For me, just living with "Arthur" has become full-blown degerative disc disease in my mid to upper back, which was the primary cause for me to start getting disability benefits...it does appear to be very much hereditary, both parents had some bone/joint probs... my mother had 7 different types of arthritis, plus lupus...my neurologist had me on Neurontin, off-label use since it's primarily an anti-seizure med, but had been discovered to have pain relief properties as well...that left me feeling loopy all the time (as anyone who was with me in Pixies Chat at the time could attest) & had a high-dollar co-pay at a time when I had $0 coming in, so I just went off it & use aspirin products like Excedrin (since I'm on aspirin regimin anyway for my heart) with occasional ibuprophen thrown in.

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