aches

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My Injuries Keep Coming

I’m finding it more difficult to diagnose minor injuries than I used to. 

Years ago, when I had an ache or a pain, I could pinpoint the precise cause or incident of my injury. Now, when I find myself with a bit of discomfort, I’m not necessarily sure what happened to bring it on.

This is all new for me. For my wife, Lily, on the other hand, this is a phenomenon that has plagued her most of her life!

Throughout our marriage when Lily would say, “I’m sore”, and I would ask her what happened or what she had done, she would always say, “I don’t know. I’m just sore.” If she got a bruise, about 90 percent of the time she didn’t know how she got it. 

I’m kind of catching up to her in this regard, because lately I’ve had some sore spots on my body that are a little mysterious.

I wrote about my sore elbow back in the fall (read about it here), and although it is now slowly getting better, it’s been six months of pain. … I still have to be careful to warm up before I start taking shots on a goalie. 

It turned out to be a ligament problem and I’m still not completely sure how I got it … although possibly it was from excessive wrist shots in hockey.

The latest thing that has been bugging me is a sore thumb around the joint on my left hand. It’s been sore for a few weeks now. 

And I don’t have a clue how it happened!  

I wondered if I was getting a touch of arthritis when the knuckle at the base of my index finger of my right hand got swollen and very painful.

I didn’t have any explanation for my knuckle either, and it has been swollen now for close to two weeks. … It doesn’t help that I sometimes move it the wrong way or that people shake my hand with a little pressure. 

One of the guys I play hockey with said it was gout, but that was because he had just finished experiencing some gout in his foot. I knew his diagnosis was only based on his experience and had nothing to do with really being able to identify my problem.

But yesterday at church, I may have figured something out. 

I asked my doctor if I possibly have a bit of arthritis, but when I described what I was experiencing, he didn’t agree. So I responded that maybe I did just injury it. He kind of nodded.

A few minutes later I was talking with a group of other people and the topic of injuries came up.  While I was relaying to them my conversation with my doctor an idea came to my mind. 

I had grabbed a puck out of the air with my hand a week or so ago. Maybe – just maybe – my sore knuckle was a result of catching that puck with my hand. 

My conclusion: injuries come more easily as we age, but also our memory is not as sharp in identifying incidents with injuries. 

Here’s the thing: The only way to prevent sin from going unnoticed in your life is to stay diligent in identifying and addressing it each time. When you let sin slide, your memory starts to fade, and you then don’t easily identify the ramifications to that sin. Stay on top of your sin by identifying it right away and dealing with it. It will lessen the chance of a lingering sore spot.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What mystery in your life do you need to identify? Leave your comments below

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The Aches And Pains Of Old Age

I have been told that as you get older you have aches and pains that you can’t explain.

When you’re young, if you’re hurting, you know the cause of it – it’s because you fell off your bike, or tried to jump a fence, got caught on the top and landed funny.

When you’re young you have many questions that need answers, but why you’re hurting is not one of them.

When you’re older, however, you get some pains that are unexplainable; you just can’t come up with answers.

I sometimes have some pain in my shoulders. I don’t know why; I didn’t do anything to hurt them recently.

I have pain in my wrists sometimes too, and I can’t put my finger on a cause for that either.

I usually chock it all up to years of falling off my bike, or body abuse from years of hockey – you know, just old injuries that healed, but probably left some lasting side effects that will make their debut sometime after I turn 60 or 70.

Up until now I’ve experienced some minor phantom aches and pains in my body. But this past weekend I experienced a new one. This pain came out of nowhere, but left me thinking I needed a hip replacement.

It was like a switch got flicked and I went from being upright, like a fully-formed homosapien, to  being all hunched over, like a regressing neanderthal.

On a dime I turned into an old man who really needed a cane to get around. Trying to walk up a staircase was agony! … and I don’t mean agony just because of the pain; it was agony for anyone to watch me.

Every time I walked it felt like my bones were crashing and rubbing together, as if I was trying to start a fire with the friction.

It was quite concerning. But here is the crazy thing …

A few hours earlier I had been playing hockey, racing up and down the ice like a young man.

I never got hit, never crashed into the boards. When I got off the ice, I had no symptoms of restricted movement whatsoever.

After hockey I attended a men’s breakfast where about a half dozen men from my church saw me walking just fine.

This hip issue came on a few hours later when I sat down to write a blog post.

I am a bit of a sloucher and I wrote the blog sprawled out on our couch. When I finished and tried to get up – wow! – I suddenly felt like 78 years old, on a waiting list to have my first of two hips replaced (if you need one, you know the other one is coming).

Fortunately, after an uncomfortable night’s sleep, I woke up to a hip that was much better. I still don’t know what happened or why … but I am over 60.

I do have hope that it will get better and soon I will be racing up and down the ice like a young man again.

Here’s the thing:  They say that when we get older we get wiser. But that doesn’t mean we have the answers to everything. We might fool ourselves into thinking we know, but when something unexplainable happens, we are left dumbfounded. There is never an age when we don’t need the wisdom and the help of God. In fact, there is not an age when we need God more. We always need more of him, so never stop seeking him.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What unexplainable thing draws you to the all-knowing God? Leave your comments below.

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Why The Older You Get The Harder It Gets To Keep Going

This morning I played hockey at 6:30 am and, as I reflect on it, I am feeling old. Both my elbows are sore. I’m not sure whether I have tennis elbow or some other injury, but I think I just have to live with it, if I want to keep playing.

vintage_hockey_game_0207

This was my first game since before Christmas so I’m still a little winded right now, lounging on my couch in our family room writing this blog. I haven’t done anything active for a while (except shovel snow) so I wasn’t at the top of my game.

There were younger guys playing who had lots of energy. I used to have energy, loved to skate hard and could go forever. Now my hips get tired if I go for too long, so I have to coast a bit or go back on defence.

I notice I’m playing defence a lot more these days. I used to hate being a rear guard, working behind the play, throwing the puck up to the forwards and watching the play develop.

I was always in the middle of the action. I was quick to break out and always went to the net. I still play with that sense and urge, except now I don’t mind taking a turn initiating the play and watching it unfold as I coast up the ice catching my breath.

Don’t get me wrong, I would never want to be a full-time defenceman – that’s not me. It’s just that I need a change of pace from skating hard and crashing the net.

I was a little surprised this morning that my knee felt pretty good. I wear a custom-made carbon fibre brace on my left knee, to give it support because of a torn ACL. I’ve been wearing this brace and it’s predecessor for the past 23 years.

This thing has been a lifesaver. With it, I’ve been able to play baseball, hockey, snow ski, and water ski. Without it, I doubt I would have been able to do any of those things.

But even with my brace, in the last while my knee has not felt as stable. It feels like it is deteriorating a bit and I may need to have it scoped again some time.

Being a pastor, I’ve done my fare share of visiting people in the hospital who’ve had hip replacements, knee replacements, and open heart surgery, and their stories stick with me. I hope I won’t be in their place one day.

However, with all my aches and pains, I can’t rule that out. I never saw myself as having parts that would wear out. Now I wonder about that.

My right elbow has regressed, it feels like it did about two weeks ago. It hurts to even bring my hand up to my face. Oh well, I’ll play again on Monday and try to get myself back in shape. Once I start playing I don’t really think about my aches and pains.

There’s something about being in the action that dulls all those twinges of discomfort.

Here’s the thing: It’s easy to let little annoyances and pains stop you from doing activities that are good for you. They can become a great excuse, and justify giving up. You find the same thing in your spiritual growth. Little things will try to keep you from continuing on the path of growth. Don’t give in, keep growing.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find gets in the way of you growing spiritually? Leave your comment below.