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Í hlaðvarpinu Með lífið í lúkunum fær HeilsuErla til sín einstaklinga úr ýmsum áttum sem hafa þekkingu á fjölbreyttum sviðum heilsu og einnig fólk sem hefur á einn eða annan hátt jákvæð áhrif á samferðafólk sitt.
Markmiðið er að skapa rými fyrir einlægt og opið spjall til þess að kynnast sem fjölbreyttustum leiðum til þess að huga að heilsunni. t.d. varðandi geðheilsu, líkamlega heilsu, mataræði, svefn, raddheilsu, tannheilsu, fjárhagslega heilsu, sköpunargleði, kynheilbrigði og margt fleira.
Með lífið í lúkunum
113. Healthy at 98 years. (Diet, attitude, purpose, excercise and never stop moving). Zona Merryman
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In this interview Erla speaks with Zona Merryman a remarkable 98 year old lady and inspiration to everyone. She tells us how she has maintained good health over the years.
Zona says that we are responsible for our own health and that our mindset is extremely important. In addition to how diet and social factors play a big role in good health, she emphasizes that we should never stop exercising and moving.
She lives by herself, walks her dog several times a day and travels alone by plane from Iowa to Orlando several times a year to visit her daughter and friends.
You can see a short video from the interview on Instagram
A huge shoutout to the podcasts sponsors:
💙 -HEILSUHILLAN an Icelandic company that focuses on promoting and selling health and wellness products like Bio-Kult.
🌱 -SPÍRAN a cozy and beautiful restaurant in Iceland serving incredibly healthy, homemade food. It’s a place that truly nourishes your body and supports your health journey. My favourite on the menu these days is the rsalad that I designed in collaboration with Spíran. (Heilsusalat Heilsuerlu)
🐘 -VIRKJA the life coach school that changed my life. I learned so much about myself, and has helped me grow in every part of my life, as a mom, a wife, a person, and even as a podcaster.
💗 - ÞÍN FEGURÐ. Located in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland, it is a comprehensive beauty salon offering a wide range of professional treatments. The name uses the Icelandic words Þín (Your)fegurð (beauty).
💦 -UNGBARNASUND ERLU (Erla's Baby Swimming) is my swim school. Based in Hafnarfjörður, it offers professional, varied, and friendly classes focusing on bonding, play, and water safety for infants and children up to 2,5 years of age.
Fylgdu HeilsuErlu á Instagram!
Hello, hello, dear listener, and welcome to my podcast. Or as I would say in Icelandic, hey, Loshail Kairosantus, or very welcome. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I got. Today, I got to interview Sona Merriman, a 98-year-old lady who is an inspiration to me and to everyone around her. She is a family friend, family friend of my parents, and I've met her a couple of uh times through the years. We got to know her through her daughter Wynn and her husband Mike. And uh we have uh had a lot of gatherings, and this Easter we had one of those gatherings or uh Easter party. And when I heard Sona talk about her life and uh everything, uh I just knew I had to get her on my podcast, and that I did. So now you can enjoy uh listening to her and her wisdom that she has uh acquired over all these years. Uh but she says that we are responsible for our for our own health, and that is kind of the name of my podcast. And uh I'm not gonna spoil everything by telling you what we talked about. I'll let you listen for yourself and to this remarkable lady. Um before we start, I just wanna do a quick shout out to all of my sponsors that make this podcast uh possible. And I will link uh to all of these companies in show notes. So even if you are not Icelandic, if you visit the country, you can click on the link and know where to go for a great dinner or read about the companies. Well, I'm gonna let you listen to this uh chat and hope that you enjoyed as much as I did. I am so honored to have you here. We have a lady that is 98 years young, and uh I want to speak to you today about health and what it is to you and how you stay so healthy at your age. It's amazing.
SPEAKER_03Uh health. It's one of those things that I keep probably became very interested in when I was in the seventh and eighth grade in country school in Iowa of the U.S. And I don't know, it fascinated me, and then I've just uh progressed along the way, and then I got to thinking about health, since you questioned health. Health is each individual's responsibility. We are completely responsible for our health and what we put in our mouth, and that's how we stay healthy. My idea of how did I get to be 98 is social. You've got to have friends and do things. Exercise is very, very important. You must keep moving all the time, or you will be sitting in that chair, and that is what I do not want to do is to sit get in the chair and then not be able to get out of it. And also then the other thing is diet, because if you let yourself get too heavy, you will be unable to move. And uh, even though I am have very poor weight, weight loss, and weight, it is very, very important, and I keep trying, but it's not working very well at its age. And then let's see, exercise, diet, uh, and socializing attitude, your attitude towards life, your attitude of what you want to do and whatever. Uh, many people, when they gain a certain age, no matter what, it they can be in their 50s, they can be in their 70s or whatever, all of a sudden, like they just stop and say, Oh, I can't do that because I'm too old. I'm too old. And with that, then they become less and less active and less and less movable.
SPEAKER_05Next. So maybe we can get to know you a little bit, like your background and uh who is Sona?
