Phil, that's quite a journey you've taken.  Dependence is not fun, nor is 
back pain.  I can definitely relate to the back pain and the numbness in the 
hands.  Sometimes I get concerned that some of mine is not from diabetic 
neuropathy but from degenerative changes I am experiencing.  My M R I's show 
the degenerative changes, and I have to use a wheelchair for long distances 
and sometimes short ones.  The shortness of breath causec by the severe pain 
is enough to panic a person.  Wow, brother, I can really relate.  Dave and I 
will surely keep you in prayer.  I've been off for over a month with severe 
back pain, a bladder infection, and possibly a kidney problem.  My potassium 
reach 8.5 and one point and is now back to the normal 5.0 or less.  I still 
fell tired and the back still hurts a bunch.  I'm supposed to go back to 
work this Friday, but I'm afraid it will run me back down again, so we'll 
see wht happens.  I'm only 57 and the thought of retirement really bothers 
me.  Dave would love for me to stay home, but I am strugling with giving up 
my job.  I have a reduced schedule now but still feel like I am 
contributing.  Now if you want to, you can please pray for me that God will 
give me peace about the final decision.  I'm really scared to just quit.

Anyway, this is supposed to be about you.  Please forgive me for rambling, 
but I can truly identify with your strugles, and thank God you are 
recovering.  Our little fellowship wouldn't be the same without you.

