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Old fart issues...

That rings a bell, (although maybe I didn't hear it), lol. I've worked with boilers and related mechanical stuff for almost 50 years now. I have had tinnitus almost that long. As mentioned, I get accused of selective hearing. Sometimes it can be a beneficial excuse for not paying attention. I am sure long bouts of listening to loud, predominately rock music didn't & doesn't help either. Rotating shifts is much worse than the hearing crap. Having almost no circadian rhythm takes an average of 7 years off your life. (Sleep deprivation). Other than normal, or abnormal aches & pains, I have learned to live with it. Actually, I read recently that a man's average life span has dropped to around 73. I'll be 71 in a couple months. So, according to the law of averages, I have been dead for 4 years now! I think I'll be around for more abuse for a while yet.
:drinks::drinks::drinks: to all you good folks here! (My home away from home and at work). Thanks for being here!!!
 
During your lightheadednes, is your
vision sensitive to bright lighting?
This is a very good indicator of
low blood pressure.
My BP dropped while getting out from
under my truck and standing up to
quickly. The sun coming in thru the
open garage door became blnding.
Turns out my doc had prescribed
a med that was a little over the top.
He actually questioned me as to my
light sensitivity. Hope you get this
figured out.
 
Physical Therapy has been helping. I do that once a week. Walking and stretching exercises are helping somewhat. Much of the numbness and tingling in my feet has subsided, which I'm happy to report. My current challenge is using stairs. I have to hold onto the handrail going up or down. Just a couple of years ago, I could fly up and down stairs; but now, it's more of a one-step, two-step process. Slow and steady. Last thing I want to do is tumble head-long down concrete stairs. My ability to bounce is seriously inhibited...more of a "splat"!
 
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I've been light sensitive most of my life. Found out how bad it was when I bought an Alpine White pickup in 76 and drove that bastid for 5 years. Even on a cloudy day, photo greys were required and regular sun glasses on sunny days. The photo grey glasses didn't get dark enough for the sunny days but now, sun glasses just makes it harder to see. Cataracts? Eye doctor said no need to do anything yet.....
 
Physical Therapy has been helping. I do that once a week. Walking and stretching exercises are helping somewhat. Much of the numbness and tingling in my feet has subsided, which I'm happy to report. My current challenge is using stairs. I have to hold onto the handrail going up or down. Just a couple of years ago, I could fly up and down stairs; but now, it's more of a one-strep, two-step process. Slow and steady. Last thing I want to do is tumble head-long down concrete stairs. My ability to bounce is seriously inhibited...more of a "splat"!
My wife has followed a similar regimen for dealing with neuropathy in her feet over the last two decades, with excellent results. At the age of 70, she's had issues with other components in her feet going bad, and the best results come from keeping everything moving, just not too hard. She overdid it with therapy for some recent plantar muscle issues , and was having a rough time overall, until she eased up. Good advice on stair technique.
 
Like @multimopes, been in the power generation field for 30+ years, rotating shifts: We don't eat right, crappy sleep patterns, off days AREN'T usually off (usually cover shifts) & doing things around house/yard on those off days.
Gunk in ears, allergies, low blood sugar, dehydration, low blood pressure and heat/cold body exposure within minutes all can cause issues: started getting vertgo around 23 years ago, 90' up on HRSG with open metal deck & stairs, take it slow & hold rails is all ya can do.
Thank goodness a old timer back in day told me wearing hearing protection, he was loosing his hearing, my hearing all good, tested every year.
 
