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David, Charlie, and listfriends - Your discussion of frustration with loss of the ability to do what you once did gives me the opportunity to say a public thank you and an "atta boy" to my husband, Dick (52/15). We're remodeling our house once again, and I admire his perseverence in doing as much as he can do of it himself. This is the 7th house we've remodeled, and the third remodeling on this house. As you might imagine, it's something we've been doing for years. As you can also imagine, every bit of it is a lot harder for Dick than it used to be. This time, for the record, we've paid plumbers, carpenters, electricians, and sheetrockers to come in and do the bulk of the work. But we've done some of the carpentry ourselves, and some of the sheetrock, and Dick started painting today. He'll end up repainting all the hallways and several rooms. Then he or we will cut and fit the moldings. Although his balance isn't good, he did fine up on the ladder working on ceilings and other high places. If he lost his balance, he could always catch himself against the wall. His doctor had to bite his tongue to keep from telling him to stay off ladders, and just warned him instead to be very, very careful. I wished afterward I'd reminded the doctor that he'd probably had 10 falls up the stairs in the past couple of weeks, versus 0 falls off the ladder! Like the rest of you, Dick is frustrated by what he can't do anymore. He found he can't plaster (or so he says - hmmm....), and has difficulty hammering or scraping. In fact, any repetitive back-and-forth movement is difficult to impossible. But he has learned that an electric screwdriver works well for him, so he screws things instead of nailing them. Or I can always pound the nails for him. I do all the ceramic tile work on walls and floors, but I've always done that, so that's no change. This was longer than I intended (as always), but the last thing I want to say is that Dick was sure he couldn't do any of this work anymore until he tried it. Once he tried it, he found there was a lot he could still do, even if he had to adapt his methods and have much shorter work days. I know he feels good about what he has accomplished, and I want him to know how proud I am of him both for the effort and for his accomplishments. Margie Swindler [log in to unmask]