Jaques famous 'all the world's a stage' speech in Shakespeare's As You Like It, 1600:

JAQUES:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Might make it worse.

You have a fighting/feisty attitude and that will help.

I broke my L-5 25 years ago. Fell off a mountain - more like slipped - but the end result was the same.

I was told to do crunches once I fully healed to help strengthen the surrounding areas.

Now, after a hysterectomy, years of neglect, and the combo operation of kidney removal and umbilical hernia repair last November, crunches might be impossible. At the moment lying flat on my back (with or without knees bent) is not on the cards.

I'll see what the orthopedic doctors say, follow their advice, and do whatever physical therapy is recommended, then hope for the best.

I do have a deadline - by July 21, 2019, everything that is going to be done will be, healing and PT finished. On that date I am getting onboard the Queen Elizabeth and sailing to England! I have to be able to walk, hike, sight see, and sit in all sorts of chairs!

I'm rooting for you.

I hated the crunches and my back still hurts a lot.

The ARNP I saw Monday was talking PT, a shot, and as a last resort surgery to screw the bone together.

I'm already doing PT - had my first session last week, another tomorrow. I'll talk to him about the results from the ARNP. The exercises he gave me to do at home are not helping at all - but we didn't know the real problem.

It also helped that I was only 30 at the time.

Though by the time they get to working on it, I will be 66.

I know when they rebuilt my left shoulder in 1994 I healed better and faster than I did when they just cleaned up my right one in 2009.

Getting old sucks. But, to quote a friend of mine, "I'd rather be over the hill than under it."