I fell while walking across the street a few months ago, fortunately at the curb, so I didn't get hurt. Not even scraped up! Kinda scared me, of course, since that was a first for me. Gravity is a bitch! Doc said "balance issues" and started a weekly PT routine, which had helped a bunch! Fast forward to Sunday. My son and I were out cutting branches and getting rid of some overgrowth along the fence line. Knocking it out like there was no tomorrow! After that, I went over to my tractor to disconnect the brush hog and put the tractor in the shop. It has a pretty heavy power steering pump leak I'd rather be indoors to fix. I was removing the mover deck from the three-point, using a 5-pound hammer to get that %^&#$-ing arm off the mower. Took a healthy swing at the arm. It came off hard, and I fell, narrowly missing a cinder block nearby. Didn't hit my head, but damn, my knee hurt like hell where the hammer hit it on the way down! As Monty Python would say "It's just a scratch!"...

Now to yesterday...I got off the couch, walked two steps, got a little light-headed and fell backwards onto the couch. Now I'm wondering if there might be something going on. Most of us here are between 50 and 75 years of age. Have any of you experienced balance problems that either were/are no big deal, or the extreme? I hate going to doctors...we all do, probably. I refuse to take any painkiller stronger than aspirin.

Not looking for an online diagnosis. That might be like going to the doc and asking "Hey Doc, my carb needs rebuilt, can you do that?" Or sympathy. Just looking to see if any of you have had similar balance issues. This just has me a bit spooked, but I'm reticent about going to the doc right now.
Yep, I am 67 and it seems like when my sinus acts up, I get vertigo. When I move my head a certain way or roll over on a creeper the room starts to spin. And I have trouble sometimes walking on uneven ground. And yes, some exercises do seem to help. I went to the doctor about the vertigo, and of course since it comes and goes, they can find nothing that causes it.
 
I've had a couple requests for pictures of the hand controls I'm installing in my '69 GTX. They are a Monarch I set up, with an optional lock out pin, which disconnects the hand lever from the pivot arms when the car is being driven with feet on the pedals. I have a friend who is a skilled fabricator, and he welded a set of tabs to the mounting bracket that will enable installation to the steering column bolts, with zero modifications to the car. I paid $475 for this equipment on eBay. New goes for about $1500 if installed by a dealer.

There are far cheaper portable hand controls, and I use a set of these in my daily driver, when I drive on long trips. I chose the Monarch for the GTX because of the flexibility it provides to drive with either the feet or the hands. The portables don't leave space for foot applications of the pedals. I have a "closet" disability, the result of late effects from childhood polio. This creates a situation where I'm 100% normal able bodied until I hit a threshold, usually about an hour on my feet, unassisted. Then things go rapidly down hill, manifesting in extreme fatigue, then severe muscle spasms if I push far enough.

So in a typical car show day, I can start out driving normally, which I did last week. Using forearm crutches at local shows will buy me a day of being upright, but I pay for it on the way home, with leg spasms, and can't work the gas pedal after my right leg gives out. At big shows like Carlisle, I use a manual wheelchair most of the day, and have no issues (I still have an extremely strong upper body for a guy my age and weight.)

The Monarch will enable me to get home after a long day without problems. My wife found out I was using a crutch to work the gas pedal, and freaked out, so now I'm doing the more efficient thing. There are multiple Youtube videos showing the system being operated, including one in a late model Charger R/T, but I wasn't able to link any to this site.

C9217CFA-0265-4850-877E-656CCFFE574B.jpeg


E302B3B5-26EB-4010-A86B-BC5402951ED5.jpeg
 
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Dehydration appeared to be the culprit. My BP is dead-on 120/72, heart rate of 85 and O2 level of 99. Blood sugar was great! Ears checked out fine, as well. My doc called yesterday to tell me all my tests came back normal. And I do admit, I wasn't drinking near the water I should be, but I didn't realize until recently I wasn't hydrating enough. Dumb, because I've spent more than enough time in the Saudi litter box (and others) to know better.

