I distinctly remember the first time I felt a really sharp pain in my ribs when I bent down and stretched out to reach a power socket behind the TV. A few days later something similar happened again – a really excruciating pain in my right side that made me catch my breath. I remember remarking on it at the time, but we both soon forgot about it.
Other odd things started happening around the same time. While painting a door I found my fingers would lock around the paint brush and it was quite difficult to let go. Then I found that, every time I knelt down, I would get cramp in the upturned arches of my feet.
I needed root canal treatment and a crown on an upper molar. My dentist was quite exasperated when, every time she inserted a dental tool into the back of my mouth, my throat would gag uncontrollably. I’d never experienced that before.
On their own these were pretty insignificant things, and not the sort of thing you’d waste a doctor’s time with.