For those who have read my many, many diaries, you know I suffer from chronic pan in my lower back. It has many causes including that wonderful Degenerative Disc Disease. Thanks to that simple sounding disease my back is about the same as a 90 year old's. No doubt about it my back hates me and is actively trying to cause me pain. How you ask can something with no brain be actively doing anything. My answer is to watch politicians. they have no brains and yet they actively influence every one of us.
The purpose of our spine is to hold up the body. It is like a set of blocks with each resting upon the lower. Throw this out of alignment and it screws up your body. No doctor can say what exactly causes some people's spines to degenerate quicker than others. You see we all have DDD. It is a fact of life. It generally progresses slowly but surely as you age. That is why so many of the elderly seem to shrink and bend over. It is nature. One sure fact of life. As we age our body slowly destroys itself. Cells do not heal as quickly, organs become less effective. Kind of depressing if you think about it. Those wrinkles and age spots are signs our body is getting less and less able to heal itself.
As I said above we all have DDD. So why do we not all end up with pain like I have ? It's a good question. I mean heck if everyone has this and everyone's spine is slowly getting worse and worse why doesn't everyone end up with pain like mine ? Am I special ? Am I a new version of human ? Let's freaking hope that last one isn't true. No one can say why some spines deteriorate quicker than others. No one can say why some spines when they deteriorate cause more pain than others. Science is still evolving and has yet to find the answers. There is no cure as of yet for advanced DDD like mine. I dream of being given a new spine but that is just dreaming. Even disc replacement in the lumbar spine is a pipe dream. We tried it a few years ago and found it had a heck of a lot of trouble and didn't really fix anything. It works pretty well for the cervical spine but not the lumbar. Strange you would think that would be the other way around after all the cervical spine surrounds and protects the spinal cord yet they can replace those discs with great results. Lumbar disc replacement is something in the future for now.
So I dream of a new spine. Sometimes it comes from science and I am like the Bionic man. Remember that show ? Steve Austin. We can rebuild him. We have the technology. Too bad Hollywood technology is not real technology. We might all be driving flying cars like in Back to The Future. Sometimes real world technology catches up with Hollywood hype. We have wrist phones just like Dick Tracy did back in the golden ages of comics. So there is hope that sometime in the future we will be able to replace failing body parts with brand new working ones.
I really do not want to see that happen. Just how will I be able to reboot my back if it gets the equivalent of the Blue Screen of Death ? Will a hacker be able to take over my body and force me to do things against my will ? Hell that is a fantastic Movie premise. Got to get working on the script. Maybe I can become rich and buy a new spine. Will the new body part just quit working if we miss a payment or will we be chased down by body part repo men ? Sorry sir you forgot to pay the last $3.12 on your new arm. We are here to take it back. This won't hurt a bit. Then you wake up minus your body part. Wow another great movie premise. Maybe I should move to Hollywood. These sure sound better than all of the reboots we keep getting out of Hollywood. I mean heck just how many times can you reboot Batman and Superman and Spiderman ? Will it really be a better world when we are part mechanical ? Just how old will we be able to grow ? Will we eventually become just brains encased in a biomechanical suit as we age past 200 or 300 years old ? Is life even worth living that way ? I can just see it my great great great grandson having to put up with a biomechanical Donald Trump, still wearing that awful hairpiece. Man that just gives me the shudders. Will we have 300 plus year old politicians who are still in office ? That''s a really scary thought. While we don't have term limits we do have life limits. We know that at sometime the idiots will die. What happens if that is not the case ? How about over crowding. I mean heck we are already over populated as a planet. Get rid of death and soon it will be impossible to move and what about food and water ? Will we even need it then ?
So many questions all brought on by thinking about advances in technology. Let's see if technology can help us all swing on down below that orange jungle gym for more glimpses of the future.
Pain can do funny things to you. One thing I have had happen is that I realized what I have to be thankful for. Funny to hear the guy who is always complaining about this, that and the other saying he is thankful for something. I am really. For a heck of a lot of stuff. Mainly I am thankful for my loving wife. She has stuck by me through all the crap. She deserves some good times soon. I am thankful for the support of my family and friends. Some sure as heck could have been much more supportive in many ways but I won't number them. Those who have stepped up in many ways I really do appreciate it. You have helped me get through some rough times. I am thankful I have the limited mobility I have still. I know this can and will get worse. That isn't looking on the pessimistic side it is facing reality. I have to face this reality. I can't avoid it by thinking of monkey spines or bionic backs. It is my near future and it isn't a pleasant thought. So I am thankful for every day I can still get up and drag my degenerating spine to work. I am grateful that my job allows me to work from home so that I can lay down if needed.
So I have a lot to be really thankful for. Sometimes I am jerk and don't always say I am sorry afterward. The pain can cause me to be short tempered and cranky. Think of it as a 3 plus year toothache. You get the idea. I am grateful for my imagination which has kept me going these years. The many dreams of a monkey spine or bionic back help me keep up my spirits, they allow me to keep a handle on my depression which is always sitting at the gates waiting for a break in my watchfulness to sneak in. It is eager to try and drag me down. I must fight it back in any way I can. One little slip and that slope gets pretty steep real fast. I do not look forward to that slide.
Sorry for the way this has jumped about. Blame it on the pain meds. Yeah they help keep me at an even keel pain wise but the brain can get a bit lost. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings. Until next time when I will swing on by on my tail