I'm just glad the news was good, and the solution was both logical and drug-free. I've felt great over the past week (since Sunday, anyway!), especially. Kinda scared the **** outta myself, really! Just like the Coronet and the Imperial, I can't just jump in and go full-out without checking a couple of things, first. Water...yup, kinda important!
1689343572206.png
 
Thanks for that! I hear that all the time as I work in a hospital. It seems to be one of the new "catch phrases". I usually respond with "Piss on it!" As staying hydrated goes, I like to lube my innards with BEER! There was a T-shirt that I still see around on occasion that reads, "Everyone has to believe in something; I believe I'll have another beer!" By the way, speaking of drinking, I have heard after consuming alcoholic beverages, (always) make sure to drink a full glass of water before going to bed. Then there is the silent voice in your head which says something on the order of "How happy am I?", which to me is a women's perspective, from the male side it's usually more like "It doesn't matter, ya do what ya gotta do." There was an old Daffy Duck cartoon, way back when where Daffy says,"I don't like pain, it hurts me!" That one always rings true for most folks. Thinking about that, I wonder if Masochists enjoy aging better than others because many of them actually LIKE pain. I never could understand that. Then there was a song back a ways, I think by "Blondie"?, with a line that says: "Some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused." At any rate, the law of averages is that getting old is painful for most people and there ain't much we can do about it, except try to keep moving & remember the times, we all took for granted, when things didn't hurt. Speaking of moving, I remember a desk to desk flyer that somebody snuck into inter-department mail at work that said something on the order of,( Notice: Management has noticed that some people are dying on the job & failing to fall down. This practice must stop immediately as it becomes extremely difficult to determine the dead people from the normal movement of the staff!)
By the way; in thinking about it, it is difficult for us to determine how hydrated we are at home as one of my toilets is tan & the other is grey. On top of that, I have some iron in my water supply which further skews the color chart. My last question is how to tell if you are over hydrated, other than getting up to pee more frequently or is that kidneys failing or just old age? I do recall the good ol days of "Bladder Bliss",when I could go what seemed like forever, without the need to water the plants. Youth is just wasted on the young! I think I have been yappy enough for this thread.
:lol:
 
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Thanks for that! I hear that all the time as I work in a hospital. It seems to be one of the new "catch phrases". I usually respond with "Piss on it!" As staying hydrated goes, I like to lube my innards with BEER! There was a T-shirt that I still see around on occasion that reads, "Everyone has to believe in something; I believe I'll have another beer!" By the way, speaking of drinking, I have heard after consuming alcoholic beverages, (always) make sure to drink a full glass of water before going to bed. Then there is the silent voice in your head which says something on the order of "How happy am I?", which to me is a women's perspective, from the male side it's usually more like "It doesn't matter, ya do what ya gotta do." There was an old Daffy Duck cartoon, way back when where Daffy says,"I don't like pain, it hurts me!" That one always rings true for most folks. Thinking about that, I wonder if Masochists enjoy aging better than others because many of them actually LIKE pain. I never could understand that. Then here was a song back a ways, I think by "Blondie"?, with a line that says: "Some of them want to abuse you, some of them want to be abused." At any rate, the law of averages is that getting old is painful for most people and there ain't much we can do about it, except try to keep moving & remember the times, we all took for granted, when things didn't hurt. Speaking of moving, I remember a desk to desk flyer that somebody snuck into inter-department mail at work that said something on the order of,( Notice: Management has noticed that some people are dying on the job & failing to fall down. This practice must stop immediately as it becomes extremely difficult to determine the dead people from the normal movement of the staff!)
By the way; in thinking about it, it is difficult for us to determine how hydrated we are at home as one of my toilets is tan & the other is grey. On top of that, I have some iron in my water supply which further skews the color chart. My last question is how to tell if you are over hydrated, other than getting up to pee more frequently or is that kidneys failing or just old age? I do recall the good ol days of "Bladder Bliss",when I could go what seemed like forever, without the need to water the plants. Youth is just wasted on the young! I think I have been yappy enough for this thread.
:lol:
The song is Sweet Dreams Are Made of This by Eurythmics.
 
Thank You Sir, You are correct! I do not have any of their albums so sweet senility intervened for me.
 
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