine that I’ve done for over a year now, since tearing my right rotator cuff from hitting an overhead volley while playing pickleball.

That injury was my last pre-RI!