Just visited the doc to be checked because of a couple of seemingly unrelated maladies. Turns out they are related. I've got stones in my submandibular saliva glands likely owing to a history of too much bar food and alcohol in my 20s and 30s, and scar tissue on one of the flexor tendons in my left palm from 44 years of playing guitar.
Diagnosis: I'm an aging musician.
Treatment: Eat five smaller meals a day rather than one or two. Eat less spicy food. Drink a lot more water and less whiskey. He also said he could recommend playing the guitar less, but being an avid golfer himself with similar tendon issues he knows I won't follow that advice. It's just the price we pay for what we love.
If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have...ah, hell. No I wouldn't.