SPEAKER_03Who's well? I was born, of course, in 1928, back right after the fall of the banks in the United States. Very, very poor time, depression. Uh I can vaguely remember when uh Franklin Roosevelt was elected president. Of course, that would have made me only about four years old.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_03Uh we went through a drought time in Iowa and uh a lot of the United States. Uh, there was absolutely no crops that came up, and it was uh we ran out of water. My father went to a neighbor's and with a big tank and collected water and hauled it back to our farm uh for our animals and things like that. And then one of the big things I remember, and this is kind of sad, is my oldest brother was going to high school. He went to our barn to do the milking at 5 a.m. in the May morning, and all of the cattle lay dead in the barn.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03It was a sudden thing called hemorrhagic septicemia that came through, and a whole herd of about 25-30 cattle were dead. People came from all over. They uh dug huge pits uh throughout the farm and buried the cattle and threw lime upon them so as to destroy the disease, etc. It was a weird, very weird disease. And of course, uh having lost a herd of milking cattle, that put a cringe on uh finances uh because cream being sold and everything was part of the money that uh we had for groceries, etc. And I think probably uh the uh depression hard times continued on. And then the winter of 35-36, we had a very, very bad winter. Uh I recall because uh my oldest brother, my father, cut down a tree every day to burn for warmth in the home. And I suppose later on, I was 12 to 14 years old, and I was walking through our uh area where these trees had been, and these stumps were about between three and a half to four foot tall, and then I asked this middle brother I had, who was five years older than I, why did they cut them off so high in the air like that? And he said, Dad and dad and Lynn uh cut them down just as close to the snow as they could. That's how deep the snow was. So, you know, those those are memories I have. That was 35, 36, and in 1940, my father passed away when I was 12. The war in Germany was going on with uh things that were going on there. 1941, the Japanese attacked us, and it was about 42 or 43. Then the next brother was drafted with uh he had uh two children and he was drafted into the service and went away. And then uh I think it was in uh 1946, uh the other brother who was at home and uh doing the farming, uh, he was taken to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas for uh physical to go into the army. Uh, but the doctor there could not tell whether he was healthy enough or not, so sent him back to the home doctor, and he did have asthma very severely, and on the bus riding with all the men who smoked, it became very severe. He was so sick the first day or two he couldn't even get to the doctor, but finally did on the tail end, and of course the doctor immediately forever'd him, and then he was excused from service and continued to farm. Thank goodness in uh 1946, as I was graduating from high school, uh the other brother arrived home from the service. So then I taught school, country schools for four years following uh that, and uh I did go to night schools, Saturday classes, and summer schools until I had one year of college education. Then I entered college as a sophomore. Uh I graduated from college in 1953, went into an apprenticeship for medical technology, and uh worked in a doctor's office for the first two and a half years, and then went to a hospital, a small rural hospital in Iowa. Then I went to a children's hospital in Omaha and was married while I was there. And uh then I came back to the house. How old were you then? Pardon? How old were you then when you got married? I was 31 years old when I was married. Uh we had a baby nine months later.
unknownOh.
SPEAKER_03Uh within 14 months following that, I had another baby. And uh then I lost that first child with what they called thromatotic uh uremia and uh polycythemia, polysithhemia, uremia, and uh uh anemia. But anyway, uh then I lost that child, and then 18 months later I had another child. So that the first 48 months I was married, I was pregnant 27 months. Wow.
SPEAKER_05Wow, that's a lot.
SPEAKER_03Uh I did uh I worked a uh I worked frequently following um uh worked part-time quite a bit while I had the children, and uh went back to work probably full-time in uh uh I think I finally I went back to work part-time in 1964 and then went back to work full-time in 1968.
SPEAKER_05Was that common back then? Oh yes. Work full-time yeah?
SPEAKER_03Uh women usually following the war, the war changed lots of things. Uh women did not work outside of the home prior to World War II, but following World War II, most women worked outside of the home. Some did not go to work right away. But the funny part was was I was home with my children, and and you know, and so finally my husband said, Why don't you go back to work so that you'll be more calm and and more satisfied? Because I needed to be in my field of work and liked it so well. And so the part-time worked out great. And then I think it was in 1968, I went back to work full-time. And uh because I thoroughly enjoyed the work and worked at it for four years, I did not retire until 1993 when I was exactly 65 years old. And one of the reasons I retired when I did was my husband was had uh uh well, he had macular degeneration, could not drive anymore, and was more or less stuck at home. But uh he couldn't keep him at home because he had a bicycle, and I know one night we got I got home and he had something for dinner, and I said, Where did you get this and how did you get it? Because I knew he had to go to a certain place to get it. Oh, I just wrote my bicycle and got it. So with that, I felt that it was almost necessary to get home and watch what he was doing before he got in trouble. But uh then uh three years after three and a half, four years after I retired, he came up with um a Hodgkin's uh cancer of the stomach, which he was operated on for and took chemotherapy and da-da-da-da-da. We went through that. So that see, I retired in '93, and he passed away in uh January of 2000.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03So uh as a person losing their mate, etc., I stayed at home for a year or so, but that was not for me, and I was very healthy and very active, and said to myself, you don't know how long you're gonna live, and you don't know how long your money's gonna last. Maybe you'd ought to pick up a little part-time work.
