ouch starkers!!!! you pooor fella.......

It's not the best, but life's still pretty good compared to how some have it, and maintaining a good sense of humour goes a long way towards making it a lot easier.  Like they say, it takes fewer facial muscles to smile than it does to frown, and I feel it's better to laugh and drink what's left of the elixir of life than cry over the bit that got spilled.

starkers, old pal, you and I have a lot in common, my back is fubared, and they don't know what's wrong, juvenile arthritis, said one Doc, Shermals [sp] disease, said another, then an xray showed nothing LOL

Some mornings, I have to get my kid to grab my arms and help lift me up because it feels like my spine will snap, and I can dead set NOT move

I feel old, and I'm not! and it sucks    it started when I was 24!   <-- There's that constipated smiley again!

 Themz iz my kinda peeps.

Shagger's back????

Yeah, I have spinal issues with my neck and lower back (no disc at all between some vertebrae), and some days I can barely get mobile... thank goodness for my PC, WC and all the good people here, otherwise I'd go out of my cotton pickin' mind with boredom.

Thirty odd years ago I had a bike prang and the medicos said that I'd probably never walk again... not only did I walk, I returned to work and did furniture removals for several years, until it got the better of me and was told to quit or end up in a wheelchair. 

Oh well, it's not about what I can't do anymore!  If I'm mindful of my limitations I can still do a fair bit and don't need any help to wipe my bum... tho cutting my toenails is another story... can't reach to do that anymore.

  <-- There's that constipated smiley again!

Nope... that's the 'sheer concentration and I'm determined to peel one off' smiley.

Perhaps someone should modify it to have an animated gas cloud, all speshul like for us methanologists.

My cup only became half empty when I drank a little too much... maybe I should think about recycling.

And you ours, Doc.  As Shamus would say: "Top o' the morning to yer... and the rest o' the day t' meself."

LOL @ shagger's back!   oh so not true, [have been alone WAY too long ]

A lot of people seem to have bad backs. I have a slipped disc which left me with a partially paralysed left foot. I can't even peel potatoes without getting backache.

I prefer to concentrate on what I can do and not what I can't do

Hey Fuzzy, it's good to see you again.

Yeah, I remember that accident you were in... you were very lucky not to have been badly injured in that one.  However, as I have discovered, there can be painful consequences to accidents later on in life.  Although arthritis is on both sides of the family and I probably would have suffered with it anyway, my accident certainly has exacerbated its onset and severity, despite feeling almost as good as new after leaving the hospital/doctor's care.

Having both legs and still being able to walk has it's price, however, in that some days it can be a painful bitch to get around, but I'd rather that than the alternative I was first diagnosed with... being paralysed and missing my right leg.  Yup, I have a lot to be thankful for, and I am... it may hurt some to stand at the kitchen sink to peel potatoes and wash dishes, but I'm rejoicingly glad that I still can.

But we lurvs ya and you need to take your time, TG....that's cool. "The fullness of time" -- a neat phrase from Heinlein's "Stranger in a strange land".

My herniated disk too.

"More proof Spock, that Humanity evolved elsewhere."

  Spock answers "Sod off, Jim".

Hey you got a pic of Fuzzy

Hmmm.. there's a few other pics floating around here too Doc