Ah the pharmaceutical industry and their ads. There is a Celebrex ad airing now (during the Nightly News) that features a man at the beach with his Springer Spaniel and the voiceover citing Newtownian Physics as he purrs…. “A body at rest stays at rest while a body in motion stays in motion”

Wait…as if movement for people my parents’ age were a choice? I wish it were that simple. They wish it were that simple. I wish my parents could just take a pill and pick up and start moving again. But that is not to be.

As I watch the slow deterioration of my parents’ mobility, I find myself wondering when and how does one go from being active to sedentary? Is it a conscious decision? If you don’t use it (as Dad’s PT person used to say) do you truly lose it?

And if you do lose it, despite what the drug peddlers want you to believe with their beachcombing frisbee throwing ads, can you still have the quality of life and still be less mobile? Lord knows mobility and hyperactivity are not all it is cracked up to be.

My mom used to play tennis and swim and ski and hike and garden. Now it takes her 2 hours just to get up and get dressed in the morning.

Seriously, how did this happen?