You're listening to LifeKit from NPR.

Hey everybody, it's MaryL.

A few years ago I was running late to a friend's graduation, so I ran quickly across the street

to catch a light and about halfway through the intersection I felt a snap in my calf.

Suddenly I couldn't walk on that leg or even flex my foot.

Turns out I tore my calf muscle.

And the days and weeks after I was so frustrated, I felt like how could this happen?

I'm a runner.

I don't understand it.

It was like my body had failed me and I just wanted to know how fast I would get better.

I certainly was not in the mood to sit around and convalesce feels like an old-fashioned

word, right?

It makes me think of a time before antibiotics, you know, a time when women and long night

gowns would paste the halls of their Victorian homes by candlelight, waiting for their loved

ones fever to break.

It's possible I read too many Gothic novels.

But Dr. Gavin Francis says the word convulsions.

It resonates with him.

In Latin it means to grow in strength and so convalescence is a wonderful word, quite

a beautiful word I think, that takes in that idea that after illness we've been weakened

and we need to recover our strength and grow in strength again.

And so it's a kind of catch-all title for any kind of recovery which is bringing you

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