Phillip Sherwood

I start this post tonight trying to remember when was the last time in my life I’ve ever been this busy with work and life. I’m certainly not complaining because the contrary would be a horrible scenario to even imagine. My father brought to my attention that I do a good job in telling my medical story but I slack off when it comes to follow-up so Pop’s this one’s for you. I wrote about the other week how my left leg felt as if it’d gone numb. Well, after a couple of days it began to wake back up into its drunken stupor.

I’ve been experiencing increasing pain in my right shoulder by the AC (Acromioclavicular) joint due to a possible a separation. I have an x-ray appointment pending tomorrow while holding a weight to check. If there’s no separation, I will go back to the doctor for cortisone injections. If it shows positive for separation, I believe the next course of action will be a little more than a needle and juice depending on what grade is diagnosed. Another thing I brought up today during my doctor’s visit was the difficulty I am having in losing this excess weight. I cannot use my large muscle groups to help sustain a heart rate more than 120 BPM in excess of 20-minutes so the Pepsi challenge is there and Night Stalkers Just Don’t Quit.

My Physiatrist coordinated my appointment with the neurosurgeon for my initial consultation and I about died when I found out who the doctor was. His name was very familiar to me. In fact, it is Dr. Tao who will perform the surgery to implant my Baclofen pump and is the same surgeon who did my two back surgeries after my accident. When the receptionist told me his name over the phone to confirm the appointment, she noted a pause on my end of the phone and asked me if there was a problem. I told her that I know this Dr. Tao very well since he literally held my beating heart in his hands as he fished around the “muck” in my open chest cavity while he mended my spinal column. I told her he’s a real “butthead” but he is very good at what he does and I would welcome him to cut me open again. Oh the irony!!!

As for the rest of my weekend, I slept in until 10:30am both Saturday and Sunday. It was a great recharge for my batteries but I think they’ve almost run out already. Last night I woke up after about two hours of sleep and after laying there for about four more hours with my mind racing, I just got up out of bed and did stuff around the house and worked some more on this new website. By the way, Mike “Scooter” Magee (the webmaster) has been working very hard behind the scenes to get this new site going but there’s still quite a way’s left to go.

Most of you who know me personally or have been following along with this life story through my website probably know of my girlfriend Melissa. Well our lives took a detour and unfortunately nearly 7-weeks ago, Melissa decided to put an end to our relationship and pursue a different destiny. She was the first one to arrive at the hospital after I was hauled in and was by my side the entire time like an unmovable Rock of Gibraltar. With her unwavering strength, courage, sense of humor, compassion and hands-on problem solving personality, she lifted me from the depths of the abyss like an angel sent from God in my time of need and I will always be thankful to her and God for giving me the unfair advantage over death and grief to triumph over.

I recognize even in health I may be a very difficult person to be around to some  for any length of time. I have two ex-wives who would probably unequivocally agree with that however in my current state, I know the difficulties are amplified but in different areas. I actively sought to have regular counseling sessions with both the Psychologist and Psychiatrist from the VA to help me continue putting into perspective all that I have to juggle to get through the days, weeks and months. I’ve always had a type AAA personality and am very methodical in my processes. I have a belief that there’s a reason for everything and it’s not for us to question why but understand that the threads of life are knitted in a very intricate but delicate tapestry that if disrupted will self-correct later. Sure I believe in free-will but I also believe the choices we make all come with consequences both good and bad. I don’t know where these metaphysical philosophies of mine came from but they got there inside me somehow and for what reason I have no idea. I also believe the darker the cloud the brighter the silver lining will shine!

Back to my early morning sleepless energy expenditure. I got into the new Government “Retention Program” provided motorized stander and went through the majority of high and out-of-reach places within the apartment in the standing mode and started going through things that were put up out of my reach. The funny part was seeing how freaked out Bob the cat was. Next time I do that I need to break out the video camera. I made several discoveries today to file into my database. I picked up a heavy box while in the standing mode and I felt as if my center-of-gravity shifted too far forward giving me the perception that I was going to fall flat on my face so I dropped the box. After dropping things while standing, I experienced the inconvenience of not being able to “bend over” easily and rapidly to retrieve whatever it was that I dropped. The manual chair is certainly much more nimble in confined areas but the motorized chair is awesome outdoors. I need to get going to do other things in order to prep for tomorrow so I’ll pick this back up soon…phillip

“Life is too short to wake up with regrets. So love the people who treat you right. Forget about the ones who don’t. Believe everything happens for a reason. If you get a second chance, grab it with both hands.  If it changes your life, let it. “