When I was younger I worked hard and played hard. From steel yards to management I ended up with two bad knees and collapsed discs and pinched nerves in my back. My back is now fused with about 3 1/2 pounds of metal. The technical term is a laminectomy and discectomy with fusion form l2 to s1. Through years of fear and anxiety of facing multiple surgeries, trips to the ER and to being butchered by my first spine specialist there was one thing that always came to past. I was always in the end left to myself to suffer long bouts of severe and at times intolerable pain. Why? Because in the beginning like all of us with chronic pain I managed the best I could. There were some good days; there were some very bad ones. Between the constant pain and an uncaring and callous insurance company pain slowly started to affect my life and the lives of the ones I love. I did less and less and they had to do more and more. They had to do more for themselves and for me. I became unmotivated, bitter and clinically depressed. All the time I had struggled and tried I knew it was a battle I had lost.
