Phillip Sherwood

I had the day off of work on Friday which worked out well because I had a day full of personal appointments. I started the day by having to clean up a nasty hairball Bob left me sometime during the night. I’m kind of perplexed about this because the entire week I was gone, he didn’t throw up a single time but when I’m here he averages one per day. I’m not sure what that’s all about. After HAZMAT clean-up was done, I fixed myself a hot green tea and a bowl of Cheerios then jumped in the shower. I made it to my appointment with my hair engineer Denise on time and she cleaned up the rock star mop I was wearing on top of my head. I came home to do a session on my stim-bike as a warm up to my PT appointment scheduled for 3pm. When I arrived for my appointment, I already had a good sweat going that carried into the Frankenstein boot scootin’ boogie I was about to endure. I am getting better at doing laps up and back on the parallel bars but my left foot doesn’t lift up and step out as well as the right. The therapist says that’s common but it would be much more efficient if they both worked as advertised. Either way, I get a good cardio & strength workout by the end of the session.

After my therapy session, I had enough time to cool down and make it to my massage appointment that I always look forward to beginning right as the previous session ends. Although my back hasn’t been hurting much these past two weeks, it was still all knotted up and needed lot of kneading like lumpy bread dough. I didn’t take my anti-spaz meds before my session because my legs felt really loose but when she commenced to do her reflexology on the bottom of my feet, she would hit a nerve bundle that would cause my leg to do a Bruce Lee super technical karate kick. I asked her how someone without a spinal cord injury would react when she hits that spot and interestingly she said they usually wince in pain. That makes sense then why my leg would jump out like that as an autonomic response similar to when the doctor inserted the needle into my toe to inject the Lidocaine before my toenail procedure.

The massage sessions have to be the quickest hour on the planet but I got up and head out to meet Julia and Teen over at Starbucks for a snack and coffee. Teen is the chef over at the Huntsville Botanical Gardens and made me a batch of Bolivian salteñas during the week. She calls them Bolivian Dim Sum but I always compared then to Bolivian Hot Pockets. Well, they are beef with raisins, olive, peas, potato and hardboiled egg encased in a doughy exterior. They are very difficult to make; so much that my Bolivian ex-wife wouldn’t even make them. She’d rather prepare a seven course meal instead. When I bit into the first salteña, I immediately transcended back to the streets of Bolivia and remembered the little pastry shop I use to buy them from they turned out that good! We all then left Starbucks and caravanned to see the progress on the house and low & behold the roof was done like Jesus (pronounced Hay Sus) the foreman said. Ironic a carpenter named Jesus. This week they should work on the HVAC, electrical and plumbing.

Last night I went to visit Curtis and Melisa and Curtis seems to be doing much better these days. He had a motorized ball pitcher he was launching at the boys to practice their fielding and hitting. I thought this was great. He and I went to his garage and did a little maintenance on my wheelchair and filled the tires with air. Later in the afternoon while sitting on his porch, one of my tires blew and I was like “oh crap”. Curtis had a spare wheel that fit my chair and I said to him “this couldn’t have happened at a better place”. Immediately his son quipped, “you could have popped your tire in a tire store”. True as it may, I was thinking of all the places this would have been a disaster. I need to add a tube repair kit to my backpack soon. Melisa prepared a great dinner and afterwards plopped down on the couch to watch the Alabama football game. Melisa positioned the coffee table perfect for us then lifted both Curtis’s and my feet up onto the table and placed pillows beneath them. I was thinking to myself, does it get any better than this? Life for the moment was gooooooood.

I haven’t had an episode of incontinence in several days or nights lately. This morning’s IC was about 750-800cc and not a single drop went into the leg bag. I think it’s time to go without the “external catcher now” however I will carry a change of clothes with me in the car for just in case. I’m heading out to the theater in a bit to catch a movie. Tomorrow I’ve been invited to go to my friend Kevin Mobley’s house for an outdoor grill out and I’m really looking forward to that. Well, time to finish folding all the clothes I’ve washed and get into some of them and head out the door… phillip

Today I received my test results from the lab and all was negative so now it’s time to do some more intrusive tests. My MRI showed normal wear and tear of the shoulder for someone who’s had an active life such as my own. An orthopedic surgeon could probably go in and smooth things out but I need to consult with one to get their opinion. Today I went to the house at lunch and there were about 15 non-English speaking Mexicans all over it like ants on a cupcake during a picnic. They were a really good bunch of hard working guys and I joked around with them a bit. They made a plywood path for me from the street to the garage so I could get into the house. They assigned an “escobador” (man with a broom) to me to sweep a clean path for me so the loose nails wouldn’t pop my tires. Everything was being built according to the plans and I could visualize where everything would be. The roof will be done and felted tomorrow so next step will be to call in the plumbers and electricians.

