Abigail Carter, Author, Artist, Website Producer

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Kinecticitis

A certain 11 year old I know came home from school today moaning in pain."Where does it hurt?""In my arms and my chest. I feel like I did a thousand sit-ups but I didn't.""Were you running around a lot this weekend?""No."There had been a posting on Facebook from another mom who couldn't even touch her son, so achy were his muscles. She was told by a nurse that it might be the flu, except there was no fever. Carter had spent the better part of the weekend with him. Was I too dealing with flu? But he had a flu shot this year!!I called this mom, but spoke to the kid with the achy muscles."We think it might be from playing so much Kinect this weekend," he said."From playing Kinect?" I said loud enough for a certain someone to hear it.Suddenly the moans stopped. I gave him an Aleve and he scampered upstairs without another mention of the pain.I am relieved that the flu has probably not arrived at our home in time for a Christmas hunker down, but I can't help wondering how many people actually visit ERs and doctors with severe muscle aches thinking its flu or cancer or something worse. I also can't help wondering, if Kinect can create this much pain in an 11 year old, what about the rest of us? I hope people aren't dropping dead of heart attacks when they play these games!I don't know if the Kinect experience is any different to the Wii experience in terms of level of activity, but I must say, I'm thrilled by any video game that provides this level of exercise. Maybe the couch potato will become as antiquated as the black and white TV.But be warned: muscle aches in an 11 year old with no fever? Might just be a case of Kinecticitis.