[dshobbies]

I so relate to your to your feelings of hopelessness. Had it not been for us living in Los Angeles where property values contained enough equity to borrow against, I would have not been able to travel to Germany and would either still be living with no life and very disabled or would have had a (probably) 4 level lumbar fusion for which that outcome remains gratefully unknown.

Just as those who came before us, we are paving the way so our children and their children... won't suffer as we are. Insurance companies are beginning to recognize the benefits to ADR vs. fusion and in the past 10 years, these devices are improving at a rapid rate - as opposed to Mark and other who had only one choice.

Medical science has a long way to go and for those of us who suffer, it seems like at eternity and we may never reep the benefit to the latest and the greatest but it is improving. The insurance industry - all we can hope is that one day the people will prevail and they will no longer own our bodies and I have hope that my grandchildren will stand up to be counted.

Looking at this in the negative only causes more depression and quite honestly, there's just too much of that. Hope isn't dead, it's just sleeping, perhaps even in hibernation, but nonetheless, alive and well.