19,585 days ago, I started my second life. That was over 53 years ago. It’s easy to understand in terms of years rather than days. That day is more fully explained on this page of this website https://vcmusings.com/who-i-am/. I got thinking about all those past days because of a question about my disability. I found my world contracted as my level of disability increased even as I tried to prevent the contraction. Even something as simple as going out and having a cup of coffee with a friend has become complex.
Perhaps, I should take you back to the beginning of my problem. It was the 4th of July. My amateur radio group was helping out all along the parade route. It was something I had done before, and I never thought much about it. My back was bothering me during the parade, and as I walked home, I did not know if I would make it back to my house. My back felt like it was going to give out. After that, I set out to find out what was wrong. I won’t go through all of the operations I underwent. I’ll just say, if you have back problems, consider surgery as your very, very last option.
At one point, I considered 20,183 days ago as the start of my second life because that was the day I returned from Vietnam. It was almost midnight on Christmas Eve 1965 when I landed near San Francisco. That seemed like a logical time in my life to start again as many of my friends never returned from Vietnam. However, 598 days later, my first life ended. I had done all of the things I thought I would as I grew up. I have gone to school, including college. I had entered the service and fought in a war as my father and grandfathers had done. I had gotten married and had a family. That felt like a pretty complete life to me.
That was over 53 years ago, as I said at the start of this blog. While I didn’t fight another war, I did the other things I expected in life. I returned to school and even earned a Masters’s degree. I remarried and have a family. There have been good times and bad times as in any life, but I would say the good times far outweighed the bad. Events from my first life have followed me into my second life. My disability was caused by my military service in my first life. However, once I got my medical records, the Veterans Administration, the VA, did everything possible to repair the damage to my back. As I said before, back surgery is not something lightly taken. The reason is simply all of the nerves originating in the spine. You damage one of those nerves and something you had you won’t have anymore. Almost all of the surgeries were done at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I don’t think you can find a better set of doctors anyplace else in the world.
I think I’ve had two very good lives! What do you think?