I later had my doctor’s appointment to go over my results. I then went to my next appointment to get fitted for the truck mods I had done. We had to do some final seat tuning and hand control adjustments. After I was comfortable with the set-up, I drove my truck home while they followed behind driving my minivan “Christine” and another chase vehicle. The moment was really surreal because the last time I sat in my truck was the morning I drove it to the racetrack with my bike and Kari in the back. My goal now is to make some new happy memories with my truck. I didn’t work out tonight and I was really fatigued so I took a four hour nap until now. Friday is my day off so I will start off by seeing my hair engineer to get shaped then do my PT appointment to be followed by my bi-weekly massage. Saturday is the first BAMA game of the season. On Saturday afternoons from here on out until Christmas in Alabama the streets will be desolate… phillip

I had a UA done Monday as I reported but it was negative so my Physiatrist sent me to have blood drawn and another UA to include a culture sensitivity test. When I go to the VA next week, I am going to do another cholesterol test. After my last check in June, I’ve joined Weight Watchers and have really changed my diet and eating habits to include massive amounts of veggies and nearly no red meat. I am now down to 230 lbs vs. whatever it was when I was last weighed at the VA in June (240’s). My goal is to reduce or possibly eliminate my need to continue on the statins. Additionally all the X-Rays on my right shoulder have been negative to include the standard shoulder series and the weighted arm series to check for AC separation. I have an appointment this morning to do a MRI. The cortisone injection given directly into the AC joint worked for only 24-hours before the pain caused by aft rotation of the arm returned. As always, I bring copies of the radiology reports and lab results with me to the VA when I go for my appointment so that my primary SCI doctors has a complete picture of what I get done here in Huntsville. I had a big day yesterday with 1-hour in the stander, aggressive PT session in the Frankenstein Feet, 1-hour stretch session in the gym and wrapped things up with an hour on the stim-bike when I got home last night. When I woke up at 3am to do my IC, I pushed down on my bladder and felt nothing so I reset my alarm clock for 4:30am. When the final wake-up alarm went off at 6:30am, I felt like Father Time was playing a cruel trick on me. One good thing to note of all this is that my pain level has been low for the past ten days… phillip

Good news and bad news from my visit to the Urologist yesterday. The test for Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) was negative but now I can’t explain the neurogenic bladder causing the incontinence and intense fatigue normally brought on by a UTI. Here’s some pix of the construction. I’ll be posting more as construction progresses… phillip

Saturday Night, August 29th (Week In Review)

This past week was a really busy one and has certainly taken its toll on me but I’ll get into that later. Monday morning began with final prep, loading the car and a long drive to St. Louis to attend the annual Utility Helicopter User’s Conference at the Hyatt Regency hotel directly across the street from the famous Arch – Gateway to the West. The trip took seven hours on the dot and the weather was in the mid to high 70’s. The drive was uneventful until I came upon the psycho trucker. Some 18-wheeler passed me on my left then slowed alongside another truck blocking the road. I thought they were communicating with one another or something. As the mad trucker pulled away and into the right (slow) lane, I proceeded to pass on the left. As I was almost at the halfway point, he quickly came over on me causing me to slam on my hand brake so as to not get run off the road. It was obvious to me it was intentional. I have no idea what in the world would possess him to do something like that.

I made it to the hotel without any further incidents, got checked in and headed to the reception sponsored by Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. The buffet was great and full of jumbo shrimp, crab balls, prime rib and other palatable treats. The room was very nice but getting to it was a workout because of the plush carpet but by the end of the trip, I was rolling over it with seemingly less effort. The conference is sponsored by the Utility Helicopter Project Office here at Redstone Arsenal, AL and it brings the users from the field together with key individuals from the project office and third party vendors who provide equipment and/or support services. It functions as a collaborative effort to share information and is truly a worthwhile event. I’ve been going to these since 2001. It was good to see so many of my friends and former co-workers from when I was in the Army.

The day would usually begin with a 7:45am continental breakfast then on to the meetings. During the breaks, everyone would file out of the conference room to visit all the exhibits in the hall next door. Some of the exhibits have large power requirements in order to provide product demos so large thick cables would traverse across the carpeted floor and secured with tape. I remembered my lesson from last year when I was not paying attention and hit one of these cables dead on and my wheelchair came to an abrupt halt nearly dumping me onto the floor to my front. I popped a wheelie and easily navigated the obstacle. The rotating between exhibits, conference lectures and sidebar meeting last until 4pm then that would be the end of the “business” day. Around 5-5:30pm, were the catered vendor socials and sometimes where the real business deals are made.

The days began for me much earlier than I am accustomed to but since it was only an elevator ride downstairs vs. a drive into work facilitated the earlier starts. On the second evening, there was a tailgate party in the park just two blocks from the hotel prior to the baseball game sponsored by Utility Helicopters with assorted Budweiser beer products, Subway sandwiches and White Castle burgers. I didn’t go to the game so I went back to the hotel and organized my days’ notes and catch up on the multitude of emails that arrived during the day. I got to bed at a fairly decent hour and dozed off to sleep. This is where the trip for me started to take a bad turn.

As customary, I woke up to my preset alarm clock at 3am to do my IC and catch some news highlights before falling back to sleep. When I woke up at 6am, the bed was soaked and I was in utter disbelief. This has not happened since I was a little boy. I went ahead with my normal morning rituals as my coffee was brewing. When all was done and I was dressed and heading out to the door, I looked down and noticed I had leaked out again and it was a lot. This happened once before this year when I was visiting my mother and found the Tetracycline I was taking was causing the incontinence condition. I went to the bathroom to do another IC and there was about 350-400 cc’s which was more than I expected. I only had one glass of wine the night before and didn’t drink anymore of my G2 sports drink at night than I normally do. I hadn’t changed my medication and by now not only was I getting concerned but I was very puzzled. Luckily I had thought to pack a bag of the condom catheters at the last minute before leaving the apartment. They were leftover from my Maryland trip. I had to jump into the shower and not only wash me off but my wheelchair and seat cushion too. This really sucked.

The conference ended Thursday at noon as did my scheduled teleconferences by 3pm so I decided to stay and leave Friday morning to avoid getting caught on the road after dark on the tail end of the long drive. My drive back home seemed to pass very quickly because I was in phone conference calls nearly the entire trip. I stopped in Nashville to have lunch with my friend Debbie from High School. Through facebook, we discovered we were both going to be there the same day so we coordinated to meet again as we did in the spring. It was great to see her again and the hours just clicked away as we just talked and talked about our lives since high school. We parted before getting caught up in the evening Nashville rush hour traffic. The rest of the trip went well and I got back to the apartment by 6pm giving me enough time to meet my friends Julia and Teen for dinner at a Thai restaurant on the other side of town. As I was draining my leg bag and performing an IC, I sprung a leak that required me to do a HAZMAT clean-up eating up all the reserve bank time I had to not have to rush to meet them at the restaurant by 7pm.

Midway through dinner, I had a severe pain in my back calling me to enact Vicodin relief act. I try not to use this or the sleeping pills unless absolutely necessary but the pain was such that I couldn’t even eat. After this very nice dinner, I came home and finished unpacking my car, got my mail, played with Bob then turned on the home computer to download my personal email that had accumulated during the trip. I got to bed somewhere around 1am but not to get out of bed until that same time 12 hours later. I was really wiped out and more so than I thought. I finally rolled out of bed, got some breakfast, took a shower and tended to things around the apartment when I was overcome by fatigue around 5pm so I laid down to nap a little while but slept until about an hour ago at 9pm. I didn’t feel like going out so I decided to write my weeks’ post thinking now I’m going to be awake all night for having slept nearly the entire day. About ten minutes ago, I start feeling sleepy again so I’m going to end this here and go back to bed. I am still having the incontinence problem and now with this excessive fatigue, I need to go see a doctor Monday morning. Something is definitely not right. Since I didn’t get by the house today to check on the weeks’ progress, I’ll go tomorrow and get some new pix. Hopefully the roof is up by now. Wishful thinking… phillip

The weekend was nothing less than totally relaxing. It started for me late Friday afternoon with my bi-weekly Swedish massage and that was the right touch at the perfect time. All the pain I entered with was extracted and left behind. I stayed in bed and rested almost until noon then got up and piddled around the house then went to work some more on the website and putting out the change notice. As a matter of fact, I don’t think Bob the cat nor I even got dressed at all! Again Saturday night I slept great but got up a little after 9:30am to start getting my things ready for the road trip to St. Louis tomorrow morning. According to MAPQUEST, the trip will take approximately 6 hrs. 44 mins. however since I’m driving by myself, it will most likely take about 8½ to 9 hours. I would of much rather flown but we’ve been having trouble with the Defense Travel System and trip reimbursements that I couldn’t book a flight until my last trip to Binghamton gets settled. I would have cancelled but there are a couple really important meeting I really need to attend. I went by the lot this afternoon to take some pictures and it looks like all the sub-terrainian plumbing was set and footings set so concrete can be poured early in the week. The approximate 3,200 sq. ft. floor plan is so large that the amount of yard remaining is much less than it looks on paper. It looks as if I will probably be going to the VA in Augusta the following week. The distance from St. Louis to Augusta is too far to make in one day by myself. Gotta finish packing and get to bed early. Here’s some pix of the construction. I’ll be posting them as construction progresses… phillip

Monday turned out to be a really busy day and milestone making too. I brought the new motorized standing chair into the office and found it to be quite refreshing to be able to take standing breaks every so often. Whenever I would engage the standing mode, my buddies would call out “Transformer Phil”. I also realized after the first try that the high speed mode is not a good idea in the tight hallways. If someone would enter the hallway from an office door while I’m ripping up the tiles in Mach 0.? they would seriously get pounded as if they were caught short during the running of the bulls in Spain. Maneuverability in my cubicle was not too bad. Later we had a working lunch meeting at the Beauregard’s on 72 where we ended up waiting 45 minutes for the food to be brought out. So much for their commercials for fast lunch service. I spent this time waiting in the standing position taking advantage of the long wait. I like having this capability whenever the opportunity presents itself. When I went into the bathroom to do my IC, this proved to be a more difficult challenge than I expected. It was a tight confined area with insufficient area to maneuver within. It reminded me of the days trying to hold a steady hover over a listing ship, underway, between antennas, at night under goggles, bare feet, in the snow, uphill, both ways.

Yesterday was our work’s offsite/organization day held at the Rustic Lodge on the southernest part of Redstone Arsenal along the Tennessee River. The meetings were very informative and were paused at mid-day for the barbeque. I ate more than I should but it was too good not to. After the work session was over, we went to the bowling alley to launch some balls down the lane. I didn’t have to rent any shoes. I selected a light ball to use and made my way to our lane and it was my turn at bat. I rolled up the the no cross line, got a good grip of the ball with my right hand and gripped the wheelchair with the left to stabilize myself and threw my first ball from the wheelchair. It rolled pretty slow and didn’t get 1/3 down the lane before it became one with the gutter. I thought to myself, “dang, that’s the same thing that happened to me when I played wii bowling”. I got my ball out of the ball return shoot for another attempt thinking that last try was a fluke and this one will get some serious pinnage and a may be able to salvage a spare out of my turn. Again I got into the counter-brace position, leaned over and launched the ball down the lane with all the power from my right gun knowing this time it will get the job done. BAM!!! It hit the gutter at about the mid-point. This isn’t working out like I envisioned I thought to myself.

As I waited for my next turn on the line, a launch ramp was found and brought over for me to try. I was not the kind ov bowling I’d ever seen before but it would get the job done. When my turn came around, I positioned this metal launch & aim device, the heaviest ball was brought over for me to use because if the ball is going to roll slow, it better have some meat on it. When I got the number one pin zeroed in on my imaginary boresight, I gave it a little push and down it rolled. It hit a little kicker on the left rail near the bottom that caused it to veer off to the right. I don’t remember how many pins went down but I knew I will need to make a little left “Kentucky Windage” correction for my second a last ball this frame. The ball was too heavy and awkward for me to carry off the ball return chute and balance on my lap as I try to align myself behind my new bowling weapon so it was brought over for me and placed on the top of the rocket launcher. This went on throughout the rest of the game until my co-worker Will came over and offered some advice to try and put a spin on the ball before it launches. Trying his tried & true method used by his kids resulted in a string of gutter balls so I went back to my own technique. I ended up not having the lowest score of the day but not the best either. Overall I had a good time; more so from the dynamics of the group than anything else. I look forward to the next time. I sucked but I wasn’t much better than when I was ambulatory either. As a matter of fact, my scores were pretty competitive between sitting AND standing.

After leaving the bowling alley, I drove to the gym for my workout. I called my father and was talking to him on speaker as I drove when I grabbed my apple and took a bite out of it. When I bit in and took a chunk into my mouth, it was way too soft and I spit it out but a small piece of the skin was stuck to the back of my throat and caused it to spasm shut preventing me from breathing easily. As I tried unsuccessfully to cough it out because my ab muscles don’t contract as strong as was needed to forcibly cleanse the irritant, my breathing stopped. All the while my father was calling out my name on the speaker not knowing what was going on and the tone of his voice notably growing more and more concerned. My past military training automatically kicked into gear and I relaxed instead of succumbing to a panic attack. I was able to inhale and exhale very easily through my nose so now the major problem was solved. Now it was a matter of how to be able to clear my throat and at least tell my father I was ok. Slowly I was able to clear my throat but I could only imagine what it must have sounded or felt like from his end. Once I was able to relay to Pops that I was ok in a feeble and broken voice, I kept working on that little piece of apple skin stuck to the back of my throat. When it was finally all cleared, Dad made me promise not to drive, talk to him on the phone while eating an apple again!