SPEAKER_05So how old were you then?
SPEAKER_03I was 72.
SPEAKER_0572.
SPEAKER_03So at 72, I went back to work with the uh uh blood center uh with the blood center, and uh which was collecting blood on blood drives, etc. And uh I was supposed to work only about 20 hours a week. Well, that's a figment of your imagination. I was soon working eight hour day uh and four hours a day, but I was soon working eight hour days, maybe ten hour days. Whoa. And uh I stayed with them and worked for 11 years.
SPEAKER_05Really?
SPEAKER_03And I was 84, 84 when I finally resigned, because they were having a blood drive, which everyone was practically required to work 12 to 14 hours in that day. And if they had offered me an 8 to a 10-hour day, I would have done it very gladly. But when they didn't seem to make any um changes or anything, about a two or three days or a week before the drive, I resigned and said I would work up until the day before, and that was it. And ever since I've been on my own doing my thing.
SPEAKER_04Wow. So you worked until you were 84. Wow. Yes, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_03But that's part of part of keeping me active too, and like I say, mind-wise and you know, health-wise and everything, because you know, when you're working, you get the work done. Yeah, it's true. And so then, therefore, well, and even after, see, the year after my husband passed away in 2000, the year following, I got myself a little doggy too. Oh, yeah. And she was a rescue, about a year old. She was a Jack Russell Rat Terrier Cross, very busy little girl. And we walked, we would walk miles, mile and a half, two miles. Uh if I didn't work, it was a couple miles or more, and if I did work, it was probably a mile.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_03And uh so she lived until uh 2017, and then I had to put her to sleep, and I wasn't gonna get another dog. And then nine months later I talked to my friend, and her daughter was out for rescues, and she found a bunch of little chihuahuas and brought seven back from Grinnell, Iowa, and they all had places except this one. And wouldn't you know this one was the little stud, three years old. But he had no hair, he had mange, he had fleas, uh, he was the most uh sad little thing you ever saw in your life. He only weighed five pounds, three ounces when I got him. When after I'd had him a year or so, he weighed 7.2 to 3 pounds. Because as I had him, I discovered he was wheat intolerant. He could not eat wheat. And of course he was very, very wild, but he phonies got you never could get to hold him very much, but he was very attached because he'd stay close to me, but he didn't want to be held.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03So then when that little fella passed away because he had a heart murmur and then a growth on his heart, uh, I didn't figure I'd have a dog for a while. Well, six weeks later I got another rescue dog who was uh kennel, she was having babies all the time for 10 years. Well, uh I had her, she was very, very wild. And uh I came down here for Thanksgiving, I picked her up, and she was got sick the next day. I had to go to the hospital and be overnight, and then that was in December, and then later on the 29th of December, she got sick a little bit, and then she crawled up my arm. I cleaned her all up and cleaned the bed, climbed up my arms when I woke up the next morning. She was dead. So anyway, yeah, I said, well, no more. Well, on February 2nd, the girls brought me this guy who they said was homeless, and he now is going on 17 years. He'll be 17 in May, and he is a character. Everybody loves him. When I send him to the sitters, the sitters want to keep him. So, anyway. Uh, but anyway, part of part of the dog story is to realize that with a dog you have to get up in the morning, you have a purpose in life. You walk them four to five times a day. It can be short or long, it requires you to move.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And that it's a purpose, like I say, it's a reason for getting up, it's a reason for continuing to live. So that's how you live to be 89, uh 98 years old, I guess. I was gonna say 89, 98 is you have an interest in life and you find a purpose.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's so nice. So your your memory is impeccable, really. Uh everything you've told me, you remember so well. Do you think it's because you you always have to challenge your mind?
SPEAKER_03Uh well, to a certain extent, you know, because I try to read a I read a lot.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03And uh uh I was not too good with computers, but then when I went back to work at the blood center, I had to learn computers and learned quite a bit there. And then with both my son and daughter, then they have led me along because probably without them uh uh and without that job I would not have got into computers and and things like that.
SPEAKER_06And you're even on Facebook.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, well now I look at Facebook and to contribute voice-wise, but picture-wise, etc. I don't I'm not I don't know how to do that. So I don't I never post anything really.
SPEAKER_06But you can follow people and see what you're doing.
SPEAKER_03I follow people on on on Facebook and uh, you know, and then uh I can use the the new type, the new cell phones to a certain extent, because now in um one of the things and the reason was uh after my husband passed away, the United States has census every 10 years, which is going around, they send out census papers, questionnaires of the about the family for people to answer questions, and they're supposed to return them to the government. Then those people who don't do that, then a person is hired to go around to those homes and ask those people if they will help them or if they will help them or will fill out these papers. There are very uh weird people in the United States who do not want to answer these questions because they say, oh, they don't need to know all this. Well, or they will say they can find it on the computer. Well, it's true, but it's kind of nice to for the government to have it compiled in one place. But this happens every 10 years. So therefore, I did census work in 1900, or 1900, in year 2000, after my husband passed away, and that's when my son uh insisted I have a cell phone to carry with me. So I did. And of course, then I did uh census in nine in 2010 and also 2020. And I did an interim census sometime. I don't know whether whether that was 2005 or 2020. But anyway, I went to uh homes and questioned people and visited and talked and did that uh in the in those periods of times.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, wow.
