Hey Sue, How's the lip Balm? I've been meaning to stop back into the store I got it in, and pick up one for me. But it's the "birding store", and It's a dangerous place. LOL I picked up quite a few things while I was in there, and wanted to take home more! LOL

I want to thank everyone and am so glad I came across this forum too. I was diagnosed with DDD back in 1999. after being injured wrking with a child with emotional and physical disorders (god bless) they did not understand I was injured again after having surgery a disc fusion at c5-c6 which resulted in a second fusion at c6-c7. I have a bulge at c7 and at c3-c4. I am considering if I need to have another surgery I will look into the new laser surgery. I have also been diagnosed with DDD iny lower back I fell at a local store back in October in which resulted in my lower back issue and an increase in my neck and shoulder issues. I too began having numbness in my left face after the fall. I too was afraid it was a stroke and was chked for blockage and found non it seemed to slowly let up some to only increase. I am getting ready for another MRI. I have pain radiating down my arms and have arthritis in my neck back shoulders arms and hands now. I do have nerve damage in my left shoulder as well as a loose shoulder joint. I so miss wrking with the children but to high risk for me. I did apply for disability back in 2000 was denied I thought I was not ready to consider myself disabled. again I was told I needed to apply so I tried again in 2005. in the meantime I started a home business/hobby to help take care of my family. I had children at home back then. again I was denied. my doc told me I needed to apt again so I have in and applied only to be told that I was being denied and that I no longer had any disability available to me. apparently if you are not wrking they have the right to start subtracting your disability that you wrked and payed in. where it goes I do not know. Here I thought I was being a strong and good person. my advice to those of you in this same health direction don't Waite, apply. this only seemed to get worse unfortunately and as many of you said. others do not understand the daily pain we go through. and for those of us that want to fight and live, we def pay for it at the end of each day. My husband is a saint. massages me every night to help Eliviate the pain. the headaches I get are deabilitating I either end up with shots or taking a heavy med that knocks me out. some days I'm not sure what scares me more. I want to thank everyone for sharing as well as allowing me to express. it's def a lonely ace to be when those around you do not understand. I don't look for sympathy I just try to find answers and be my own advocate . I too have tried pt several different times and only find that it aggrivates and inflames . I wish you all much strength and support through this. it's sad there are so many of us with this diagnoses and unanswered questions. I am glad however that I stumbled upon this sight. Sorry for the long text! I hope this helps even one person not to end up with no support or no disability. If you would like to talk let me know and I will be happy to share my emai! I wish everyone my best! <3

First, make sure the floor meets a deflection of no more than L360. I would probably use Ditra to help with flatness (to a degree) act as an isolation membrane and contain spills. Check for the degree of "cupping" by putting two of them face-to-face and see if there is substantial "rocking" of the tiles. If minimal, you can probably get by with HD's Versabond. Try to pick an installer that has experience with plank tile and insist on a 1/3 stagger to minimize lippage. 1/2 stagger WILL accentuate the problem. (don't ask how I know) A leveling system can help the final "tweaking" of the floor and may or may not be necessary...depending on the tile, the floor and the setter. It is not a cure-all.....

This is a silly comment. Don't buy a washing machine from Samsung because they make TV's. Don't buy a watch from Apple because they make computers... I can go on and on. Stainmaster makes lots of stuff including cleaning products and even tile itself. None of these Stainmaster products should be discounted simply because the others exist. By your logic you shouldn't even buy Stainmaster carpet because they make tile, instead you should buy carpet from a "specialist" who makes nothing but carpet. Stainmaster doesn't make their grout products and they really have nothing to do with the grout business other than name. Their grout products are made by an Italian company named Litokol and every grout you can find with the Stainmaster name can be purchased from Litokol and they even have the same color codes. When you buy Stainmaster you are getting Litokol. And if you contact Stainmaster for information about their grouts they will redirect you to a company called Tile Doctor who handles 100% of the Stainmaster grout business in the US including distribution. Anyway, long story short is that Stainmaster grout might actually be crap. But it should not be excluded from consideration simply because "Stainmaster makes carpet too." Just plain silly. The correct reason to guide people away from Stainmaster grout would be negative first hand experiences by yourself or others. Or some identifiable flaw with the product itself rather than the name on the product. As I mentioned a few posts ago, I myself am considering Stainmaster grout and would love to get some feedback from people who have experience with it. Anyone? Sorry for my mini rant. People come here for serious advice and I hate to see someone get misdirected with advice that is based on flawed logic. I know from experience my tone in situations like this comes across as harsh but I don't mean it that way. It's just the only way I know how to get points like this across. And I hope it helps people make better decisions.