Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Happiness is...not breaking the skin

I experience the greatest muscle dysfunction at the very end of the day, when I'm too beat to stand up straight, and at the very beginning of the day, when the process of getting myself out of bed is like trying to get a very big, very comfortable dog off of the couch. In the morning, it starts with the sort of horizontal stretch that we are all accustomed to making before swinging our feet onto the floor. Often, that first stretch ends up as a whole-body spasm where my arms and legs go simultaneously stiff and jumpy. It's hard to describe, that brief sensation of being both uncontrollably rigid and uncontrollably jumpy.

This morning, the clock radio went off at the usual time, and I turned over to give my wife a snuggly good morning hug. She'd been out of town for a while, and it was really nice to wake up and remember that she was there with me. But in the process of turning over, I triggered that weird shuddering spasm, and kicked her in the shin with my big toe. "It's OK," she said, "I don't think you broke the skin."

Speaking of love and illness, I really enjoyed reading this article in WaPo about what it's like to be a young breast cancer survivor.

1 comment:

Stephen said...

yeah, i get the full-body shudder too. shakes the whole bed. at least it gets me out of bed in the morning!