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2 really bad things have happened. First, my husband ‘s pension was eliminated when the company he retired from after 37 years declared bankruptcy. It was supposed to be our main source of income.
Then, a few years after that I hurt my lower back while moving and there is nothing doctors (or I) can do for it. I’ve tried PT, radio frequency ablation, tens therapy, etc. I can walk for about 5 minutes before the pain begins.
Yet I’m grateful the 2 of us have no life-threatening illness, and that our sons and grandkids are healthy.
I fell backward while playing picker ball, I was getting competitive, we were winning, for the first time in my life it hurt like hell. I went home and put on ice and hot bath, 3 days later, I got back to swimming. It’s so refreshing. I stopped swimming because I was starting to have skin rash, maybe it’s in the pool.
I have gone through some big health problems. First I had to have a hip replacement and the surgeon damaged 2 nerves and now I have tightness around my knee (and pain), a limp, and my hip still hurts. Everyone talked me into it saying how much better my life will be and how much more I will be able to do, and I can do less than I did before. It was my right hip and now I can't even drive long drives as the pain gets to be too bad. I used to be able to take off to visit my daughter for a few days by myself but those days are gone. I can't even walk around a mall without being in severe pain even with my cane.
Then I got diverticulitis and had surgery with a colostomy even though I ate lots of fruits and veggies and whole grains. Then I was reversed and now I have 2 large hernias that I am going to have to get repaired with reconstructive surgery. I have had more surgeries and hospital stays in the last 5 years than I had in the first 62 combined. It is extremely depressing.
Six months after I retired, my husband fell and suffered a traumatic brain injury on our second wedding anniversary. We separated for the second and what was supposed to be the final time last summer. I posted here in the Retirement forum and received an amazing amount of support from so many posters. Several posts moved me to tears. This forum definitely helped get me through a terribly difficult and scary time in my life.
A strange confluence of events caused us to encounter each other seven months later. I used to say my husband turned into an entirely different person than the one I had married, and certainly not one I would have chosen to spend the rest of my life with. The first part of the sentence is still true. He is still not the man I married, but now he is much more grateful, happy, curious and caring than the angry, abusive, depressed person he became after the accident. He returned to our home at the end of March and I finally feel like I am having the retirement I had envisioned. We are even exploring spending our winters in Arizona, the kind of thing that would have sent him spiraling out of control before.
I think the main thing to be gleaned from all of these mostly heartbreaking stories is you really don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Your life can change overnight in ways you can’t imagine. Being in retirement makes these life events so much more difficult. The financial difficulties alone, not to mention the loss of the love of your life or equivalent. I know my situation could change again. In some ways it makes me even more grateful for what I have now. So, enjoy every day! But prepare for the unexpected.
Who knows, maybe you will revisit this thread in a few years, and say, "Well, there was that one time I got a bunion..."
You are probably one of the lucky ones!
Sort of funny, I also retired 3 years ago, and I have acquired a bunion! A few other minor issues but also mostly ok. The one issue that is minor now will, at some point, become terrible from all reports. Hoping it takes awhile. I do wish I could lose weight.
Ours is not exactly a sad event. Our eldest daughter had a baby in June, she teaches and is returning to work next week. We volunteered to watch him while she and her hubby work.
My wife is excited about the ‘opportunity’. I’m slightly less ecstatic (=; , but I’m sure it will be fine. We raised 3 kids successfully 30 some years ago, and we are reasonably healthy so far.
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