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We’re Retired and Healthy. But How Do We Plan for Our Decline?
An accident on vacation was an unpleasant reminder that retirement won’t always be like this
The first year in retirement is often the most difficult. But it also can set the stage for how you’ll fill the years ahead—both financially and psychologically. Stephen Kreider Yoder, 65, a longtime Wall Street Journal editor, joined his wife, Karen Kreider Yoder, 66, in retirement last year. In this monthly Retirement Rookies column, they chronicle some of the issues they are dealing with early in retirement.
The article begins,
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Karen
Have you ever wished you could redo two seconds of your life? I have.
I was strolling with Steve on a sidewalk in Tunisia this spring, a day before the flight home from our first post-retirement trip abroad. I was gawking up at the French colonial architecture—the cornices, the statues, the intricate brickwork.
Then I was sprawled on the ground.
A sharp pain stabbed my left arm. I had apparently thrust it out to break my fall after I tripped. I knew immediately: My shoulder was broken.
Thoughts flashed. Why was I looking up while walking? Why didn’t I pick my feet up higher? Then: What would this mean for our summer plans? And oh, my aching shoulder.
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Many retirees eventually face physical challenges that keep them from doing all they had envisioned for their golden years. We each have retired relatives with neurological diseases. One year, they were planning for their next decades with their spouses; the next, their spouses were their caretakers. Still other retired acquaintances have recently seen their lives interrupted by less-final, but still soul-crushing, health crises.
For others, a tragedy has cut dreams even shorter. In the past year, several friends on the cusp of retirement have suffered a spouse’s unexpected death. One moment they were preparing for a shared retirement; the next, they were single.
Steve and I had talked occasionally about how we would eventually decline physically and how we should probably start laying contingency plans. But it was easy to put such thoughts aside.
For some reason, Doctors hate heart attacks. I figure that is the best way to go over dementia or a nursing home. I would eat a bad diet to push for one, but I am likely to have a stroke instead.
As far as when I go? God can have me any time my room reservation in Heaven comes due for check in time. If I died tomorrow, it just means I beat other people to it. That is fine with me.
We’re Retired and Healthy. But How Do We Plan for Our Decline?
An accident on vacation was an unpleasant reminder that retirement won’t always be like this
The first year in retirement is often the most difficult. But it also can set the stage for how you’ll fill the years ahead—both financially and psychologically. Stephen Kreider Yoder, 65, a longtime Wall Street Journal editor, joined his wife, Karen Kreider Yoder, 66, in retirement last year. In this monthly Retirement Rookies column, they chronicle some of the issues they are dealing with early in retirement.
The article begins,
It goes on
Food for thought.
Yes. I never worried about those things until this past year. Maybe it was watching the person I loved (who was 7 years older than me) take his last breath after a nearly two-year decline that made me more sensitive. I don't know.
I walk in a park that includes wooded trails, and a couple of times I've tripped on tree roots. Never fell, but for the first time, I have started to think about what might happen if I do. Same with going to the city and climbing stairs in and out if the trains/subway, thinking about how if I was ever caught in another bomb or fire situation I would not be able to run or escape so easily as I did the other times.
I don't like thinking this way at all, but NOT thinking this way isn't a good idea, either.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Having lived in Thailand while working... Watching hundreds of feeble elderly coming for medical procedures... from countries with national healthcare (some for 50 yrs)...
Having lived in Thailand while working... Watching hundreds of feeble elderly coming for medical procedures... from countries with national healthcare (some for 50 yrs)...
I play hard while able. (As do many here on C-D)
Someday (maybe today) I will no longer be able.
My medical procedures will be covered by Medicare + Blue Cross/Blue Shield supplement (and, when I travel, by travel insurance), or I won't have them. For nursing home, I'll go to Thailand, at $2k per month all-inclusive. That's it, a straight-forward plan.
Well, I think we can all pretty much plan on the fact that accidents happen, joints need to be replaced, surgeries may be required, as you age you slow down and won't be able to manage what you could when your body was younger. It's inevitable. Plan on it.
When we were in our 40's my husband had an accident that put him in a wheelchair for several months and he was under orders to not bear weight on either foot. He had not been gravely wounded, thank God, and his pain was relatively easy manage after the first few days but he couldn't drive himself anywhere, he could no longer mow the grass, vacuum, cook, do laundry. I had to race around finding wheel chair ramps and pants with zippers on the legs so that he could pull them up over his casts. Oh, and we had two elementary school age kids.
It was an eye opening experience to say the least.
Hopefully, the couple in the above example were going to be returning to a low maintenance yard/house, close to conveniences so they can focus on the wife healing and the husband can get out of the house every now and then.
I'm with Igor. If it gets to the point where I have to go into a nursing home, just let me go. That's 0 quality of life. I watched my grandmother suffer and waste away in one of those. I'd probably just drink alot everyday, and eat as much fast food as possible, lol. Oops...I somewhat do that already.
I am actually pondering trying to practice my falls.
Putting your arms out to catch your fall is a sure prescription for jamming your wrists or worse.
I have found that falling on my side and hitting shoulder first is the best way to fall. I am thinking maybe I can practicing from the stop step of a swimming pool or maybe putting down a couple of mattresses, to see if I can kind of get myself to turn sideways if I am falling forwards or backwards.
Probably a fool's errand but I have a lot of time on my hands...
Falling backwards sucks. You have no control.
3 years ago I took a full face plant. I was walking in snow and ice. I stopped to check my cell phone, so my head was face down with my arms tucked in. I guess I took a small step onto ice. I fell in an instant. So fast, I couldn't register it. I woke up and apparently my forehead hit smack into the icy frozen dirt, which knocked me out briefly, and sent my glasses flying.
There is no practicing that fall. It was immediate. I guess most are. It doesn't help that my reaction time is much slower than when I was young.
So I may practice falls just for grins and "why not", but really, avoidance is your best plan. It always gets you when you least expect it. Distracted. Rushed. Falling down drunk.
I'm with Igor. If it gets to the point where I have to go into a nursing home, just let me go. That's 0 quality of life. I watched my grandmother suffer and waste away in one of those. I'd probably just drink alot everyday, and eat as much fast food as possible, lol. Oops...I somewhat do that already.
If only it was that easy.
My mother is 92, mobility limited, frail, dementia, and has a home caretaker. Just started on the Depends. She has been praying to God to "go" for 2 years. No dice. He has other plans. Whenever I call her I tell her, "Ma, I TOLD YOU not to take such good care of yourself, but you wouldn't listen."
She may not last long. She is living on corn chips and red wine. Literally. She literally doesn't eat anything else right now.
I have it made. I am certain not to make it to the normal age from the actuarial tables.
It is just a question how long I have to live as a stroke victim first.
If I get cancer, I plan on "no chemo". I will just party until the pain and weakness shuts me down. Of course, I say that now... when the time comes, I bet I will be begging the Doctor for every possible treatment under the sun.
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