SPEAKER_03So you know, always looking around for something to do.
SPEAKER_05But what did you learn from that?
SPEAKER_03Oh, uh you certainly meet an awful lot of different types of people. Some people are very willing to sit down and visit with you, some people are very harsh and unkind, some people absolutely refuse, and you just you turn you turn anything if they absolutely refused and were nasty, you turn them over to a supervisor and handle them. So it was interesting, very interesting work.
SPEAKER_06Very interesting. So in the beginning, you you spoke about what's contributed to your good health, and you you said that exercise, is it do you have you done like any special kind of exercise or probably uh well uh when I was working working and uh since this uh last son, this last son weighed 10 pounds, 11 ounces at birth, and he did not walk one year.
SPEAKER_03He weighed 30 pounds and to carry him around. Well, of course, this does uh anybody's back a good treatment. So therefore, I was immediately hit with some back situations. So it was early on, probably 60 between 64 and 68, or in that period of time, I talked to a physical therapist at the hospital, and she probably told me about doing exercises, especially on the floor with the back. And then as things progressed, as I saw my private physician, who had trained at the hospital where I worked, and then became went out in business. Anyway, then he gave me a sheet of paper with the various and submarine back exercises to do. So I must have done those from in say 1968 to 1970. So I have no idea how long I've been doing these back exercises. And then with this recent situation of the back and going through uh seeing spine doctors and everything, I guess it was the best thing I could, well, best thing I could have ever done because now also in 1993, after I retired, my husband, who uh was a swimmer, a very good swimmer, and could have gone to the Olympics if they had financially been able to send him, he had joined the Y to do water aerobics. And so, of course, when I retired, that was the main thing we did. We went to water aerobics anywhere three times a week, maybe more. And I still go to water aerobics three two to three times per week. Wow. And uh then on the days I don't go do water aerobics, I always do the back exercises.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03So that's why I'm saying exercise, exercise, and water. Even though I'm a non-swimmer, I do not know how to swim. I was born in the depression, it was dry weather, landlocked, no lakes, nothing. I never have learned to swim. I've tried to learn to swim several times. My husband even attempted to teach me, and that was a loss. So therefore, that's it.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. All right. Oh, that's so great to hear. And the walks. You walk a lot.
SPEAKER_03Walk, walk, walk, yes. And of course, you see, on the farm, uh, there's no rest on a farm. You are physically uh uh physically there all the time because, like I was said, uh I started driving a tractor plowing in the fields at the age of 12. Wow. Uh also when uh I did chores, you're you're watering, you're feeding hogs and cattle and sheep and you're milking cows night and morning. I I used to read my father who had a uh was sick with probably he basically had cancer of the liver, but we did not know that. They thought it was an ulcer, so they put him on goat's milk. So I was probably nine, ten, eleven years old, and I took care of the goats, milk the goats, and so it seems like you know, you're constantly doing something. It may not be exercise, it's probably work, but nevertheless, it moves the body.
SPEAKER_06Exactly.
SPEAKER_03That's uh that I guess that's what I'm saying more than anything else. In order to live, move, move, move, try to eat right, and you know, and I sp I'm bad uh the sweets, sugar, especially for diabetes, and I did watch the sugar very, very carefully all the time when I was working and everything because my grandmother was diabetic.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03She was diagnosed in, I guess when I was born in 1928, and uh there was no insulin, no nothing there. People just up and got worse and died. Uh she was a very strong person, had been a teacher and worked hard. So she dieted, she dieted so hard, she got so thin that she was sick then, and they took her to the hospital. And I think that was, I'm not gonna say for sure because I'm you know 35, 36, 34, whatever. And when they checked her out, they could not find diabetes. It was gone because of the dieting. But then, of course, that what they did was encourage her to eat a little bit better, but of course, she never ate sweet, she never used sugar. I remember she did not drink tea, she did not drink coffee, she drank hot water with just a little milk in it, and that was it. That was her beverage. But uh she uh was a very healthy woman, lived to be I think she was 92 or 93 when she passed away.
SPEAKER_06Wow, so she was a role model for you.
SPEAKER_03Yes. My grandfather lived to be 90 89, and I 89 or 90, that's on my mother's side. Then my mother lived to be 96. Wow, okay.
SPEAKER_06See so you also have good genes I have the genes on my mother's side for longevity.
SPEAKER_03And everyone always had a pretty good mind, too. That was another thing. Um none of those people, as I recall, ever got to this to call them senile or Alzheimer's or anything like that.
