I hate getting old.

I finally saw my doctor about my leg cramps. He examined my legs and everything appears to be normal. No blood clots, no abnormal veins, nothing unusual. He advised me that some people just are prone to cramps. He wrote me a prescription for this medication that is supposed to help prevent them from occurring. I’ll have to wait and see what kind of effect they have on me. Hopefully it will be the answer to my problems.

While there, I thought I would have him look at my elbow. On Friday afternoon, while chopping wood, I noticed that I was starting to develop pain in my right elbow. I figured I had just over done it and tried to take it easy on my elbow. I thought I had a case of tendonitis. I’ve had it before and all that any doctor does is prescribe physical therapy. The pain got gradually worse over the weekend. Tendonitis doesn’t do that, usually the more you strengthen it, the better it feels. By Monday evening, I had a hard time picking up a bottle of water with out it hurting.

When the doctor was done examining my legs, I had him look at my elbow. He had me bend and rotate it in various directions, testing the strength and resilience of the joint. Finally, he told me what the problem was. It wasn’t tendonitis, I had tennis elbow. Tennis Elbow? How do I get tennis elbow? I’ve never picked up a racket a day in my life. My understanding family physician advised me that you could get it by lifting many heavy items. From Wednesday through Monday with all the packing, loading, setting up, tearing down, unloading and unpacking I did I brought on my tennis elbow (I refuse to include shooting in this list as it was too much fun).

What’s even better is that I’m supposed to take it easy for 6-8 weeks. No lifting or exertion of the elbow and tendons until the pain ceases. He advised I could pick up items that didn’t cause pain. Well, picking up my 16 oz bottle of water brings on pain! I have my next re-enactment in 4 weeks. I’m hoping my genetically freaky regeneration-immune system kicks in and heals me before then. If it doesn’t, I’m going to be hurting for a long time after that. I’m not giving up a re-enacting weekend just so I don’t hurt. Screw that, I’ll play hurt. I take my re-enacting serious, probably too serious if you haven’t noticed.

Now to add insult to injury, last night I lost my balance and fell landing on my right shoulder. Now I am experiencing sharp shooting pain from it. If it doesn’t cease in two weeks, I’ll go see the doctor again.