Right in the Balls

What I have noticed (and many others before me) is that life is very unfair. It doesn't hesitate to kick you in whatever sensitive areas you might have, and it will kick you repeatedly. All you can do, is stagger back to your feet, and try to brace against the next blow.

So there I am at 29. My body is something like a well-oiled machine. I've been working it hard, pushing on against arthritis, shouting it down with, "You shall not pass" gusto. I had decided that if I ate well, and exercised enough, I would keep everything ticking over indefinitely.

Mostly I was happy with my body. I was miffed at the grinding and clicking and the aches and pains, and the limping, but I wore cute dresses, and I was a UK size 10, which I considered to be the ideal size, and I had great hair.

And then I started to get these other weird pains. Stomach pains.

I cut down on the gluten, ate more fruit, and thought that would be the end of it. But the pains didn't go away. So quite a while later, I went to see a specialist. He decided it was probably just constipation, just me some stuff, and sent me on my way.

The pains started to go away a bit. I ate less and less. I exercised more. I thought no more about it.

At the end of November 2015, I collapsed at work and was taken to hospital in an ambulance. And it just got worse from there.