SPEAKER_06Very cognitive.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, very cognitive all along the way. Yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_06That's amazing. You say that moving uh is really important and maybe to have movement like a part of your daily routine instead of just sitting all day and going to exercise.
SPEAKER_03Try to be um that's another thing. Try to be organized, you know. I more or less have a schedule. It's uh, you know, Tuesdays I'm gonna do my laundry and get things done. And if I have some errands to run, that's a day to run an errand. Thursday's a free day, so that's errand time or whatever, whatever, you know. And uh then on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays I try to make it to the water. And if you could do something else in an hour or two uh after you get back from that, you know, then you and then I always have usually have a nap from about 2.30 to 4.30 or around in that vicinity, because uh basically with the dog, I'm up somewhere with dogs. Usually I'm up somewhere between 6:15 to 7 o'clock every morning. Uh walk them then, walk them again at 10:30 to 11 o'clock, walk them again at 4, 4.30 in the afternoon, walk them about 7 or 8, walk them at 10, 10:30 at night, and get be in bed by 11. Well, then that's not a whole bunch of sleep. So I need to get a couple hours during the during the afternoon.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's good. Yeah, sleep is a sleep is very important.
SPEAKER_03Sleep, you your rest is very, very important. Your rest is important because uh if you do not get enough sleep, you're gonna compensate with food.
SPEAKER_02Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_03And when you compensate with food, that means weight gain. Your weight gain means less movement and da-da-da-da-da.
SPEAKER_06Mm-hmm. That's true, because uh the brain needs uh energy and carbs are a really easy energy source, so that's why the body call just craves carbon.
SPEAKER_03I also wonder, too, if at sleeping uh and resting shorter periods of times rather than say 10 to 12 consecutively hours helps in movement of the joints as they get older because it seems like if you stay still too long, the joints seem to be much harder to get moving.
SPEAKER_06Wow, that's a good point. I haven't thought of that. So not yeah, so not sleeping too long at a time. Yeah. And the diet uh you mentioned was a really big part. Have you have you always like taken care of that?
SPEAKER_03Oh, yes, definitely. After your grandmother and if I don't have a salad, something green, every night before I go to bed, I almost feel like I have not eaten.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_03So one that's one of the most important things in my diet is the green, the green, the salads and the variety of veggies that's in that. And meat. I I desire a certain amount of meat almost. Now I may not eat a lot of meat in the morning or at lunch, but at dinner time I have a nice square of meat. And then uh uh if you can avoid carbohydrates, avoid them. Or try to eat uh low-cal fat carbohydrates. But uh as you can see, I don't do too well, but anyway, we try.
SPEAKER_06Well, you do really well. You're 98. You're doing great. And so what do you think has changed the most, like health-wise, in the world since you were young?
SPEAKER_03See, since I since I was born, since I started life at say five, six years old, the uh thing that I think think I mo notice most is the obesity we see.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And the young girls and the young people, and they think nothing of it, and they have no worries and no ideas. They drink those sugared sodas, they eat that sugar like it's going out of style, and it uh it blows my mind.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. So, do you have any advice for the people listening how to take care of care of their health?
SPEAKER_03Watch what you eat, exercise, sleep, meet people and try and stay busy and have a purpose, a purpose of living.
SPEAKER_06That is so beautiful. So, do you what do you think uh for the future generations? Do you think there will be some more challenges?
SPEAKER_03Uh as time goes on and as our economy goes down, and the challenges that's out there for these young people who have no idea how to work hard, no idea how to go without, uh I can't imagine what the world will be like. They will all become criminals and try to take from each other or whatever. I have no idea, but it's not gonna be pretty. Because too many of our young people have no idea of what can happen to us economy-wise. And I see our economy in the United States today going down very, very fast.
SPEAKER_06Exactly. And you know, health is also financial, financial.
SPEAKER_03Yes, and health is financial too, because it will come the time when you can't afford the insurances and health health as it progresses is because it advances, and we have gained so much in healthcare since 1940, 1930 that it's unimaginable. But it's also very, very expensive, and with no economy and no no money, uh, you know, people people unless they're rich or uh well off will not will not survive some of the diseases, etc.
SPEAKER_06Well, that's sad. But before we started recording, we were talking about insurance. I know in Iceland it's very different from here, probably. But you said that if you're well insured, you're good good off. But not everyone can afford the insurance, right?
SPEAKER_03Right, right. Not everyone can afford the insurance. And uh everyone, at least Medicare still provides health insurance at 65. They're not providing full Social Security or retirement benefits until 67 now. It used to be 65. But anyway, Medicare does pay for partial health, but only 80%. There's still 20% that's unpaid for and needs to be carried by an insurance, which we call a gap insurance. And many people can afford no gap insurance or a very low-priced gap insurance. A good gap insurance will take care of lots of medical problems. A poor gap insurance will not take care of those uh medical problems without first being asked by the provider. Can we do such and such to Joe Blow? Can we do this? Because these are his symptoms. And sometimes the insurance company will say yes, and sometimes the insurance company will say no. So therefore, the health being provided is going to be uh up to the insurance companies, which in many ways is not good, myself being a medical professional.
