What will you never know now?

If I'd taken a different career path and joined the Navy at 18, whether life might have worked out better.

@SW-User ......Although, given the number of conflicts I might well have been involved in since '81, no telling I'd have survived to live this long !

rckt148 · 61-69, M

@Picklebobble2 mine would have had I not taken a vaccine ,and my shot recored gotten lost, so they gave it to me again ,who knows what I would be now .
That event triggered an autoimmune disease that has been eating my spine every since .
The pain ,no one believing me or in me long ,I became a drunk and an addict .
Doctors even pulling my wife aside to tell her my pain was all in my head .(even though in 1990 on my birthday they took part of my spine out to get bone off nerves so I could walk again )I was labeled a drug seeker .
Until 2015 ,a doctor trying to prove to me once and for all noting was wrong with me, and he ordered a full body MRI ,,it was all over pain meds .
I have been clean and sober since jan 18,1994 ,if I don't have a script ,I refuse to take it ,my kids are way more important that even being out of pain .
That set of MRI's revealed 12 disc gone ,both knees bone to bone ,and spurs in both shoulders and a collapsed lower lobe of my left lung ,and an 1 1/2 spur from a disk in my neck sticking me in the throat (now that they are looking ) it can be seen in the back of my throat ,,
Those shots cost me dearly ,and lack of proper care and being called a liar ,I can't tell you the anguish its caused me .and all it has literally cost me .

But I would do it again in a second ,,from 17 - 21 I was a member of the greatest men and women on earth ,,the US Coast Guard
Men have cost me ,and my own actions too ,but I would not change a thing
It has led us to right now ,where we may or may not have been meant to be
But I can't blame God ,or them
I have always been the skipper of my life ,and brother
its not over yet ,I can still punch it balls to the wall and change directions
You and I may not be on the same page ,but I see (from the you that you share )
a good man
Fellow Vet ,Brother in arms ,I feel ya Brother
Were not don't yet
Hopping you have a great day ,you deserve it ,you served so other could be free and have a voice that some should not have ,they abuse the right
But thats what we swore to defend ,,from me to you ,,
Thank you for your service ,I am grateful