Pain, Real or Imagined?

Just a few days ago I fell and damaged some cartilage in my side, or more dramatically cracked a rib. I'm pretty sure I didn't break a rib because I witnessed my dad several years ago struggle with broken ribs, and he is made of much tougher stuff than I. He functioned only with the help of pretty strong medicine. I am not there. In fact the next morning I went and worked out according to my normal routine.

But let me say that an injury high in the rib cage impacts just about everything you do. I can't sleep on my back or my right side. Normally this would not be a big deal, but my bride sleeps on my right due to an older injury of a dislocated collar bone. So snuggling is out until this heals, or I get out of bed and sneak up on her from her side of the bed.
Coughing and sneezing are adventures. AH-CHOO, Ouch! But the real explosion of pain is burping, which I have discovered tends to sneak up on you. So the exclamation that follows can be a bit more colorful.
You can't lean over. You can't pick anything up. You can't sit very long in any position. You can't stand very long. And most distressing, you can't hold grand babies as long.

It also takes longer to heal. In the old days, an injury would bother me for a day to two, then be gone. Injuries now become a matter of life style they last so long. I don't take any other medications, but Tylenol and Advil have become traveling partners, candy that I pop in every 4 hours or so.

But these aches and pains are accommodated and treated and life goes on. What I have discovered is that emotional pain has also developed a much longer recuperation cycle as well. I am not sure why this is so. My assumption would be that the more mature we grow, the better we are at dealing with emotional pain, at moving beyond the pain. Not so. I find that emotional trauma takes a long while to recover from as well. Slights and misunderstandings have to be given a longer lead time to go away.
I wondered about this not long ago during my disciplines and came to a rather startling insight. I give loyalty too easily and when that loyalty is violated, it almost never recovers. It is one of those odd facets of my nature that has been there for as long as I can remember. But instead of being able to work my way through it, I simply have become much less willing to let a violation like this subside. The only redeeming factor is that I have gotten better about not giving the loyalty very easily. It has made me more circumspect in that regard. I'm not sure if that is good or not. It simply is.

Perhaps this is just part of growing older. But I want to believe that I can sustain trauma and still recover, both physically and emotionally. There is probably some level of delusion here as well. Don't we all carry a little delusional qualities with us?

Anyway, healing seems to be happening, slowly to be sure.

Godspeed out there, try not to break anything that won't heal..be it bones or relationships.
Don