My problems are not from an injury, just some awful genes, I guess. My regular docs often ask, but the surgeons tell me that because of the extent; cervical, thoracic, and lumbar, and severity of the degeneration, it is genetic.

My father suffered with spinal problems and it was why he died at such a young age, 66. People always thought he "looked" physically fit, but he actually died from a massive heart attack. I think it was living with chronic daily pain that really killed him. He did not have adequate pain management as most of us do not and I think that is what took years off his life in the end.

I often wonder though if it was the time I did somersaults down the stairs as child, or the time the horse took off and just about knocked my head off as I ducked under a tree, or the old drunk that rear-ended me when I was a teenager, or the time I flew into the air and landed on my butt while skateboarding, the fall down the steps when I tore the ligaments in my leg, I was also an amusement park enthusiast and made many trips to Disney World and lived at Hershey Park in the summer...I ice skated as child so maybe it was the falls on the hard ice...or the falls I took skiing..My list of things I did that could have caused it are extensive and I keep adding to it...but I have resigned myself to believing that it is just genetics...Maybe some of us are just too fragile to do these things...but you have to enjoy life too...

I worry about my kids...My youngest is 14 and playing football against my better judgement..I just do not like football...It is a sport for gladiators....My son is not built like a gladiator...I am trying to encourage him to be the one that kicks the ball for extra points...He is practicing...but he kicked it and for some reason got pains up into his lower back and neck....He was so scared he hurt his spine..I had to explain to him that he is from time to time going to do things in life to cause pain in his body, but that does not mean he will have my spinal problems...at least I hope not....It is in the back of my mind, but we have to encourage them to go out and live...but I wish it was golf or track or something....not a contact sport like football...

I personally think someone has a voodoo doll somewhere and they are just sitting there sticking it with pins saying today ....she will have pain in the....let's see.....yes...sciatica...and maybe a little hip pain...too....HAH!