I am the first to say that I have been blessed in many ways in my life. Family, friends, opportunities, work that matters—I am grateful every day. I am also grateful always for health and, I must confess, have the incredible gift of being able to take mine for granted. I do take care of myself, eating well and exercising diligently. I do try to remember the importance of self care in all of its aspects. But I also know that being strong and fit and able to push through anything I need to push through is something I expect from myself. Yes, I’ve had things happen, illnesses and surgeries and all the rest but there has never been a question in my mind that I would not bounce back, quickly and completely.

I still feel that way but have had an experience over the last couple of weeks that made me see things differently. I have joked for years that I could be a poster child for osteoporosis. And it’s true. Small woman, small frame, of a certain age, this diagnosis is no surprise.

Yet I have fought chemical intervention for a long time. My weight bearing exercise, my yoga, my healthy diet were, I was sure, enough to move the numbers in the other direction when they checked my bone density. Wrong it turns out. So, with great reluctance, I listened to my doctor’s entreaties “I don’t want to see you in here with a fractured hip” and agreed.

We agreed on an annual infusion of medication that offered a 30 minute disruption of my life and no side effects. The first thirty minutes were as promised, the next 10 days were not. I won’t go into a recitation of my side effects, none of them were life threatening and were just moderately life disruptive. And, thankfully, they are over now.

What I take away from this experience, though, is a renewed recognition of how quickly life can change, how feeling fine every day can morph into when can I take the next round of Tylenol for this headache and why do I hurt all over? My usual energy wasn’t just “there” as it always is, I could summon it up but I had to make an effort I rarely, if ever, have to make.

If there is one phrase I say over and over in my life, it is that life changes in the space between one heartbeat and the next. I always refer to loss or major change when I say that, not to the annoyance that ten days of malaise held for me. But what I realize that I must remember is that we believe ourselves to be invincible, we know ourselves to be invincible and sometimes, sometimes, the truth is that we are not. We must hold this truth and keep it close in our full hearts.