Over the past few weeks, I received some questions about my disability. It started in 1964. I was in the Army and had finished my training at Fort Monmouth in microwave radio repair. There had been a short extension of the course for something called Tropospheric Scatter Communications too. I was assigned to a Pershing Missile unit at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. The Pershing was an intermediate-range ballistic missile with a nuclear warhead. Unfortunately, the unit was just forming, and we had no equipment, and there were very few of us in the outfit. We were put to work doing odd jobs around the base, from walking along Highway picking up trash to serving as KP for other units. A few more men arrived after I did, but there was no new equipment. I put in for a transfer to Vietnam. Few people had heard of Vietnam in 1964. Because the unit was forming, there was a hold on transfers, so I contacted my Senator, Hubert Humphrey. He happened to be running for vice president that year.
That got me my transfer, but I was hurt in a training accident before the transfer was to occur. We actually got to do some physical training on an obstacle course. I heard our captain talking to another officer and saying that he’d run us through the course until we couldn’t do it anymore. I was on my third time through the course. It was a hot summer day in Oklahoma. We were wet with sweat, and some of the obstacles had us crawling under them. We were not only wet but covered with dirt. There was a tall obstacle built out of logs we nicknamed the backbreaker. If something happened to you at the top of the obstacle, you’d probably break your back, falling on the support timbers below.
That is what happened to me– I slipped. I woke up in the base hospital. Doctors were poking what looked like needles to me in my feet, but I couldn’t feel the needles. I don’t remember how long it was, but I got the feeling back in my feet and legs that same day. The doctors labeled what happened to me as a “bad spinal bruise.” I was assigned physical therapy, but before I could finish it, I left for Vietnam. In Vietnam, I suffered no permanent physical injuries.
Fast forward to the early 2000s. My back would hurt if I stood for some time or walked any sizable distance. I also would get electric shock-like pains down the back of my legs at times. I put it down to aging. The electric shock pains would make me trip and almost fall. I think that’s what happened when I broke my left ankle. I remember I was home alone, and I was upstairs. The next thing I remember was waking up on the kitchen floor, unable to stand. My left foot was pointed backward, and bones were protruding from my ankle. My orthopedic surgeon agreed to take an x-ray of my back even though he did not do back surgeries.
The x-ray showed that I had damaged my back sometime in the past. The accident at Fort Sill came to mind, and he told me to go to the VA. As I understand it, when you bruise your spine as I did, it responds by growing extra bone. That additional growth starts to cut off the nerves causing all sorts of problems. The process is called stenosis. The VA made valiant efforts to help. There was a first back surgery at a VA hospital in Omaha, Nebraska. Then I was sent to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. In a series of operations, I spent 48 hours on the operating table. Rather than going through all of those details, I will just say all those efforts were unsuccessful. I believe that you cannot repair the spine because of all the nerves involved. There was an attempt to fuse my spine from the beginning of the lumbar section of the spine to the sacrum. Those attempts failed.
Each operation left me with less function than before the operation. Some people are squeamish about medical details. I understand that, so I’ll only give you the broadest of details. I can use a walker for short distances, but I need a wheelchair for any great distance. I found out I cannot stand any longer than about four minutes before my legs gave out in physical therapy. I’ve always assumed its pressure on the nerves caused by stenosis when I stand that is the problem. There are other problems. I won’t detail them but think of all of the nerves’ in your lower back and what they control.
I hope this answers all the questions out there. If not, don’t be afraid to ask.
