I'm a newbee here. I've been diagnosed with spondylitis for a couple of years and am just now barely realizing that this stuff isn't going away. There is no surgery to fix this. And the loss (what I used to be able to do compared to what I can do now) is overwhelming. Even my pity party is winding down - so now what?? Those of you who are/were athletes....how do you deal with this?
I gave up on athletics when I was in college, due to back pain plus misinformation from an orthopedist (who thought the problem was congenitally-fused vertebrae that I was putting too much stress on). A good part of my self-identity was tied up in being strong and fit, so even aside from the thrills of sport, retiring was not easy. However I did have a really challenging major to throw myself into, and eventually I made friends with some other engineering geeks who enjoyed the occasional frisbee game but nothing more physical that would stress my back too much.
Sooner or later most athletic people get injury, illness, or just plain lack of time that prevents them from being a hotshot like when they were young, so now approaching 40 I'd probably be frustrated at how much worse I was anyways (despite all youthful resolutions to the contrary). Now I have a good excuse for being a wimp and just focus on things I can still be good at
