Thank you and I'm glad things worked out well for you re: surgery. If that surgery is botched, parallysis possible/probable. For lower back, have you tried one of those zero-gravity chairs? I got one, and it's really good for lower back pain (but probably not as good as those balls). BTW, from now on, when someone says "geez, that Sophie sure has a lot of balls", we can respond with "yes, three really big ones!". LOL

Larry: Some of my problem was herititary as well - Dad had major neck problems, but just suffered through it till retirement. One of my sisters is suffering. She's mid-fifties kindergarden teacher - and the little brats are driving her nuts! 25 kids, 3/4 real problem children (meth-parents, and the State/CA hestitant to step in - too many), no real discipline possible any more. She's looking at early retirement purely for health/quailty-of-life reasons (for half the pension).

SGE