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Kicking It against aging

Growing old is a privilege. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In the inimitable words of Zorba in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” “You look so old.”

I just don’t want to “look so old.” A little old is OK. After all, I don’t want to look too young. So, I ask myself, what is the right age? I for one liked the years from ages 43-50. After that, things started to really sag.

Of course, I smoked then so I was trimmer. That always made me happy. Trimmer that is. Not that I am not happy to have stopped smoking. I am. However, I still find myself drifting toward the exhales of others who haven’t kicked the habit.

There just doesn’t seem to be any way for a woman to stay thin when she stops smoking. On the other hand, I’ve known a couple of guys that didn’t pack on a pound when they quit – more injustices between the sexes.

Here is the thing to suppress premature aging – who am I kidding? I am 75+ – I try to avoid sweets, watch my alcohol intake, exercise a bit and heap copious amounts of fresh vegetables on my plate at meal times. I’ve been operating on 1,100 calories a day for over a year and still gained weight. Now that is just wrong.

Granted, as we age the idea is to work on your personality so folks won’t notice the wrinkles. Hah! Who is buying that? Aging is a natural process. I get it. Looking old, well, that’s another thing all together.

If I had more confidence, I wouldn’t fret about wearing my years across my face. Actually, a few years is OK. I just do not wish to have the entire roadmap of my life looking back at me in the mirror.

And even if I could find the courage to accept this old face, every time I see a woman my age on the screen, large or small, their faces are free of lines, jowls and neck wrinkles.

What this is all leading up to is a procedure I had in Anchorage. It’s called micro-needling.

Micro-needling started out as a way to reduce scarring by inserting needles around and into a scar. The result was collagen production. Now it’s a procedure for anyone with a viable credit card.

Naturally wanting to stay on the cutting edge of a youthful look, one has to try new things. So, I did. Let me just say, it hurt. The numbing solution used before the treatment didn’t work.

Therefore, the only thing to do was to power through the experience while a zillion bees stung me all over my face. When the 40-minute torture ended, I was given a small tube of cooling gel to apply when my face grew hot and felt like a sunburn. The tube was empty before the burning ended.

By day three, the peeling started. Wee bits of dying skin clung to the surface of my face taking multiple scrubbings to eradicate.

The procedure happened on a Monday, and I came back to Fallbrook on the following Friday. My darling husband said, without provocation, I looked better when I returned than when I left. I felt that was a good sign.

They said the collagen production will continue for up to a year – so that’s cool, right? That seems like a good thing, huh?

As a side note, it is a really good procedure for anyone suffering from acne scarring. Improvements can be seen immediately.

Let me reiterate, getting old is not for the weak. It takes courage to keep your teeth and working parts working. The only alternative to aging is death. Well, that’s a bummer.

Elizabeth Youngman-Westphal can be reached by email at [email protected].

 

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