SPEAKER_06Would you say that you have had a healthy life?
SPEAKER_03I've had a very healthy life. Believe it or not, I um seldom was ever very sick. I did have some tonsil problems. I had uh what they called Quincy, where the tonsils became infected and swelled up, and they were lanced a couple of times by doctors. A couple of times they just broke on their own. I but believe it or not, I still have those tonsils to this day. Oh, really? Wow. And in most instances, they should have been removed. Uh that's been the that was one of the main things I had when I was a teenager and early 20s. Then when I was um well, I guess I was 25, 27 years old, in 1955, I contracted uh hepatitis B, which is not good. And uh I was in the hospital for 29 days, but I had an excellent physician. I happened to work for him, but he uh happened to have training in taking care of hepatitis B in the service. All he had done was take care of soldiers of hepatitis B and B and A, and he knew exactly what you should do, so that's the reason he threw me in the hospital, made me stay there. And then I was in the hospital 29 days. He made me stay at home a full month to do nothing but stay in bed and recuperate, move around some. I finally returned to work, and then he allowed me to work two hours per day the first week, four hours per day the second week, six hours the third week, and back to full time the fourth week. So there's another little entity into my life that made me really appreciate health and good, you know, and good eating. And I was so bad in the hospital they gave me strange baby food. And I ate it. They gave me strange baby food in the hospital so that my body wouldn't have to work to digest my food. I despised that. Also, then he requ he asked that I take a vitamin B with C for years, and I've always taken a healthy, healthy vitamin all my life that from that. But uh, and I did try to quit the pill, quit the vitamin, and uh I would show signs of regression on the liver tests.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_03So anyway, uh so I was sick in 1955, and then uh haven't been sick really since. Wow, that's it. I had babies, yeah, and this last time in May, and then I was in the hospital one other time for two days for a I guess a small little sack of some kind that was on my tailbone. So I've been had no illnesses, no sicknesses, no nothing. I have my panics and everything.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. You're amazing. And now mental health is uh a big people talk about it a lot. Maybe when you were younger, it people didn't speak about mental health as much. You told me that you lost a baby.
SPEAKER_03Was it ever did you ever get any like how you feel bad and you're sad uh you know, and uh but the thing was is with this baby uh he got sick. Here's the thing, is he was our first baby, and we were so overjoyed with that child that I think we sat around, we never took it out, didn't take it to the grocery store. Either one of us stayed with him all the time, uh stayed with him at home, or we took him to my husband's mother. We never exposed him to the outside world probably until he was at least six months old or so. And uh so then uh finally he was uh he was just uh 22 months old and he got sick or had a fever, and uh I gave him a baby aspirin, and I don't know whether I ended up giving him one at one time and then another one later, and then I put him in the bathtub and he urinated in the bathtub and it was all brown as it came out. So that's when I called the pediatrician. We took him into the hospital, and that was a uremia part of it, but he said polycythenic, polycythenic uremia, because he was breaking down his blood cells and it and they plugged his kidneys, they put him on peritoneal dialysis for a week, uh and which you know the water went into his peritoneum and then came out to flush him from the creatinine and everything like that. And then they were gonna get an iron lung, which was putting in a trachea. And at that time I said, Dear God, if you're gonna take this baby, take him now.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, so yeah. And he did. It would have been a hard life otherwise. Probably. Wow.
SPEAKER_03So I don't know, you know, uh, under those circumstances, yes. Uh, we both felt very, very badly about losing that baby. And uh I think we sat around and we talked about it, and then we said, and by that time I'm 34, see, Diane. And and in those ages, you didn't have babies much past 35 to 36 because of Down syndrome.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_03And as we talked, we said, did we and definitely we better have another child to go with this one we had, this little girl we had. And uh so uh immediately we decided we better have this other child, and uh within nine months within very short period of time I was pregnant and had this child nine months later.
SPEAKER_06That's so great.
SPEAKER_03So you see, I uh I lost the baby on something like uh well he was in the hospital on my oh that was a lovely part of my story too. I lost that baby on Mother's Day. Oh and Wynne was four and a half years and got meningitis and when was in the hospital on Mother's Day with meningitis close to death.
SPEAKER_06You don't like Mother's Day.
SPEAKER_03She was four and a half, but anyway, I lost the son on Mother's Day and had the son the next son on Memorial Day following uh following his death. So um mentally, yes, you're sad, uh feel bad and all that, but also uh a matter of looking forward. Attitude.
SPEAKER_06Attitude, like attitude, like you started with. I think it's a huge part.
SPEAKER_03Yes, huge part, and uh this too will pass. You know, hardships, whatever, this too will pass. There is one thing, although my I didn't care for my mother the most, but she did have one say in life. You've got a problem, you get on the tiger, you ride that tiger till he drops. So, and that's another thing. Life. Get on that life and ride it till it drops.
SPEAKER_02That's true.
SPEAKER_03So you know I have I I can't tell anybody anything else what to do but be strong and look ahead.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Because I think it's all within yourself. What you eat, you're responsible for. How you keep your health going, you're responsible for. And that's another thing. Listen to your body.
