My housemate has an undiagnosed degenerative neuropathic disorder that is causing him to slowly lose motor function.

He used to be lead singer and guitarist for a funk band... but now he can't even curl his fingers around the neck of the guitar. He's got a keyboard and pokes individual keys, one at a time. Using his cell phone is mostly a voice-only thing, because his fine motor function is gone, he can't type really.

They wanna do a spinal tap to extract spinal fluid and test it, to try and figure out what is wrong.

It is fucking scary, fucking expensive, and fucking painful. So he has opted out of it so far.

Last year, walking home from the bus, he slipped and fell on the icy hill. He apparently hit his head on the ground and knocked himself out, and rolled into the ditch next to the road. Some time later he woke, found his way home, and fell asleep .... with a massive concussion.

It was 25-degrees outside. At night. He should have died.

My wife and I keep a close eye on him and his health. His family is all back in Buffalo.

And yet I have never met a more relaxed, loving, buddhist dude in my life.

(Helps me keep my "problems" in perspective.)