Bad back from my 20's due to hard manual labor jobs. As I got older these hard labor jobs finally made my back so bad that I had to change professions. I've blown out my back a bunch of times, crawled on the floor to go to the bathroom. All the highlight moments of treating your back like toilet paper. Discussed surgery a couple of times with doctors. Doctors told me I was better off letting it heal and stop doing whatever I was doing to hurt myself. In my late 60's and my back is not real good but I work all the time and it doesn't hurt day in and day out. I keep all my physical output within the limits my back sets. As rsbob also noted, I can't do what I once did at all. I don't miss the back pain either.