Thanks, big guy. I had avoided back surgery for years, despite the pain, because the very thought of a sawbones cutting so close to my spinal cord scared the dickens out of me. But it finally got to the point where the pain was driving me crazier than an outhouse rat, and I had to do something. It's not a perfect fix, by any means, but any easing of the pain is truly blessed.

A friend of mine consulted with a doctor about back surgery several years ago, and expressed concerns similar to mine. The doc assurred him that, based on the specific vertebrae he was going to operate on, if anything went wrong he'd be only a paraplegic, not a quadraplegic. Thanks, doc! The guy decided to forego the surgery. And it delayed mine for many years!