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Nothing Hurts Today!
(Am I dead?)
I must one of the lucky ones. Other than period cramps that would make a Navy Seal cry I hadn’t experienced much in the way of chronic pain in my charmed existence. Ok, yeah, there was that little bout with an autoimmune disorder that landed my sorry backside in Bellevue Hospital for two weeks back in ’04, but for the most part, I’ve enjoyed embarrassingly good health.
Then in my 56th year, things began to shift.
Plantar fasciitis twice, muscle spasms in my lower back, hives (again), the renewed onset of acid reflux attacks, hip pain, and aching knees. What happened? Oh, right. I didn’t die and that means what? I got older. And as the years zipped along, the aches and pains have accumulated.
Another bit of good fortune, however, was that all of the above didn’t avalanche onto me at once.
It’s been more of a conveyor belt of pains. For awhile, those back spasms would incapacitate me to the point of being afraid to move. The worst was during and after my last trip out to Black Rock City in 2019 where stretching wasn’t a priority and really should have been. As the spasms slowly subsided, I’d get clobbered by repeated acid reflux attacks.
Sidebar: I had my first experience of an acid reflux attack when I was 12. I was babysitting an infant cousin when it hit and…