SPEAKER_06It's always trying to tell you something.
SPEAKER_03Listen to your body. If it's tired, rest. If you don't feel well, take the day off, even though you don't think you should. But you know, if at all possible, take care of your body and take care of yourself.
SPEAKER_06It's a lovely message. And the name of my podcast in Icelandic is Medili Lukunem, which means you have your life in your own hands.
SPEAKER_03You do. You do. You've got your hands and your life in your own hands because, like I say, what you put in your mouth, how you treat your body, how you take care of it.
SPEAKER_06Exactly. An attitude. You always have a choice.
SPEAKER_03You have a choice. Yes. Not that I haven't been terrible and treated my body in unscrupulous, horrible ways. Nobody's perfect. But uh, you know, as time goes on, you learn more and more about trying to take care of yourself.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And you are amazing. We're sitting here in Orlando, and you live up in Iowa, and you traveled here by yourself.
SPEAKER_03Oh yes, I traveled here by myself. I traveled here uh and we'll go back. Two. I didn't tell you about, you know, when I had my hips done, or did you hear about that?
SPEAKER_05No, I didn't hear about that.
SPEAKER_03Okay. You know, I kept going to this doctor talking, and you know, and he said, Oh, as long as you can move your leg out like this, your hips are alright. Well, little little did he know, even though he was the most excellent GP I have ever seen. Anyway, uh finally he had retired retired. I I was unable to see him, and then I saw another lady with because my legs or hips was bothering me, and she said, I think you need to go to an orthopaedic. And so at that time I was 93 or 94, it was in 19 yeah, 2022. And so I went to the orthopedic people and uh they suggested physical therapy. So I did physical therapy for a couple of months, and uh finally then uh I went back to uh uh I think maybe the GP recommended the physical therapy. Then I went to the orthopeople. Then the orthop when I walked into the doctor that was to see me, he looked at me and he said, You have four joints that need to be replaced. We do not do surgery on people who are over 85 years old. And I thought, oh yeah? And so anyway, I pestered him probably for two months. He injected cortisol into both knees, that did not improve anything. He injected cortisol into one hip, that didn't last or improve anything, and I'm still in considerable pain, taking anywhere from six to eight over-the-counter painkillers per 24 hours, okay, not liking this, knowing it's gonna eat out my stomach. And uh finally I told him, I said, you know, I would just as leave die as to go on like this. And with that, he said, let's do the left hip and alleviate, see if we can alleviate some pain. Because he did not want to do surgery on anybody over 85, but he did.
SPEAKER_06Was that because of risk? Or yeah, oh yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. No, they don't want to do anything to you when you get to be 85. No colonoscopies, no this, no that, nothing. 85, you're supposed to die. 85, you're supposed to die. Sad. But I won't let them do that to me. Uh, because oh anyway, uh as I went into the OR, I told the gang, I said, if anything happens, please don't blame yourself. Because, you know, whatever. Let's just do this and get it over. I came through just fine. The only thing is, is the sodium, my sodium dropped, so they kept me for three or four days. Duh. I went to surgery at 3, 3.30 in the afternoon. I came out, they gave me 2,000 ml of IV fluid. I drank probably another 1,000 ml of fluids. They tested my, they did the electrolytes on me the next day or whenever, and of course the sodium was low.
SPEAKER_00Duh.
SPEAKER_03So anyway, they keep me in the hospital all the time. I'm drinking and everything. Sodium's low, sodium's low. Well, finally, when it gets back up to normal, they let me out. Well, anyway, then uh I got along fine with that hip, and it was only and was released in six weeks, and I'm trying to get around on this silly walker. Finally, I get back to the water in November or so, and I'm walking in the water, fine, but I'm dragging the right hip. I'm dragging the right leg. And so then I suddenly realized you'll never walk until the right hip's done. So I called him in February and said, Look, we better do this right hip. I can't walk. So he said, Okay, let's do it immediately. So we did it in March, nine months following the first. Okay. And within uh by July 1st, I was walking with a cane only and then walking. So, you know, it's one of those things. It's just you have to insist. Prior to that time, a couple of years, I had was having some stomach problems because I was diagnosed with diverticulosis. And uh so anyway, it was bothering me, and I wanted another uh colonoscopy. Well, I absolutely refused, and this doctor said, No, no, no, we don't do them over 85. Colagard, they won't give you coligard if you're over 85. And I finally said, Look, I know why you don't want to do it because you're afraid you puncture my gut, and I've got tough skin, you can pinch it, and you can do whatever, it doesn't turn black and blue. And he said, All right, I'll do it, and I'll be very careful. And I went through it with flying colors. Well, I discovered that the little pits, whatever, are clear down in the celiac and clear so that I have far more pits and things, so I have to be very, very careful on the seed situation today.
SPEAKER_06All right, yeah, this is amazing. Your story is so inspiring.
