Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Ten reasons to be grateful after my hernia operation

Guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukelele from the Gretsch Roots Collection
Guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukelele from the Gretsch Roots Collection

Post Title: The Joy of Aging

Post Date: June 4, 2014

Yesterday I got an email message from my newly retired brother Jim. He attached a photo of my niece setting a school record in the high jump. As a school record holder a half century ago in the pole vault, I envied her youthful ability to defy gravity. Several years ago I realized I could no longer leave the ground under my own power without injury.

The last time my body took flight against my will, I was literally swept off my feet by a South Dakota dust devil. My wife Karen and I were on an Elderhostel trip in the Black Hills. One blustery afternoon, while walking along a gravel road, we encountered the tiny tornado. It lifted the two of us into the air and dropped us in a roadside ditch. She landed first. I tried to avoid falling on her by keeping my arms outstretched in my descent. She later called my midair gyrations a vision of Superman in flight. We didn’t reach the height of our niece’s record-setting leap, but I like to think we captured some of the thrill she must have felt in clearing the bar.    

This week I’m scheduling surgery to repair my Little Buddy, the name I’ve given the irritating hernia that found a home beneath my unmentionables. Then I’ll schedule my cataract surgery.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The good news about aging is the wealth of opportunities for personal development, for exploring things set aside or undiscovered amid the distractions of youth. I’ve discovered a passion that came as a complete surprise: a quest to conquer calculus. I work at this about three hours a day. For another hour each day, I play one of my four instruments: guitar, ukulele, banjo, and mandolin, singing my favorite folk songs and golden oldies, picturing an adoring audience of septuagenarians raising their glowing cell phones in appreciation. Karen got me a balalaika for my birthday, so I’ve begun learning finger positions on that strange, three-string Russian instrument.

Next week Karen and I begin a six-week class on San Diego history, offered through Cal State San Marcos extended learning. So, despite the relentless march toward physical incapacity, there can be joy in aging — especially if you’re lucky enough to do it with someone you love.

Post Title: Top Ten Reasons to be Grateful the Day After My Hernia Operation [Abridged]

Post Date: June 23, 2015

10) Obamacare, for my free annual checkup that led to the diagnosis.

9) The wealth of information online about Inguinal Hernia Repair. I liked the interactive decision-maker at one website: it helped me understand my personal priorities: balancing fear of the knife vs. fixing a problem that won’t fix itself. Painful daily reminders from My Little Buddy, throbbing in my groin, tipped the balance.

6) Nurse Cheryl, who skillfully and discretely shaved the site of my operation. Putting me at ease with her sense of humor, she chuckled, “Now you know what women have to go through.” I stifled the impulse to reply, “Be careful down there, Nurse Cheryl. Don’t nick me, bro.”  

5) Nurse Mari, who cheerfully wheeled me down to the operating room. She was the third nurse, along with my surgeon, to ask me what I was there for and what side of my groin would be cut. I knew it was just their way of gaining my confidence: there would be no accidental slices in the operating room.

4) Anesthesiology, for making my three-hour, outpatient surgery entirely pain-free.

3) Modern medicine. It wasn’t that long ago, measured by this septuagenarian’s sense of time, that living with an unrepaired hernia was a life sentence. I’d have had to make a life with My Little Buddy.

2) Dr. Elliot. I wasn’t there to see him, but lying naked on the gurney with my arms outstretched, I pictured a masked man in whom I’d placed all my trust, younger than my children, leaning over me with a knife. I thanked God, Allah, or whatever other power of the universe there is, for his expertise.

1) My life-partner, Karen, who has filled my prescription for health and happiness with her daily dose of love and laughter for 29 years. 

