Post #11

Thought for the day:

There is no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.
– Will Rogers

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My recent back surgery has been a mixed blessing. On the one hand it’s great to be free from that pesky sciatic nerve pain; the flip side, however, is that it’s difficult to get these poor old aching back muscles in shape. Just for the record, the whole concept of this particular back surgery was interesting to us right from the start. In my case the problem was that there was a bulging disc between two of the vertebra in the lumbar region of my spine. That caused the sciatic nerve to be pressured or pinched or something, and that, in turn, caused me to go around wrapped up in my Grandpa (read, self pity) mode—walking all bent over and complaining a lot. Poor Grandma, she had to take care of me while hobbling around on a foot just recovering from surgery, herself.
I’ll not get into the details of the back surgery other than to say that, basically, the surgeon put two titanium metal spacers between the vertebrae; that took the pressure off of the bulge and consequently off of the sciatic nerve. The metal spacers are called X-Stops and the whole procedure is apparently relatively new; at least very few people we’ve talked to are familiar with it, including our (several) doctors. The spacers themselves are about 1-1/4” long, 1” wide, and ½ inch thick, and cost $1,700.00 apiece. I don’t know if they offer a price break—like a fleet rate or something—if you have more than two.

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10;30 p.m. -- A last minute comment: Grandma and I finished the day by having dinner at China Stix--out favorite Chinese restaurant--and then spent the rest of the evening listening to the S. F. Giants beat the Arizona Diamondbacks. Ah, life is good.

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