Sympathies... not about family diseases for my part, but hope my degenerating cervical spine doesn't get me down before check out time. This past week has been about the hardest so far in about 25 years.
On RBG, what you describe sounds like a scoliosis, doesn't it? (She says she will hang on until the 2020 elections; I didn't realize we could make that kind of a deal with the grim reaper.) (? 😉)
Scoliosis is more of a sideways curve of the spine, I believe. And yes, Supreme Court Justices are the highest in the land, so they tell the Final Judge when they'll be stepping down, unless they get helped with that.