As children, we believe that we are invincible. We think that we can do things without any kind of repercussions. Realistically, when we are younger, we can.
Climb a tree, fall, hurt, cry, get back up.
Ride a bike, miss the pedal, hit the middle bar, cry, get back up.
Rush down the stairs, fall, slide the rest of the way down, cry, get back up.
You get the picture.
But then comes a time when you are a tad bit less sharp than you were in years previous; where invincibility becomes mortality; where each ache is a reminder of what you did to your self and fleating youth.
For me, it started at age 33.
At 33, I discovered that there comes a time when you have to be more preventative with your care. I discovered that it would behoove you to listen to your body instead of trying to work through it. I discovered that my body would force me to take days off in order tto recover from what I put it through rather than going full bore all of the time.
At age 33, my back when out.
Look, I would see the family television shows where the father’s back would go out and he would not be able to stand straight up causing him to go throughout his day hunch over for the entire episode. I thought, “There is no way in the hell he can’t just straighten out his back. What a wimp!”
And then it happened to me.
I was the father of a three-year-old and a baby. The family had just returned home from watching a local varsity basketball game at the high school. It was late, and I was putting the baby to bed. As I gently bent over the crib to place her down… It happened.
I was flat on the ground before I could brace myself.
I cannot explain the pain I was in (it was a lot), and I knew what had happened – I just don’t know why or how it happened. While bear crawling to my bed, I questioned everything about my body and its abilities, “How could this be?! I had never had a back problem in my entire life! I was in really good shape! My body has failed me! Is it normal for a 33 year old man to have a bad back?” What amazed me the most about this happening is that I never realized how much you depend on your back muscles for mobility. I learned that day. *side note: I got the chiropractor to write me a note saying that I was no longer medically cleared to change diapars. My wife failed to see the humor.
Speaking of humor, at age 35, I ruptured my Achilles tendon.
It happened during a pick-up basketball game with my students. One student challenged me to drive past him and go to the hole using my left hand. As a former jock, I am way too much of a “man” to not oblige him. I had always had a pretty good first step, so there was no way in the hell that this doofus was going to stop me.
He didn’t.
My Achilles did.
Surprisingly, there was no pain. Also surprisingly, my tendon did not recoil into my hamstring like I had heard. But, it was torn completely in half. Grabbing my ankle felt like grabbing my wrist. As I was sitting on the floor unable to stand, it hit me:
Holy shit, how was I going to explain this to Heather?
This is when the story gets good.
The first doctor – we will call Doctor Dumbass, diagnosed me with a serious ankle sprain. I politly informed her that she was wrong and that there was, in fact, no tendon attached. “Yeah, but you can move your toes.”
Dumbass.
So I went to a specialist. She looked at it, laughed at me and asked who diagnosed me. I told her. Without a word, she walked directly out of the room and closed the door.
Somebody got cursed out (I could hear her in the next room).
She comes in smiling: “Welp, we will schedule you for surgery next week.”
“Doc…uh…my son is due by C-section in two weeks.”
“Why wouldn’t he be.”
The surgery was scheduled that week. Post-surgery, I was not, under any circumstance, supposed to touch my foot to the ground. Let me set the stage for you (sans all of the curse words my wife enjoys using when telling this tale):
The day of my oldest son’s birth. My wife had to make sure that I was in the van and properly situated (I am in a soft cast and, remember, no touching my foot to the floor). When we arrived at the hospital, she dropped me off under the awning and parked the van, 100 feet away, while I found the nearest wheelchair. Then she wheeled me to the appointment desk:
“Sir, are you here to check in?”
“No, my pregnant wife.”
There was a look of utter disappointment and/or disgust of me from ever women within earshot. If those women could push my wheelchair down the steps, I believe they would have. It gets better. How? Well —
When it was time for my son to come out, my wife’s nurse wheeled me into the operating room while she walked.
Mic Drop.
Believe me, it is a much funnier story when she tells it; and, she loves to tell it when attending get-togethers where the women outnumber the men 3 to 1. Nothing I have done or will ever do will make up for it.
At age 38, I had figured by now that I should probably go for a yearly check-up. I had been doing a check-up for the last two years after I realized that, A) I have a mortgage, B) have 4 kids, C) have a family history of high blood pressure and high cholesterol, and D) have proven to myself that my body is deteriorating. But this time, I had to do blood work. Simple enough, right. Yes. Until I saw the results:
My kidneys were not working at full capacity…
WTF!
That was not even on my radar.
“You should see the specialist.”
Shit.
So, there I am, three weeks later; sitting in the kidney specialist’s office. Wondering if I am going to be in dialysis within a year.
Note: For the love of God, do not interpret your results through WebMD. Ever. There are so many things you can die of. Don’t let fear be one of them.
“We will send your blood sample to Mayo Clinic for a more accurate test. I will message you when the results are in. Don’t worry.”
Hmmm… Ok. Wait. Shit. Mayo Clinic? Shit. Shit. Shit.
Results came in. Everything is normal. Great, I just almost crapped myself, but great.
So let’s review what we have learned here.
- You really are not as invincible as you think. It will catch up to you one day and you will not see it coming.
- You are as old as you feel, unless you feel like you are 55 and your actual age is 35. Take preventative measures in order to maintain the machine.
- See a doctor once or twice a year. Sure, I got a scare, but that is better than not seeing it coming and leaving your loved ones to pick up the pieces.
UffdaBlack - Adventures in Parenting 
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