Title: The Riehl World | Address: theriehlworld2.blogspot.com

Author: Richard Riehl | From: Carlsbad | Blogging since: 2011

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Bob Long played piano for Tina Turner and Ray Charles

And he got the crowd shaking at InZane Brewery
Next Article

The greatest symphonist of them all

Havergal Brian wrote over 30 of them
Guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukelele from the Gretsch Roots Collection
Guitar, banjo, mandolin, ukelele from the Gretsch Roots Collection

Post Title: The Joy of Aging

Post Date: June 4, 2014

Yesterday I got an email message from my newly retired brother Jim. He attached a photo of my niece setting a school record in the high jump. As a school record holder a half century ago in the pole vault, I envied her youthful ability to defy gravity. Several years ago I realized I could no longer leave the ground under my own power without injury.

The last time my body took flight against my will, I was literally swept off my feet by a South Dakota dust devil. My wife Karen and I were on an Elderhostel trip in the Black Hills. One blustery afternoon, while walking along a gravel road, we encountered the tiny tornado. It lifted the two of us into the air and dropped us in a roadside ditch. She landed first. I tried to avoid falling on her by keeping my arms outstretched in my descent. She later called my midair gyrations a vision of Superman in flight. We didn’t reach the height of our niece’s record-setting leap, but I like to think we captured some of the thrill she must have felt in clearing the bar.    

This week I’m scheduling surgery to repair my Little Buddy, the name I’ve given the irritating hernia that found a home beneath my unmentionables. Then I’ll schedule my cataract surgery.

Sponsored
Sponsored

The good news about aging is the wealth of opportunities for personal development, for exploring things set aside or undiscovered amid the distractions of youth. I’ve discovered a passion that came as a complete surprise: a quest to conquer calculus. I work at this about three hours a day. For another hour each day, I play one of my four instruments: guitar, ukulele, banjo, and mandolin, singing my favorite folk songs and golden oldies, picturing an adoring audience of septuagenarians raising their glowing cell phones in appreciation. Karen got me a balalaika for my birthday, so I’ve begun learning finger positions on that strange, three-string Russian instrument.

Next week Karen and I begin a six-week class on San Diego history, offered through Cal State San Marcos extended learning. So, despite the relentless march toward physical incapacity, there can be joy in aging — especially if you’re lucky enough to do it with someone you love.

Post Title: Top Ten Reasons to be Grateful the Day After My Hernia Operation [Abridged]

Post Date: June 23, 2015

10) Obamacare, for my free annual checkup that led to the diagnosis.

9) The wealth of information online about Inguinal Hernia Repair. I liked the interactive decision-maker at one website: it helped me understand my personal priorities: balancing fear of the knife vs. fixing a problem that won’t fix itself. Painful daily reminders from My Little Buddy, throbbing in my groin, tipped the balance.

6) Nurse Cheryl, who skillfully and discretely shaved the site of my operation. Putting me at ease with her sense of humor, she chuckled, “Now you know what women have to go through.” I stifled the impulse to reply, “Be careful down there, Nurse Cheryl. Don’t nick me, bro.”  

5) Nurse Mari, who cheerfully wheeled me down to the operating room. She was the third nurse, along with my surgeon, to ask me what I was there for and what side of my groin would be cut. I knew it was just their way of gaining my confidence: there would be no accidental slices in the operating room.

4) Anesthesiology, for making my three-hour, outpatient surgery entirely pain-free.

3) Modern medicine. It wasn’t that long ago, measured by this septuagenarian’s sense of time, that living with an unrepaired hernia was a life sentence. I’d have had to make a life with My Little Buddy.

2) Dr. Elliot. I wasn’t there to see him, but lying naked on the gurney with my arms outstretched, I pictured a masked man in whom I’d placed all my trust, younger than my children, leaning over me with a knife. I thanked God, Allah, or whatever other power of the universe there is, for his expertise.

1) My life-partner, Karen, who has filled my prescription for health and happiness with her daily dose of love and laughter for 29 years. 

Title: The Riehl World | Address: theriehlworld2.blogspot.com

Author: Richard Riehl | From: Carlsbad | Blogging since: 2011

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The greatest symphonist of them all

Havergal Brian wrote over 30 of them
Next Article

For nutty pies at Pizza by Aromi in La Mesa

Sicilian cousins add to the Italian goodness they dish out around Lake Murray
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader