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.…
Five
When I was sixteen I broke my right arm playing football. I was flipped in midair as I leaped to spoil a certain mark. Complications meant I needed plates inserted. Then there was significant nerve damage – I couldn’t feel the lower half of my right hand, the ring finger, and small finger. I had to wear a brace around my hand that forced my fingers to flex when the rest of the hand flexed. Once I started feeling again, the brace bit excruciatingly into my right hand, particularly my palm. Well, that’s the way it felt thanks to the damage. I started wearing a fingerless glove – the genesis…