We take so much of ourselves for granted. The way our bodies work, our senses, the fact that we can reason and think and feel. In fact, we rarely give any consideration to how well things go until something goes wrong, stops functioning, changes gradually or abruptly. We don’t even catalog the amazing powers of this skin we live in until it’s suddenly sliced open by an errant edge of paper or a mis-timed knife and our attention is yanked ferociously to a heightened awareness of pain. We often don’t even realize what muscles we have until we feel them aching after a workout.
My sister emailed today to say that she had cracked her chest cartilage by arching her back and STRETCHING. How does that even happen? Her doctor said it possibly went along with the fact that she’s double-jointed (oh the jokes I am restraining right now). She says it sucks and it’s very painful to lift or turn or bend. This sort of thing only happens to my sister, by the way, so feel free to stretch all you like.
One of the frustrating effects of aging is having to face the facts that things don’t work as well as they used to. We slow down, we stiffen, we take longer to recover. Our eye doctor prescribes stronger lenses to allow us to retain a vestige of the vision that we once enjoyed. We’re more aware of the cold and the heat, and more susceptible to aches and pains. I’m not even OLD and I can feel the effects already. I keep cataloging symptoms of encroaching age and thinking, “What, already? How can that be? I’m so YOUNG in my head!”
The limber elasticity that was our birthright, the glowing plumpness of youth, and the general sense of well-being: all taken for granted by those undeserving carefree kids.
Since yesterday things have tasted strange. I find every meal leaves me with a bitter, bad taste in my mouth. My single, fearful stab at Internet-diagnosis scared the crap out of me: mercury poisoning! copper toxicity! WebMD says I can wait 48 hours and see if it goes away, though. I’m not taking any medicine and I don’t have diabetes. When I used the symptom checker and added both my eye issues AND this new taste change, it gave me a list of 20 possible conditions, one of which was sleep deprivation. I knew I needed a nap!
Tomorrow I will finally get off my duff and call to make an appointment with the healthcare clinic. No way am I taking anything for granted anymore. Though I will take it easy when I wake up tomorrow morning and rein in that morning stretch.
Enjoying: Paul Octavious’ Projects