The middle aged thread

I'm -7 and -7.5

Glasses cost me a small fortune for thinner lenses. My last pair of varifocals from Cubitts were c£550 ish

I had my last test done in April and still haven't bothered to get any glasses.

Or is it because I forget...

You've both just made @Aldosterone happy. :)

My dad - who isn't middle-aged, you won't be surprised to hear - got injured playing walking football. XD

And I had the flu jab yesterday (COVID booked in for Thursday) and I'm knackered today.

Took an injury to my foot several weeks ago. It wasn’t getting better so I attended minor injuries two weeks ago where an X-ray showed I have a spur of bone growing on my heel. Just been told today that my NHS trust doesn’t do operations to remove spurs. Looks like I can count out walking and running for the rest of my life then.
It’s the latest in a string of niggling injuries that is tightening the screw on activities in general for the last 18 months.

Do extra little bits of bone just appear with middle age? I have an extra small bone in my right wrist which has been causing me some bother in the last couple of years. I'm quite curious whether it's new or it's always been there and just hasn't caused me any trouble in the preceding decades.

Ganglion cyst more likely, you don't grow new bones suddenly......well a bonner perhaps. Easy check by your GP or a scan if really bothering you.

No this was scanned (x-ray and ultrasound) and definitely an extra little bone amongst the 8(?) standard bones in the wrist. Isn't a bone spur a new bone growth? Why is the wrist so unlikely?

Ultra running

No this was scanned (x-ray and ultrasound) and definitely an extra little bone amongst the 8(?) standard bones in the wrist. Isn't a bone spur a new bone growth? Why is the wrist so unlikely?

What did the people who performed/interpreted the scan say about it?

The guy doing the ultrasound was great and very chatty after I started asking questions, even showing me a comparison with my other wrist, and explained there was an extra piece of bone and it caused inflammation (both things clearer on the ultrasound than the previous x-ray) but he could only say what he thought was there, not why or how long. My experience is that this kind of explanation is pretty extra. When I've had scans before the person doing it has not wanted to offer any interpretation.

I did later have a consultation with an orthopedic surgeon but it was a bit nonexistent (running late, very perfunctory) the message was - it's not significantly affecting your quality of life, do your physio and if it gets worse come back. I think he was only really interested in surgery or no surgery, and definitely for this I'd rather have a sometimes ouchy wrist than risk surgery of complicated small bones.

Public transport -
Why do people listen to music/films/podcasts on phones/laptops at high volume with no headphones ?
I find it quite antisocial but not enough to ask the person to lower the volume/connect to headphones

Because they're cunts

Short answer- yes, sometimes.
Longer answer is complicated. But there are reasons why some places ossify and others don’t.
As you rightly have decided- if it’s not causing continual problems- risk:benefit of surgery is more risk sided than benefits.

Because they're cunts

Is the correct answer.

definitely for this I'd rather have a sometimes ouchy wrist than risk surgery of complicated small bones.

Do you have private medical at work? If so find yourself a good specialist (I used two or three in past and can recommend) and get a second/third opinion.

I don't, but I'm also not sure what second or third opinion would give me. I should do my physio more often than I do, that I already know.

One of those rechargeable portable speakers and a playlist of hits from The Kings Singers/John Denver/The Carpenters.

Offer to turn it off if they do the same.

Or put on whatever they’re watching but five seconds earlier

#rep

I’m in a similar spot, had shoulder issues for years but have really upped the gym in the last 12 months and it’s constantly sore. Had the physio ultrasound it and I have a bone growth causing inflammation and have been referred to a specialist who has apparently performed thousands of these keyhole ops.
I need to speak to Bupa and find out where I stand but feel I’m being swept along without really considering the implications of surgery for something I can kind of live with but constantly niggles.

Welcome to the plantar fasciitis gang. I suffered with this for about 4 years from 2005 and it's also called "policeman's heel". It would become tolerable until the annual fitness test shuttle run would fuck it up again. I haven't noticed it since 2010 but now the other foot is suffering with it. Back in 05 I went to see, who I was told was "the expert" and he said do the exercises and live it. There was an operation for it but he said the outcome is not always better.

That is why public transport is shit.

Record you singing along. Then play that mix.