Something sort of unpredictable has happened in recent times. A small phenomenon. Not that important, but curious.

I have a few kind of flukish health issues. Yes I can also be a bit of a hypochondriac, but what many women say about doctors is true - sometimes doctors simply dismiss what you say. If you're a woman, that's more likely. And if you have anxiety, that's more likely. I can see when I get profiled as a person with anxiety. So I've learned to be more careful about how I reveal to a doctor that I sometimes feel anxious. I'm not interested in having the things I say waved away - evaluated, given an expert opinion on, fine, absolutely, and if it's reassurance I need, then that's what I'll welcome. But waved away or ignored - no thanks, not why I go to see a doctor. So I sympathize with women who feel ignored by doctors.

Anyway, the little phenomenon is just that since I went through cancer, surgery, and chemotherapy, people who know me well tend to respond to comments I make about health with "Well, you've been through a lot" or "Chemotherapy really does a number on you" or the like. Yes, I'm aware of both things. Quite true. But actually cancer was not the beginning of my life. There were issues before I had cancer. In fact, most of them. I'm very aware of things that have started since and likely as a result of the treatment.

A good example is the RSI I got in both wrists in 2016, which made me really afraid I wouldn't be able to use a computer normally again. Since 2016, I've basically quit guitar. It's sad. But guitar is too rough on my wrists.

Note: cancer treatment did not cause my RSI. I had it before. But it would come and go. Then I pushed things a bit too much in summer 2016 and made it a lot worse, and to this day I have to be careful. I no longer use a mouse or trackpad. I use a pen/tablet. That's my mouse.

But again, that wasn't cancer or chemo. Chemo did hit many of my tissues pretty hard. So it probably made me a little more vulnerable to RSI. Maybe significantly. But I already had that issue. I'm an introvert and a big computer user and typer and spend most of my life at that. There's nothing weird about getting RSI from that in your 30s, especially if you weren't very informed about ergonomics and good practices.

Anyway on the bright side I know quite a bit about the subject now and how to manage/avoid RSI.