Phil.
Have been reading Sandy's posts, and so glad you're doing better!  Praying 
for your continued recovery and healing.
Jenifer Gilley
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 7:02 PM
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.
>