Poker Face

My physical therapist consistently tells me I have an impressive poker face.  This usually happens during the deep tissue massages where I grip the sides of the table and try to ignore the searing pain through my body.  While I don't think my poker face would be useful in an actual game of poker (I get too excited when winning), it works well for being an athlete.  After spending the last two decades in sports, I have encrued various injuries.  Due to that and phrases from coaches that include "Dig or Die" and "Sacrifice your body for the ball" I have learned how to hide the pain that I am in.  Luckily, Costco sells monster-sized bottles of Ibuprofen.

Alas, here is a laundry list of all the major injuries that I have encountered in the past 20 years:

• tendonitis
• juvenile rhematory arthritis (JRA)
• torn miniscus
• torn cartilage
• blown ACL
• sprained ankles
• sprained wrists
• jammed fingers
• pinched sciatic nerve
• separated bone from tendon
• stress fractures
• bone spurs
• joint injury (apparently only resolved by exploratory surgery - no thanks)

Majority of these issues still bother me today, even if they are quite old.  I am pretty sure I am keeping my physical therapist, multiple specialist doctors and Costco afloat.