Togetherness In Retirement

I knew when Harry retired late last Fall that things would change for me - that we'd spend a lot more time together - but I had no idea.


I used to spend a lot of time alone because for the last couple of years that he worked, he worked sixty hours a week.  I felt bad for him and I wished he were home a lot more but being alone didn't really bother me.  I'm an independent soul for sure.

We now stay up too late together and get up too late in the morning together.  We watch all our favorite and not so favorite TV shows together and talk, walk, and eat together.  We even have matching black Columbia jackets that we sometimes wear together.  (No one reading this would probably know this but back in the day they would have been called steady jackets.  Couples that were dating exclusively were 'going steady' and might have 'matching' steady shirts, sweaters, or even jackets.) 

Anyway, today I think we reached the ultimate in togetherness.  We wore our matching Columbias (coincidentally) to our joint cardiology appointment.  It only made sense since we both needed to see a new Cardiologist (ours recently passed away suddenly - and yes it was his heart) for the new Cardiology receptionist to give us back to back appointments.

What was really weird to me though was that we were escorted to the same examining room at the same time and we had ...... a joint appointment.  I got to listen and observe while the doctor ministered to Harry and he could have done the same for me - except he needed to go smoke a cigarette.

But it was really interesting.  And here was a new doctor that I really liked.  As I've always suspected, no doctor knows everything and all doctors can be mistaken.  I always thought our ex-Cardiologist kept Harry's blood pressure too low.  Turns out I was right!

In addition, one of the medications that he was taking was a mega dose that's very seldom prescribed.   The doctor said he was surprised it wasn't making him really tired.  This helped explain how a man who routinely sleeps 'til about noon, can need a nap two or three hours later.

This new doctor also validated my complaints about some medications that I took briefly.  The interesting thing was that I'd had a variety of side effects but I didn't connect any of them with the medication.  It was just during an internet search when I saw a list of possible side effects that I realized they were connected.  Had I not looked, I would not have reported them and I shudder to think of where that would have taken me.

Another thing I liked about him was that he didn't criticize the large amounts of Melaleuca supplements that I've recently started taking and that seem to be making me feel awesome AND he took the time to look over the Heart Healthy supplements that I want to take and he saw no harm in them either.

Well, I've rambled on long enough and strayed from my initial togetherness subject.    I'll just wrap up by saying this togetherness thing is pretty nice so far and that our joint appointment was just one more new adventure in this journey called retirement.

What an interesting ride it's turning out to be.