Man... While only tangentially related to your story, I'm suffering from a "slipped disc" right now (I think it's the same thing? I was told "herniated disc", but I think this, that, and "ruptured disc" are all the same thing?).

At times, it's absolutely debilitating. You can't sit, you can't stand, you can't even lie down, you can't sleep at night... Nothing you can do but writhe on the ground and wait for either death or for your pain killers to finally kick in...

Been going back and forth to the hospital for weeks. Supposedly it could take months to heal, but in the mean time I'm taking a lot of medication to help reduce the pain.

Anyway, in relation to your story: some days, when the pain medication is in full effect, it honestly feels like nothing is wrong at all. Obviously I'm not running marathons or climbing mountains, just my daily 30min walks. But even though I'm not getting any money for this and I really have no need to prove I'm in pain, I always feel guilty like... I swear to god I was going to off myself from the pain at 5:00am this morning, I only seem perfectly fine now and for the next 2 hours before I need to take my next dose!

But yeah, not committing fraud or anything like the guy you're talking about, haha.