Rocking the body of a 50-year-old

When I was a 24-year-old spring chicken, I sometimes played six soccer games a week. I remember looking at those old ladies in their thirties who complained about their knees hurting them and thinking, "that will never be me." I figured I would just keep playing multiple games a week and prevent my age from ever catching up to me.

Ha! That plan-- and that schedule-- was kept up for a few years until my knees, hips and back needed more than a day to recover before I beat on them again. And now-- somewhere in my early-ish thirties-- it doesn't even take a full soccer game to put me out of commission for a few days.

A few weekends ago, I was up and down a ladder as I powerwashed our house. Having lifted equipment around and twisted in funny ways, I wasn't surprised to wake up with a sore lower back. A few days later, while my back was still bothering me, I somehow pulled a muscle in my upper back. I'm also sporting a massive gouge in my arm from where the dermatologist removed a suspicious-looking mole. Then, today, while driving home from the grocery store, I experienced a really bad burning pain in my back.

Thinking it was a muscle cramp, I tried to grit my teeth and sit still until it passed. Which it didn't pass. Swiping at my back (while somehow staying in my lane of traffic), I grabbed a wasp off my back and discovered upon getting home that it had stung me twice through my shirt.

I don't need to play soccer six days a week anymore. These days, I would consider two full days without pain a success.