Eighteen
From 2009 – 2013, I had constant health issues, starting with neck problems (that would become chronic), to back problems, to repeated ear infections, to a chest infection, to a bad sinus problem where I couldn’t breathe through my nose for months, to digestive issues (involving excruciating stomach pains) that took six months to diagnose, to bad anxiety and depression (related to starving myself because anything I ate caused pain), to reactive hypoglycemia (that took months again to diagnose), and then all the way back around to the neck and back problems. Every morning I woke and my mind would automatically perform a self-scan to see what might be problematic.…
Nine
In 2011, a car ran a light and struck me down at a traffic crossing, breaking my right leg and dislocating my ankle. Later, I would learn that as the bones broke, they hooked the nerve, and wishboned, stretching the nerve (and keeping it stretched until surgery remedied the problem over six hours later). So nerve damage was thrown into the mix. And then, the injury incited Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS), a disconnect between the way my foot and leg communicate with my brain, and how they report sensation, movement, and pain. For two years, I had to do physio three times a day at home and three times…