Excruciatus, Walton, Wrists and Ankles



The word “excruciating” finds it’s origin in the Latin word excruciatus, which literally means “out of the cross!”
THE EXCRUCIATUS--Ex-crew-see-ah-tus: This is an ancient Latin word for "the pain from the crucified one" (excruciating). Literally, it says "out of the crucified," and thus calls to mind a similar Latin phrase construction: "ex cathedra," which means "the expression [words] coming from [or out of] the [papal] chair."
In 2008 a back injury sustained by NBA Superstar Bill Walton in 1973 became an excruciating and intensely painful condition. Here is what he said about it:
My life changed irrevocably four-and-a-half years ago when my spine failed and collapsed. I spent two years on the floor, in excruciating, debilitating and unrelenting pain. I can only describe the pain as being submerged into a vat of scalding acid that has an electric current running through it. And you can never get out, ever. ... When you are in unrelenting, excruciating and debilitating pain that never goes away for years on end, your life is over. ... “This type of experience, ordeal, odyssey, it wrecks everything and it changes everything. You face every issue imaginable. Every issue — family, social, friends, financial, health — everything in your life is up in the air. You turn your back on people, friends, because it’s awful.”
There were days when he could not get off the floor. He could not sleep. He ate lying down. The pain was so intense that he considered suicide — an admission that Walton made public. Yet it just took one day of back surgery and a boatload of physical therapy to get him back. Here is the way that he tells it:
“I’ve had two fused ankles, my knees, hands and wrists don’t work; and now I have a fused spine,” Walton said, adding with a smile: “But I’m doing great. And I am back in the game of life.”
On a very personal level, Walton's story encourages me. Doctors are telling me that I am a candidate to have both my (cartilage free, bone on bone) wrists and (bonespur riddled) ankles fused. I have been putting it off as my pain has not reached excruciatus levels. Celebrex and Tylenol Arthritis keep the pain manageable but unfortunately I am not pain free. Even so, I take heart from Walton's story and look forward to one day having pain free joints.  ツ


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