"Shivers down my backbone"

This is my spine. The images are of an MRI I had taken last month. My L1/S5 has degenerative disc disease. Basically, my disc has worn away from years of my active lifestyle windsurfing, sailing, skiing and snowboard and probably from camping and sleeping in hammocks for years. The consultant described it as like arthritis of the back. Nice one. Old before my time, and in quite a lot of pain, but I don't regret one minute of the lifestyle I once led, and will continue to lead. Everytime I wince in pain I will remember the fun I had swishing down the slopes, the laugh I had pissed trying to hike a mountain with a 12kg backpack and the carnage I created with 80 other likeminded people living in a tent for six months on a beach. The pain I am in now is totally worth it. In a weird way it makes me happy, it's there to remind that I have a most excellent life.