This will be the last post in this series. Do you remember in the first posting that the doctors at Fort Sill had labeled my injury as a “bad spinal bruise?” Apparently if you bruise your spine, it will react by growing more bone and pinching off the nerves that come from your spinal column and go out to various parts of your body. This is called stenosis. You can learn more by visiting this Mayo Clinic article. All five lumbar vertebrae are part of my problem and also the sacral plexus. I’ll let you look up the last item but I would suggest this website. Here is a short list of the problems all this has caused. My left leg does not function well and there is no feeling in my left foot. My balance is off and because of that I must use a walker. Thanks to physical therapy I know how long I can stand – it is currently four minutes. There are other things, but I’m not going to bore you with them. The long-term outlook is I am headed to needing a wheelchair and may lose both bowel and bladder control. I’m willing to answer questions about these health issues.
I want to end this three-part posting with a request – don’t feel sorry for me. Some like my friend Roger Buss never made it out of the service and others who made it out never enjoyed a normal life again. I had over 40 years of a good life before my service caught up with me.
