I read this today, and thought I'd share it here...

Science will never be able to reduce the value of a sunset to arithmetic. Nor can it reduce friendship to formula. Laughter and love, pain and loneliness, the challenge of beauty and truth: these will always surpass the scientific mastery of nature.

Louis Orr (speech to the American Medical Association, 6/6/60)

Between operations

Hello dearest friends,

Hope you are all fine?
I have just come round...after anaesthetic and surgery...the surgeon injected my spinal nerve three times...and that feeling resembled acupuncture in the exact same spot, only ten times worse...maybe 15 times more painful...feeling something cold enter through my lumbar spine nerves, creating an electric shock of pain from the tip of my right foot to my head is not nice. Our supposition is that it'll help me, for a while...but right now, I feel as rotten as Johnny ever did.

For the first time, I gave out a roar of pain in surgery, and bit the pillow...it felt like my very creation, existence, life and future hung in the balance of one surgeon's needle. Of course, that is not entirely accurate, but when such a nerve is tweaked and injected, after being trapped for over a year, it did cause such a feeling.

Late April will see my very major surgery, which might work, or might not...I was informed that it has 'no guarantees to save your spine' ...which is, by now, something I try to accept, with an inner fire of belief to the contrary.

Tonight, to continue the fight, Liverpool take on Benfica...so 'we' must win, yes!

Warmest wishes to all~~