How Are You?

That's what everybody asks. How are you today? I'm fine. I'm good. I'm alive, I'm walking around, I'm breathing (well, maybe a little short of breath but still breathing). I have all my senses, I have my husband and my little dog Geronimo and my mom and my family and my friends. I am fine. I am lucky.

But I am often physically uncomfortable. I always feel something. I don't feel normal. Even when it's not actually painful, there is a dull ache in my abdomen, left side. Sometimes my back aches, too. Every now and then there is a sharp stick of pain, as if one of my mini-visualizers has jabbed me with a tiny sword. Sometimes a cramp begins to build, sometimes it goes away, sometimes it erupts full force. Sometimes I can sit and talk through it, sometimes I just have to go lie down for a while. Sometimes I just feel a dragging weariness that can't overcome gravity.

How are you, they ask? Well, as long as I'm up and walking around, I answer, "It's a good day!"