There were a coupe of warning signs 2 years ago in her blog:
http://www.erica.biz/2012/the-indescriba...#more-4048
"Years ago, I started noticing I was in significant physical pain when I used the computer for more than a few hours at a time. I used to spend 10+ hours a day in front of a computer. Figuring it was probably just time I invested in some better chairs, I bought myself an Aeron chair (and later, a better desk.)
Except the pain didn’t stop. If anything, it got worse.
I took more action. I started seeing a chiropractor. Later, I would add a weekly massage to my list. Today, I don’t do the weekly massage (actually, upon writing this, I realize I should probably add that back in!) but I do see a personal trainer three times a week to do workouts that stretch and build muscles I barely knew I had.
If there’s one thing that is a constant in my life, though, it’s pain.
“Supposed to”
That’s what makes me indescribably angry. I was raised to believe I could do anything I set my mind to. My mental faculties are strong–I get upset with my body when it doesn’t work like it’s “supposed to”–”supposed to”, meaning, of course, spending hours in front of a computer. (I am slowly starting to understand that that is definitely not what our bodies are “supposed to” be doing all day.)
After long talks with chiropractors, physical therapists, personal trainers, and massage therapists, there’s no real conclusion as to why this happened. My own theory: In high school, and growing up, I was ashamed of my body.
I was happy to show off my intellect, but scared of being treated like an “object”, so to this day I wear virtually no makeup and don’t like dressing up in anything that would show off my body. That same reflex caused me to slouch, as I was overly wary of “showing anything off” or being looked at by boys.
The slouching–that’s what I think caused this issue. It actually caused most of my muscles to develop in strange ways. I went to a myopractor recently, and he said, “Well, you’re an interesting case.” “Interesting” in this case meaning “messed up.” My hips were so far off that it basically seemed like one of my legs was longer than the other. And my neck bones were so out of place that I actually had one set of overdeveloped muscles, on one side, and one set of underdeveloped muscles on the other side of the bone."
(edit out bunch of boring hamstering)
"So, I can only work 4 hours a day or so. (Sometimes less, sometimes more.) I can’t hit every party (even though my brain is screaming “YES YOU CAN” right now–my body doesn’t always cooperate.) Sometimes I just have to just lie on the floor with an ice pack for 20 or 30 minutes. Sometimes I can’t sleep because everything hurts so much, and I get exhausted and just cry it out.
Engineer here again: I've noticed over the years that women who slouch or hunch their shoulders over like they're ashamed of their chests lack self-confidence, which I imagine might be important for a CEO. Being in chronic pain sounds distracting from the mission of running a company. How many CEOs work 4 hours a day? Also, very unattractive. 4/10 at best. Nutjob.