younger and dumber

Last week I got to meet my older lady friend, who I had only spoken to over the phone and through email. My sports med doctor asked if I would mind calling her to talk to her about my experience with my first surgery (Dr. Meyers, Philly). So I did, and we talked for almost 2 hours. If your know me personally, then you know I'm not a phone person. We have things in common and we understand some of what the other is dealing with. There's very few people I know that could even understand the injuries and surgeries I had, much less know what is was like. I mean, if wouldn't get it either if I hadn't lived it. I only know of two people who I can talk to who understand the medical terminology of it all. We even talked about other things that go with neuropathy, like depression and just feeling like crap while pretending to feel okay. Except, she doesn't pretend. She totally lays it out, which I think is probably because she's older and wiser. I, younger and dumber, pretend things are awesome, smile through it, and suffer in silence as much as I can because I don't want pity, I don't want judgement, and I don't want to ever face a challenge and fail. I think all of this can fall under the category of stubborn.
It was fun to meet her, and her husband. They're so nice and easy to talk to. We talked for an hour and a half without any weird pauses because we both have so much we want to know about the other and share about our own experiences. It was a good visit.