Hi everyone, I have been gone a long time. I have been in a lot of pain recently with my back. But the rest of my health has stabalized. I won my Social Security Disability case with ease. The judge looked at my spine and said that I had one of the worse non-accident spines he had ever seen. For those who don't know, I have 4 more herniated discs, a crushed spinal cord, and 3 cysts in my spinal canal. Keep in mind that I have never been in a really serious accident. One theory has it that since we have an oxygen depravation illness that if we get another one (asthma, sleep apnea (both of which I have), diabetes etc), that the cumlative effect on the spine and other low oxygen areas of the body. In this theory, when I turned 20, my spine turned 40. And now that I am 40, is my spine 60? 80? 80+? I am in pretty steady intense pain on a daily basis and am housebound much of the time. So I know I speak for many of us who have back pain. It is not just old age. And you aren't alone in this struggle.
Ok, now for the interesting news: I was watching, of all things, a sci-fi special on stargate tv series. On the series they were talking about nanotechnology and how it really exists. RIGHT NOW, they are working on inoperable breast cancer in people. For those who don't know what nanotechnology is or what nanites (I am not sure if this is the spelling, but it is close) are, this is what I know. Nanotechnology is the study of nanites. Nanites are these liquid machines that are programmed to do something after they are injected into a body. They are already used in making tennis balls better. They are being studied in the military as well (I don't want to think of what scarry things they can do to hurt a person at the microscopic levels). So they are very real. What they have been able to do thus far is to give them to people who can't have surgery or who have progressed too far for normal breast cancer techniques. These injected nanites then seek out the cancer cells they have been programmed to find and fix them, turning them back into usable cells. They fix the problem on the microscopic level. As many of us know, gene therepy or stem cells maybe can stop more damage from occuring to the body, but neither does anything for the damage already done. So if you have lost your spleen, gene therepy or stem cells won't give you a new spleen. But with nanotechnology, you might be alble to one day rebuild the spleen you orginally had by genetic research on you and they are programmed into the nanites. They might be able to one day rebuild misshapen blood cells etc. They ccould at least in theory also fix herniated discs, repair spinal cord injuries, etc. Needless to say this is very interesting to us. If anyone knows of anyone doing nanotechnology research or looking for a test subject, I am willing to be one. Can everyone who reads this help me in the research and find a doctor doing nanotechnology research that could or would be willing to help all of us out. Even if they can't do anything for us, maybe what they find will help the next generation in their fight against these horrible illnesses. And that is something I can live with.
thanks
Dan