Phil its wonderful to see you back again. Thank the Lord
that you are recovering so nicely.
Cairie
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2009 2:02 AM
Subject: Update
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.
|