Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not
so great) words of knowledge:

> Ok I have eluded a couple of times to some of the problems I'm having
> and without going into detail if anyone out there is dealing with
> physical problems when cooking, would you please mind sharing them and
> your ways of dealing with them. Here's mine - I need a step stool in
> the kitchen. Reaching for anything is not an option. I get very
> frustrated but that's the way it is for now at least. I need things
> consistently in their right place otherwise it is just too difficult. I
> do a lot of canning as everyone knows here. I get DH to put the canning
> pots on the counter as I can't lift them at the moment but I can add
> water and I can get jars out. Freezers are a royal pain in the butt for
> me. I can get into the sbs but the chest freezers are really a pain!
> DH for the most part has to get that stuff out. I cook in bulk as much
> as possible to compensate for those days I can't cook.

I don't know the exact nature of your problem, however, from you saying
a neurosurgeon, I presume it concerns your back.

If you are not aware, there is a back surgery that is being done on a
"trial basis" for "ONE DISK ONLY" (gotta love the FDA and AMA). This
procedure has been used in Europe for over 15 years, for MULTIPLE disks
and has a 97%+ success rate. Basically, they separate the vertebra,
imbed a metal plate in each vertebra and the put a cushion between the
two plates. The "normal" back surgery here (fusing of the vertebra) has
the following rates: 25% are better, 50% are the same and 25% are
worse. While recovery time for back surgery done here is about 6
months, this procedure from Europe has an average recovery time of about
6 - 8 weeks.

The reason I know about this is that I have degenerative arthritus of
the spine. It is disolving my disks. At present I have 2 disks
completely gone (bone on bone) and 2 more with less than 10% of the disk
left. Fortunately, between the pain killers, a cane and gritting my
teeth, I can still get around somewhat (no wheel chair YET )