Hi Phil,

Praise God! I just new that God would heal you! You have a lot to do 
here on earth! I really understand that fear, and not from 
experience, but I understand because I would
be totally scared if I couldn't feel things.

I'mpraying for you.

Lovingly,

Pat Ferguson

At 06:02 PM 1/26/2009, you wrote:
>Hello everybody.  Today I went to the doctor a little over a week after
>spinal surgery.  He took out the 15 staples in the back of my neck and the
>neck brace I have been wearing for nearly three weeks, he removed.  He had
>originally said I would wear the neck brace for another 6 weeks 24 hours a
>day.  The day before Christmas, I went shopping with my daughter.  A day or
>two after Christmas, I could not walk without assistance and I could not
>feels the keys on the keyboard nor could I read or write Braille.  Yes, I
>was freaked out.  I truly felt I was going home to be with the Lord as my
>body slowly weakened day by day.  The spinal surgery, after the MRI revealed
>the problem, was all in my neck both front and back.  My throat was opened
>in the front to put in a titanium plate to fuse two vertebra together.  Then
>I was turned over and the back of my neck opened to remove a disk and to
>replace it with synthetic bone mass in order to relieve excessive spinal
>compression on my spine.  I have a long 6 inch incision running down the
>back of my head and down my neck.  No, it doesn't hurt.  In fact, other than
>normal post surgical incisional discomfort, I have had no pain of any kind
>in my body.  I also have an incision in the right front of my neck where
>they made entrance in order to put the plate in place.  No, I cannot feel
>the plate but the incision is still puffy and sticks out from my neck.  The
>grandchildren think it is cool.  I am walking with the walker but I am
>almost learning to walk all over again so I am sort of slow.  Before
>surgery, my upper torso felt as if it were balanced on a one legged stool.
>In other words, I felt off balance and felt as if I would fall at any
>second.  I did fall a couple of times before I finally went to the emergency
>room and was admitted to the hospital.  Now my spine feels like it is
>perfectly centered and balanced and I have no fear of falling but walking is
>still slow.  I also am having physical therapy.  My hands are slowly
>returning to normal but are tingly and somewhat numb but at least, though my
>typing is slower now, I can feel the keys and I can read Braille a little
>now, too.  I will write more later but to say the least, I was more
>frightened than at any time of my life.  It was not anxiety type fear,
>however, but just the fear of not knowing what was wrong.  No, I was not
>injured prior to surgery but the doctor said it was a degenerative thing
>occurring over the last year and a half that finally got to the serious
>stage of development.  Thank you very much for all your prayers and continue
>to pray my hands return to normal.  I think it was the inability to use my
>hands normally and to touch things with my fingers that was the most
>frightening to me.  By the way, all my lower back pain and problems are
>completely gone.  The doc said today that he believed it would take longer
>for my hands to recover.  Yes, I learned some spiritual things and have an
>idea I will be learning more as times passes.  I will share those things
>soon but I just want to write and thank you guys for praying for me.  This
>was very hard on all my family, too.  The surgery was scheduled for 7 hours
>but turned out to be about five because everything went so well.
>
>Phil.