Wednesday 26 March 2014

Unbreakable


Have you seen the movie Unbreakable?

Samuel L. Jackson plays a guy who has brittle bone disease. His bones break at the slightest provocation. Just being born would have broken most bones. Naturally his character grows up stunted, not physically but emotionally. Because he can't do all the things that other people do.

I'm feeling a lot like that guy today. Breakable.

This week I went to the chiropractor and we talked about my recent neck x-rays. I fell on the icy sidewalk on Valentine's day and gave myself whiplash--it still hurts almost 6 weeks later. Being cautious, my chiropractor wouldn't do an adjustment until after an x-ray proved I hadn't cracked anything.  Fortunately, I hadn't. But it shows narrowed discs and bone spurs, evidence of degenerative disc disease and osteoarthritis.

This isn't entirely surprising, three years ago I had disc replacement surgery in my lower back for those very reasons. But the cervical area is different than the lower back. It's not so easy to fix, not so easy to prevent the damage from worsening. I already have tingling in my hands, neck stiffness and pain. And I'm barely in my 50s--how much worse is it going to get? How much longer will I still feel my hands enough to type? Another 10 years? Maybe 20 if I'm lucky?

I'm a writer. If I'm going to finish all the stories I want to tell, I'd better get going on them.

And start looking into voice recognition software.

2 comments:

  1. I have numbness and tingling in my hands and arms all the time. Esp. at night, that's the worst cause I keep waking up when one or the other arm has gone ice cold. Hope you feel better soon! you are lucky you didn't crack your skull when you fell.

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    1. I am lucky I didn't break anything... getting old with all it's aches and pains isn't much fun but it is much better than the alternative!

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