Well, I got the final opinion on my back.  No surgery.  I just have to suck it up.  Which I can do.  And if the pain gets unbearable, I'll just do less.  I do a lot of that anyway.

My cardiologist explained the dilemma I am in.  Old bones are like chalk, and pinning them is an invitation to break.  Shaving them makes them more prone to break.  And then he explained the situation with my heart isn't very optimistic.

"You had a myxoma--a tumor in your heart.  Your heart walls are dacron.  You have an arrhythmia.  You've had cardiac ablations.  7 of them.  You are on your third pacemaker--shall I go on," he asked.

I'm a medical mess.  Getting old is the pits.  You keep trying to fix stuff, until you finally you realize that you are mending a quilt full of holes.  But I have a personality quality that will stand me well: I've always been brave in the face of adversity.  I don't intend to change.  The Bible says we get four score and ten.  So I've got ten coming.

I can make it.  I have the will power of an ox.  What do doctors know anyway.  So I don't fix my back.  So what?  God's not done with me yet.  And I don't feel old.  (Until I am halfway down the block walking the dog and have to sit down on the curb.) I'm up to 30 minutes a day on my bike.  When I started three weeks ago, I could only do 3.  I'm good.

Youth is wasted on the young.  They have no way under God's good heaven to know what they have.  You almost have to lose something to find out what it's value was to you.

But I wouldn't go back for a million dollars.  What a wonderful life I've had.  I take joy in every day.  People still ask my opinion--so I must still have a brain.  People still ask me to go places with them--so I must still be fun to be with.  People still want to listen to me teach--so I must still be interesting.  People still like to do things with me--so I'm easy to be around.  (Except for my children.  They think I'm bossy.)  I'm not bossy, I just have strong opinions.

God loves me.   What more could I ask for?!!