in the end it really is the muscle-tone which keeps the entire structure er 'load-bearing' (bad discs certainly complicate but - there are the usual stories of how even that can be somewhat compensated-for..) Bones, gristle n'stuff are just spacers in the "space-frame". Like a Birdcage Maserati chassis!
The *luck* you (we all!) need is always - in sticking to the utterly boring small exercises which really do alleviate! (But even when I Know that... :[
Can only second\ufffd the surgery common thread: DON'T let them - it's the worst option AMA-medicine has to offer. For each "wonderfully improved" result (unless it's changed dramatically since Wednesday) -- hundreds of miserable, irreversible Albatrosses needed to be carried around neck for the duration.
(But you knew that).
It's prolly just yer orneriness and meanness showin up in the bones :-\ufffd