Spinal replacement.  The words seem so innocent, so procedural.  Yet the reality of slicing meat from the bone with nerves cut and resown give a description resolute to invoke images of burning agony. If this were the least of my troubles, I would be blessed.  The machines now tell me that this is the first of many surgeries.  In their eyes my meat body is obscene.  I happen to enjoy my flesh, but they are rather attached to the idea of making it minimal.