HELLLLLLLOOOOO, Retirement !

[Davey Do]

This is my first day that I can say I'm retired. Even though the first day that I did not go into work was... what do ya know?: The First Day of Spring!

So, I saw a couple of my good friends here- TriciaJ and Daisy4RN- and thought I'd come hang out in this forum a bit, relate, stir things up, cause some trouble, and whatnot.

So: When did you really feel like you were retired? Nursing has been a very big part of our lives for decades and now we have to kind of let it go; a transition, a grieving process, if you will.

I haven't received my first SS check yet and I've still got a paycheck coming from Wrongway of time worked, accrued vacation, and PTO. I'm thinking when I receive my first SS check, I'll feel retired.

Probably an oft asked question on this forum, but: When did you finally feel truly retired from the nursing profession?

[Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN]

Hi all, somehow this popped up on my radar again, the question that caught my eye being, "When did you really feel retired?” Well ...

Having had a mild case of COVID in March 2020 I thought I was home free, and for awhile, I was. Then a shredded cartilage meant I needed a TKR , delayed for ages because of the ban on elective surg. It was dreadful experience; I won't bore you with the lousy nursing care and very prolonged rehab. During which my PT asked be if I would mind if he gave me the name of another ortho, since my contralateral knee got good and p***ED ? off about taking up the slack and I had to have that one replaced too. 

Meanwhile, I thought I was just deconditioned but when I developed a DVT, trifascicular block, dense brain fog, crushing fatigue (sleeping 15-18h/day), and POTS, I realized I was in real trouble. I lost my jobs as an editor bec my board thought I was slacking off; it wasn't for almost another year that post-COVID was getting defined as a thing. I couldn't sit at my desk for 15 minutes at a time, or focus, or stand up long enough to fry a hamburger. It was a hard coupla years.

I hadn't been doing any traveling and all my LNC cases were done remote, which was good; the last one just settled in Dec 2023!! but all the rest were done in 2022. 

So now, finally, I can climb a flight of stairs without almost blacking out. I can feel the PVCs but according to my Apple Watch their unifocal so I don't care much. I can walk 1/4 mile without syncope. And I'm enjoying reading the bazillion books that have been waiting for me, seeing a few quilts on demand for children and grandchild, sitting by the wood stove (it's snowing today), and volunteering on a town advisory board. 

My certs in rehab, case mgmt, legal nurse consulting, and nurse life care planning all fell due this past Summer... I let them go. My RN is up for renewal in March. I'll be 73 then, licensed for >50 years, and I think I might just let it go to inactive. Wow. I think I'll really feel retired then. 
 

It's been a trip.  I feel like an old pine tree in the storm, looking forward to Summer again. Evergreen.