SPEAKER_03Well, I did have a hysterectomy at 90, then I forgot that. Oh. Finally, I had a hysterectomy at 90. Uh I had gone to the water and come back from water robe from hanging up my suit, and all of a sudden I felt something, and I thought, no, that wasn't urine, that was something else. So as I checked, of course, it was not, it was blood. And so anyway, and it was doing a pretty good job of it, because uh, I think I put on a pad and walked a dog, and within, you know, 15-20 minutes I was probably pretty well soaked. And so I had a friend come and get me, and off we went to the ER. Well, that was kind of a farce because I think we got there probably about 12 or 12:30 and set till probably five or six before I was ever seen. I think I'd all already stopped bleeding by that time. And so uh this was it's this was something like the 28th, 29th of June, so and on a weekend, I think, and then I got to see the doctor, say on Monday, and he took innumerable biopsies, this specialist or or you know, GYN man. And uh so then uh 4th of July was coming up, say like Thursday or Friday of that week, and then when they called me, say on Wednesday or Thursday, why the they say they said, well, we can't really tell anything from the slides, so we're sending them to Iowa City. So you get to wait over the 4th of July for any reports or anything, and so I, of course, by that time my son and daughter are hyper and hyper and real worried, and I told them, I said, look, there's two things about that little situation. Either it's not enough there to really tell that it's cancer, or it's so high they don't know how high to name it. So, you know, either way, whatever. You gotta accept what it what it is, what it is. Well, anyway, then finally got in to see the doctor, and he said they could not really tell whether there was any cancer cells, but they looked like they were getting ready to change. So he said, and so under the circumstances, I said, Well, of course I want the hysterectomy right away. I'm not gonna hang them, gamble. So four or five weeks later I was had surgery and that was it.
SPEAKER_06At 90 years.
SPEAKER_03Yes, and then I went in one day and I'm home the next day at three o'clock in the afternoon walking my dog. And my neighbor says, Well, I thought you were supposed to have surgery. I said, Yes, I did. I had it. Yeah. Well, because because he did it, and by six o'clock that night, I was up. Well, uh, yeah, I was awake and everything, but I know that at least by nine o'clock that night I was grabbing my own IV pool, calling a nurse and grabbing the IV pool, telling her I was going to the bathroom by myself, which I did the rest of the night.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. So you think your uh education and work has helped you through all of this? Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Uh one thing, the education, of course, was medical background, so that teaches you a certain amount how to take care of yourself, and and if you follow your own instructions, well, you'll you'll live and be good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03It broadens your idea how to take care of yourself.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Anyway.
SPEAKER_06So I think we're uh almost. I think that should be just about it. I think so. Is it is there anything you want to add?
SPEAKER_03Well, I'd certainly have had a healthy life, you know, and uh whatever whatever it was just came along and that was it, you know. We just did it. So I uh it's been a good life, it's been a hard life, not uh, you know, not easy, but you just keep your head straight ahead and keep moving forward no matter what.
SPEAKER_06Well, thank you. Thank you so much for taking the time to do this again.
SPEAKER_03I appreciate this. The main thing we need to do is probably we'd ought to write down uh where we can hear or listen to this.
SPEAKER_06Oh, yes, I will send you the links.
SPEAKER_03Uh of course. That was the one request my son made. Sure, to let us know where we can hear this.
SPEAKER_06Of course. So my podcast is uh main most of the episodes are in Icelandic, but there are three episodes in English, including yours. So I will this will be on Spotify and on Apple Music or Apple, what is it? Apple Podcasts. And also I'll I'll just send you the link. So good. All right, good. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03Well, I appreciate doing it if it'll do anybody any help.
SPEAKER_06It will.
SPEAKER_03And you know, because I'm sorry to say, too many people, old people, oh, I can't do this because I'm too old. Or if I can't do this because I can't move anymore. Well, damn it. Whose fault's that? You've got to get up and move. You've got to move it.
SPEAKER_05Good final words, I think.
SPEAKER_03You know, that's getting out of a chair.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_03Practice.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_03Practice. I should take a video. Don't sit there and say, oh, I can't get out of the chair. I gotta practice.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, it's like doing squats when you're sitting down and standing up. Right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. And even do them this way, you know. Anything. Yeah. Move. Like one doctor said to me, when you're up watching, when you're watching the toast toast, move. Stand on one leg. Practice. Practice.
SPEAKER_04Every day.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah. Keep it moving.
SPEAKER_06So great. Well, that was inspirational to say the least. I really hope that I will enjoy this kind of health when I get older. And uh if I reach this age at 98, I hope I will be just like Sona. I have an Instagram page which uh I will link in the show notes. How do you do that at loud for the UI stand up people? And uh on there you can actually see two videos of Sona to see how amazing and uh what's actually then stand up, no problem. She's showing us how to move. And if there's uh one big takeaway from this is that I will never stop moving, and that uh you know those daily walks are so important. So never stop moving, people. If you like this episode, please share it with someone you know uh someone that might benefit from listening to this. Please follow my podcast on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening from. And uh take care. Take care of your own health. Your uh health is is in your hands. Until next time. Bye bye.