Being Betrayed by my Body

Eric and I have spent the last twenty-two years together and there’s something marvelous about aging with another person.  We’re hitting the same milestones and needing the same support at similar times.  I remember turning 30 and getting my first real sports injury; I idiotically showed off a back kick without warming up appropriately and then I had to nurse my right hamstring back to full capacity over a period of 6 months.  Eric also nursed a hamstring injury – his was because we impulse joined Tina Kearney for a 10 miles training run in Forest Park.  That, my friends, was a mistake for Eric and he paid for it for multiple months.

Some injuries and pain linger.  As a former wrestler, Eric has had neck issues the whole time I’ve known him.  Add in a computer programming career and a penchant for the bench press and push-ups, and Eric’s nerves that run from one hand, up the arm, through the chest, and back down suffered mightily.  He has lain on more frozen bottles for his neck than I can reasonably estimate, and he has a twice-daily mandatory stretching routine to keep his carpal tunnel nerves happy. 

My injures center on my feet.  I’ve broken the same bone in my foot about 9 times; I’ve stepped on a mystery item (turned out to be a plastic shard from a cassette tape case) and had it surgically removed; I’ve had a growth on a tendon that make it painful to run, had it injected to reduce the size, had it grow again, and had it injected again.  The cortisone injections irritate the skin on my feet for about 9 months afterwards, so I now have orthotics in the hope it will prevent the cyst from returning.  Trying to keep this under control has been irritating but has also been easily managed.  I’m grateful for health insurance!

The most recent injury – and the one that really has me feeling old – is my right knee.  On a beautiful Thursday morning in February the sun came out and the temperature was a balmy 65 degrees.  I took my advisory out to play tag on the front lawn of the school.  I sprinted after a kiddo, stepped into a mole hole, and slammed my right knee into the ground.  It swelled up so much that I was certain I had broken my kneecap; I barely could bend it enough to get in the car and drive home.  I spent the next five days icing and elevating it and using a knee brace and sometimes a cane when walking.  (Eric and I did our wedding vow renewal ceremony that Sunday.  You cannot see the knee brace in the photos, nor the amount of pain killers I used to get through that day, nor the practice attempts I did at walking up and down the auditorium stairs before the audience arrived.  I hid my injury well, I think.)

When I was feeling sorry for myself I complained that I wouldn’t be able to run anytime soon.  (Honestly, I could barely walk.)  Eric put it in perspective: if I didn’t heal quickly enough, I wouldn’t be able to hike at our Big Bend vacation.  I put physical therapy into full throttle because I was determined to be able to hike in the mountains.  The knee brace lasted two weeks; the physical therapy lasted about four weeks; the pain when using the knee lasted six weeks.  Now I can walk, bend it forward and lift it, sit cross-legged for brief periods of time, and do a standing hamstring curl without wincing (this took the longest to regain).  I am not yet willing to kneel on it nor do lunges, squats, or jog but I’m hopeful that will be soon in my future.

In the end, I did hike at Big Bend.  I carried a pack the whole time and put my knees through a work-out going up and down mountains.  The hardest part of the trip was driving the long distances and having it stiffen up; my body was quick to inform me that driving for multiple hours at a time without a break was a mistake.  😊   

Getting older means my body is more and more fragile.  I’m closer to 40 years old than 14 and it’s a frustrating reality sometimes.  I’m grateful that I’m still able-bodied enough to be physically active in ways I want, even though it’s restricted, and I hope that Eric and I can see each other through these challenges in the years to come.