Dance to the Beat, Or What Really Sucks About Being Sick

Believe it or not, the video below is the kind of dancing the hubby and I used to do. I was an amateur dancer who didn't have anything close to the physique needed for classical dance (or the technique) so when I met the hubby and he invited me to join his dance troupe....well, how can a girl turn down a pick up line like that?

Folk dance is a little more forgiving on technique and lines than classical dance. Emphasis on little. But I loved it. Absolutely loved it. Nor did it hurt that they were desperate for warm bodies.

Folk dance ain't exactly popular with aspiring dancers. I was alive and breathing, the fact I had some dance background was just gravy. As a result, our troupe was a mix of professionally trained immigrant dancers and people like me who they hoped to mold into a proper folk dancer.

Anyway, we recently saw some other groups perform and commiserated on how much we missed dancing. We used to travel all over. The troupe performed for presidents, went to Canada and Europe to perform.

It was a lot of fun and another thing prednisone and subsequent Cushings followed by Adrenal Insufficiency stole from me. I was eventually asked to leave the troupe due to Cushings weight gain. That and my timing was too slow as I lacked the energy to stay on top of the beat.

Hubby and I both miss it, but, alas, now we are too old, I'm dealing with the fallout of prednisone anyway (some things never change) and our troupe eventually folded for lack of dancers.

Sometimes I wonder who I would be without illness. What I would achieve if I had any stability at all in my health? The fact I have to wonder angers me. The thing about chronic illness isn't that it sucks to be sick, it's that it sucks to never be in control of your own destiny.