Every part of life becomes that much harder if your body aches constantly.
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Paid and unpaid work, favourite hobbies, even basic things like getting out of bed or trying to hold a conversation – nothing is unaffected.
No wonder sufferers of chronic pain have been attending the Albury Wodonga Health hydrotherapy pool for a quarter of a century, seeking some relief.
And no wonder they have reacted so strongly against the pool's indefinite closure.
The Albury hospital facility shut nearly seven weeks ago because the pool did not meet the appropriate disinfection standards.
Albury Wodonga Health says for safety reasons the pool could not continue operating, and certainly nobody's health should be compromised.
But the situation caught people unawares, both the users who turned up for cancelled sessions and Albury Wodonga Health itself, which seems to have underestimated the impact of a closure.
Chief executive Leigh McJames has conceded consultation wasn't as good as it could have been owing to the need for quick action.
And maybe senior staff didn't quite realise how much clients – many of whom pay a fee – depended on the soothing effects of regular warm water therapy.
As Joint And Muscle support group president John McFarlane explains, people who can barely walk into the pool come out of the water more freely as their joints loosen up with heat and appropriate exercise.
So far Albury Wodonga Health can't predict when or even if the hydrotherapy pool will be repaired, citing cost and competing priorities.
We can sympathise, health budgets are finite and the demands are great.
Mr McJames referenced the emergency department, hospital admissions, the new cardiac catheter lab and regional cancer centre; none of us wish to see them stymied.
But this doesn't help those now seizing up without hydrotherapy and struggling to find an alternative pool.
If Albury Wodonga Health can't reassure them about the ageing facility's future, perhaps one thing the service could do is put more work into researching, and communicating, just what the hundreds of people who use its pool are meant to do next.
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