i am too old for this

it's been almost 10 years since my high school glory days. i played volleyball year round and managed to squeeze in basketball and a little bit of track. i spent my entire youth in a gym. from the winter of my seventh grade year to the summer after i graduated i played volleyball 12 months a year. in 1994, i took three months off to rehab a fractured hip and a back problem that plagued me throughout my teens. i played with broken ribs, broken fingers, a torn rotator cuff, torn abdominal muscles, a broken kneecap, a broken elbow, pneumonia and pleurisy, to name a few. yes, a few. i got hurt, i rehabbed when i could, and i kept playing. but now, at 27, i can't just keep playing. incidentally, it's the nagging back injury from my youth that has me sidelined. while cleaning out the closet under the stairs i threw it out. and i am being serious when i say this; i am miserable. i find myself moaning when i get up from a sitting position. matt calls it the cereal moan. apparently i moan a little bit when i eat cereal. big deal. but this is worse. i know i'm doing it, but i can't stop. it's an involuntary reaction to the pain. and nothing makes the pain go away. which is why i am doing the unthinkable; i made an appointment to see a chiropractor. yes, a chiropractor. i am at that point where i would do anything, ANYTHING, to feel better. and i wonder, why didn't my orthopaedic doctor or my physical therapist warn me about the future? they saw firsthand the physical drumming i took and they had to know that it would affect my quality of life as an adult. i would like to think that i would have listened had they counseled me to take it easy, but i wouldn't have. i can still remember driving 100mph down 465 to make it to the keystone mall before it closed. so no, i probably wouldn't have given their warnings a second thought. and i am paying the price now. if i were missing teeth or had a few stray hairs on my chin i could pass for a 75 year old woman. i can't even stand up straight; and if i had a cane i would use it.