My Back

I remember when I was a child suffering from a pain I didn't understand. It was present in my torso, chest, legs, and arms. Sometimes I worried that I had heart trouble. The doctors dismissed the pain when I brought it up, and, for me, it was simply a worrisome fact of everyday life.
I sprained my back and had to go into physical therapy in eight grade after being diagnosed with scoliosis in seventh. A sprained back prevents a person from running and so I was dismissed from PE for that time period, the only good thing about the experience. The doctor cracked my back for the first time, relieving the pressure in my chest and lessening my pain. Unfortunately, the pain turned from dull to sharp because of the constant shifting of my vertebrates. The doctor also stated that I had one of the most sensitive backs he had ever worked with. One day my mom simply never rescheduled an appointment and the therapy stopped.
During high school my back gave me constant trouble in marching band. However, when I entered college, everything changed. People started listening to my stories and I got a series of tests done. My bloodwork, which I have had redone several times for various reasons, came back normal except for a slight and most likely inherited anemia. I visited the orthopedic institute in Van Nuys known for its excellence in back care. However, as soon as the doctor came in and saw my slight stature in the provided hospital gown, I knew she was not going to take me seriously. Fortunately I still had a series of x-rays done on my back, which revealed everything to be normal except for the slight curve of scoliosis in my spine and the fact that my growth plates were locked. I will stay at 5'0 for the rest of my life. The problem lay in the tightly knotted muscles of my back, and I was again recommended physical therapy for which an appointment was never made. Without a car, license or income scheduling appointments independently was impossible.

Right now my back has been feeling both better and worse. The stretches have been really making a difference, much more than massages ever have. In fact, in some way, massages made the pain worse, since the constant cracking of my spine left me with a sharp pain instead of the normal dull ache, as stated above. However, my spine has still been shifting, sometimes painfully. Last night I had a horrible muscle spasm. But my plan has so far been very beneficial.
I wonder what it would be like to live without chronic pain. The thought is very strange to me. I think that I would be much happier in day-to-day life, but would be loosing a teacher that has lived with my for all of my years. I wonder if it would make me more sensitive in general to pain, or less.
My parents have become much more sensitive to the pain in my back.
I don't know why I chose to write about this, but it was just what was on my mind because my back really freakin' hurts at the moment.

In other news, the phrase "stimulus statistics" drives me crazy. I don't know why, but I wish the writers of this paper would stop using it.