April


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 8:41 PM
Subject: About Me


>I haven't been around lately and thought some might like to know
> why.  If you don't wish to know, please delete now.  The day
> before Christmas, I was shopping with my daughter and all was
> fine.  Some of you know I have been having some tingling and
> numbness in my hands over the past year but otherwise, I was fine
> and my blood sugar has stayed in the normal range without
> medications and just dieting and exercise.  The day or two after
> Christmas, I couldn't walk without assistance and my hands were
> about 50 percent numb.  I could not read or write Braille or feel
> the keys on the keyboard well enough to type emails.  Needless to
> say, I was big time freaked out.  For a year and a half, about
> ever 3 to 4 months, just when I would be getting over a lower back
> pain episode, it would come back.  Once it was so bad, I had to go
> to the emergency room via ambulance because I literally could not
> move.  I got over that in about a week or so but then came the big
> one at Christmas.  I went to our family doctor, he sent me to the
> emergency room, and they sent me home after telling me I need an
> MRI, as if I didn't already guess as much, but after a week of
> nobody getting the MRI scheduled, I entered the emergency room
> once again.  They tried, and failed, God bless them, a lumbar
> puncture.  It isn't as painful as it sounds, trying to shove a
> needle into your spinal cord for drawing fluid, but the
> psychological effect is beyond measure mentally and emotionally.
> No, I didn't cry as they tried killing me but I didn't win the
> patient of the month award either.  Plus, I deliberately skipped
> giving the doctor a tip.  Anyhow, that didn't work.  Believe it or
> not, they finally did two MRI tests and when the right neurologist
> was called in, he figured out what was wrong.  I was so weak below
> the waist, I couldn't walk without help and my hands, as I said,
> were like two useless numb clubs at the end of my arms.  No pain.
> No fooling.  I had no pain any place.  amazing.  It felt as if my
> whole body, however, was slowly getting weaker and weaker and I
> honestly figured I might be leaving this world for the next.  To
> say I was scared would be an understatement.  The last week I was
> at home, I refused going to my office where my computer and new
> ham gear was because I honestly thought I was never going to get
> to use any of it again.  I was admitted on January the fourteenth
> for spinal stenosis surgery.  I received to surgeries for the
> price of one because they had to open the front of my throat to
> put in a scope to see what they were doing when putting a titanium
> plate and screws to fuse two vertebra together.  No, I can't feel
> it.  Then, once that was done, I was turned over and the back of
> my neck was cut open to remove a disk only to be replaced with a
> synthetic bone mass material to lessen the compression it was
> creating on my entire spinal system.  They waited to do the
> surgery because, they said, I was in no physical danger.  If they
> could have only read my mind.  I acted normal, though, so no one
> but my family new how spooked I was.  I'm not kidding.  I thought
> I was a goner.  Not being able to tel that you are holding a
> tissue in your hand to blow your nose is right down scary as a
> blind person and I don't give a damn what the NFB says about it.
> For my sighted friends reading this, I'll explain about that some
> other time.  By the way, I have been blind for 44 years and I
> still haven't adjusted to it.  I mean, I have never recommended
> anybody go blind because it is so fun that they should try it for
> themselves.  You know what I mean, Vern?  Anyhow, I had to have a
> heart stress test but a chemical test since I couldn't stand to
> walk on the treadmill.  That was an interesting experience and not
> as bad as I thought but as I said, I already thought I had one
> foot in the grave and the other on a banana peal in the first
> place so the heart stress test was more than a little scary.  My
> heart is fine, fortunately, so on to the surgery two days later.
> The surgery was scheduled for 7 hours but it went so well, it
> lasted 5 hours.  I had been wearing a dumb neck brace for two
> weeks already and another week after surgery.  He had said I
> would wear it for six more weeks but after my appointment Monday,
> he took the neck brace off, told me to be careful, and sent me
> home.  I am using a walker about 50 percent of the time now and
> also having physical therapy at home a couple of times each week.
> My hands have returned to about where they were before this all
> began and the doctor said to be patient concerning my hands
> because it will take awhile.  As you can see, I am typing, but
> slower than normal but thank God I am typing.  Writing is very
> important to me.  I sit around watching TV with an egg shaped
> vibrator in my hand to stimulate nerve development, which drives
> me crazy, but I am more than just a little thankful for the
> progress made so far.  When I awakened in the recovery room, My
> lower back pain was totally gone and I could feel the strength
> already in my body from the waist down.  Boy, was I thankful for
> that.  I came home after only two and a half days.  I think I'll
> write and ask our insurance company for a partial refund since I
> came home sooner.  I asked the doctor what I did to cause the
> whole thing because I've never been in an accident or anything
> that would have caused it.  He said I did nothing but rather it
> was a degenerative type think that started showing itself a year
> and a half ago until it suddenly popped out full blown.  Weird.  I
> have a six inch scar incision down the back of my neck and about a
> 2 inch incision on the front right of my neck which my
> grandchildren think are cool.  No, they don't hurt now but did a
> little for two days in the hospital.  The staples are all taken
> out already, too.  No, that didn't hurt either when they removed
> them Monday.  Did I learn anything?  Yes.  Mostly importantly I
> learned just how dad blamed important your family is.  My
> daughter, she is 30 years old, stayed every night with me in the
> hospital, which was more helpful than you can imagine, and
> especially the two different nights I couldn't sleep at all the
> whole night.  Nurses are very helpful but it ain't like having
> your own family with you.  Coming home was interesting.  I
> couldn't shower by myself so my son had to help me.  I sat on a
> chair in the shower stall and shaving was a trip, let me tell you.
> Plus, I had a water proof neck brace I had to wear and the other
> brace I had to wear even when sleeping.  I felt like a turtle.  I
> probably smelled like one, too, by this stage of the game.  My son
> put up various grab bars around the bathroom and down the four
> stairs leading down into my office built on the side of the house.
> My 2 year old grandson, when I use the walker, likes to hold on to
> the front to guide me through the house.  He is a better driver
> than I am, too.  My wife waited on me hand and foot at home at
> first and believe me, when you cannot take care of yourself as a
> blind person, it really does a whammy on your personal pride.  My
> wife is blind, too, of course, and works full time from a computer
> station at home for the same hospital I was in but she was always
> there for me.  We just had our thirty-seventh wedding anniversary
> a week before the surgery.  We'll have to celebrate later when I'm
> more back to normal, whatever normal is.  I'm glad I married the
> right woman; that's for sure.  By the way, I had to be fed for a
> couple of three days unless the food was something I could pick up
> but even that was difficult.  For a couple of days after the
> surgery, my wife even had to put the pills in my mouth and the
> glass of water in both hands because I couldn't feel when the
> medication was in my hands.  Talk about humbling.  Did I learn
> anything?  I now know what it feels like to think you are going to
> die and it is no picnic and I even know where my picnic is going
> to be, if you get my drift.  Plus, I thought I was stronger than
> that but believe me, when you can't walk without falling, which I
> did a couple of times, and as a blind person, you can't feel what
> you are touching, all sorts of weird thoughts pass through your
> thoughts and emotions.  I know some of you reading this don't know
> me so I'm sorry for the dribble but I just thoughts some might
> like to hear what has been happening the last month or so in my
> life.
>
> There is a website my neurosurgeon recommended which has a lot of
> textual information about this surgery but for those of you
> receiving this who can see, it has video, too, and shows the
> entire surgical procedure I had.  Click on the link below if
> interested.  Otherwise, live long and prosper, as Spoc used to
> say.  Is he still alive?
>
> Phil.
>
> http://www.spineuniverse.com/videos/spinal-stenosis/
> 
>
>