Every time I recall those episodes, and the pain, it gets easier to do, emotionally.
And theoretically I could just get it operated on - there have been improvements in the field. But the prospect of going under the knife is scary, especially in an area where one fuckup or miscalculation could lead to partial paralysis for life. Throw in a mix of abusive American healthcare and... Weekly therapy is more preferable.
No. I've considered it though, but I'm a tad worried it won't make a difference considering the options I've seen probably don't result in 200lbs of force being applied.
In my spine my L5-S1 and L4-L5 are herniated (as of 2017, haven't checked if any more are). Full on herniated, not bulging. It started when I was 20, and my doctor said surgery should be avoided since it could impact my quality of life significantly at my age (not that my QoL wasn't already severely impacted). Epidurals and physical therapy didn't help.
Back then it wasn't miserable 24/7 but it had it's moments. Eventually I had an "episode" where I was bedridden in immense amounts of pain for a solid week. During that desperation I found the IDD option and started that. It was rough back then at the start. But within weeks the constant pain died down and I recovered mobility as well as my sciatica improved.
Through... Losing a job I discovered the effects wear off after 2ish months and I start being susceptible to the episodes and random function loss again, so now I just go weekly to keep things peachy. It isn't full recovery obviously, I still wind up in pain if I do too much with my back, even stuff as little as bending over slightly to do the dishes (because I'm tall), but it beats being disabled in constant pain... Those few episodes I've had haunt me. Being so helpless I couldn't even.
I undergo weekly spinal decompression therapy. While not exactly the same as the medieval torture devices, being strapped in and having my spine pulled from both directions with 200lbs of force is pretty close.
And yes, it feels amazing for a second or two.
Dang, I did a Ctrl + F on used but should have considered that as an indicator lol.
A couple weeks after getting it I took it on a 1800 mile road trip. The one I got is a '22 Chevy Bolt EUV, the DC fast charge tech is slower than newer stuff and even older Tesla stuff (caps out at 50KW), but honestly that wasn't that noticeable except toward the end when I started getting impatient. ABRP (A Better Route Planner) and the NACS adapter were definitely confidence boosters.
Hey look, I'm part of this statistic! I think, assuming it factors in used EV sales.
Loving it so far, I get free charging at work and access to the HOV lane as a solo driver. My commute has gone down by about 15 minutes as well.
I know this is satire but it does hurt. Though in my experience my most concerning code reviews are when I review other senior devs code. Unfortunately my company decided senior devs were a tenure thing.
The labeling is "Type-C", with no symbols / logos as best I can tell (going off the video and product page). Deceptive / misleading.
I have used AirVPN for half a decade and never ran into any issues, if you're looking for an alternative with port forwarding.
If you don't want to disable biometric auth, familiarize yourself with your phone and see if it has lockdown mode. Apple phones and most modern Android phones support it, using it will require your password / pin for unlocks. Put it into lockdown mode for the flight.
I haven't played the game, but I would recommend checking out ProtonDB for experiences from people who have.
https://www.protondb.com/app/1144200
There are 406 reports, I find it useful to look for reports from people with similar hardware to mine.