I was called by both the manufacturer and the VA that my ne magnesium manual standing wheelchair arrived to the VA this week and they will call me when it’s ready for pickup. That’s two long road trips within a two week period. The other is a Utility Helicopter User’s Conference in St. Louis all next week. This is the same conference as last year where I learned how to go up and down escalators in my chair. I had a doctor’s appoint today and afterwards I got on the scale hoping not to of at least gained any weight, especially after yesterday’s BBQ and to my surprise, I lost five pounds! I did it again to confirm the reading and the next one was a couple of tenths even lower so I left the clinic today a happy camper. I’ve increased my aerobic workouts from 33 minutes now to 45. I shoot for as many burned calories as I can get within the time I set. If I can maintain a consistency in both my aerobic machines, I’ll eventually work up to an hour but I’ll have to take a break midway to do a pressure relief lift for my tush. Afterwards I went and had a Starbucks smoothie down the street a couple of blocks from the gym. On a good note, I cracked the code I think on this weight issue and have lost five pounds…phillip

Friday was a real busy day for me but I was able to move pretty far ahead on the house. I went in to do the final review of the house plans with the builder’s site foreman and many of the items I’d requested that needed modifications except one so I signed all that needed to be and was told the next step was to start getting all the materials on order and permits in place. The groundbreaking should happen within the next 1-2 weeks. Next event will be the frame walk. I took a long nap in the afternoon to try and recover from this weeks’ trip. I had an appointment earlier in the week on Tuesday and had a cortisone injection into my right shoulder and the doctor said I should feel the full affect in approximately 48 hours. After 24 hours, my shoulder felt as good as ever but come the 48th hour, the cortisone started wearing off and now today it feels as if I never had an injection at all. I have another follow-up on Thursday so on the Plan B. I have a special interest in this medical care bill being addressed in Congress and the Senate but nobody knows how the veterans would be affected. If anyone out there knows how the Veterans Administration or the Federal Blue Cross Blue Shield will be impacted, I’d really like to know.

Saturday morning I slept in late and really enjoyed chipping away at my sleep deficit in hopes my pains will diminish but Saturday was not the day this was going to happen. In fact, just the opposite occurred. Too sore to exercise, I spent the day doing office work and on the web-site here at the apartment. This morning I slept in again but this time feeling better rested and with less pain. I took my anti-osteoporosis pill, drank a bunch of water then got in the stander for about 1 hr 20 min and watched the season finale of So You Think You Can Dance. Those kids are amazing. I ate a palm full of almonds after getting down from the stander and got a massive case of the hiccups. They didn’t last too long but they were bigger than I’ve had since the accident. I then had breakfast and did dishes then hooked myself to my stim-bike and did an hour session while watching motocross previously recorded on my DVR. Usually within about 30 minutes I start a pretty good sweat.

The afternoon was spent folding two weeks’ worth of laundry while watching NASCAR. One of the really difficult things for me to do is fold king sheets. The maid didn’t get them dried before she left last week so after I finished them, they’ve been sitting in a heap on the floor developing crisp wrinkles not even a Marine could get out in time for an inspection so I just dampened a washcloth and tossed everything into the dryer y voila… no more wrinkles  My friend Julia came over and brought me some homemade soup and fold them for me when they were done. I broke down my folding wheelchair today and put everything into the back of the mini-van because tomorrow I’ll be bringing the motorized standing chair with me so I can start standing during the day. The pictures I’m posting tonight are of a homemade tryke I saw in the monthly PVA (Paralyzed Veterans Administration) magazine. I need to find someone local who might be able to fabricate something like this for my Harley. Well it’s late and I have a long day tomorrow of getting caught up at work…phillip

Our first stop was the army aviation museum. It’s hard to really appreciate where we in the community have evolved to unless you can understand what we started with in the past. There were quite a few helicopters in the museum I’ve flown that are now long retired and on display. This was my first trip to Ft. Rucker since my accident and it was nice to see folks that I’d had working relationships with both while in the army and also as a retiree working for the government. My room at the Holiday Inn Express was very nice and huge. There were even looped curtain extenders that easily facilitated the opening and closing of the curtains. I thought this was an excellent detail and it was the first time I’d seen anything like this in all my travels. Our actual first stop yesterday was at the restaurant in Daleville just outside the gate to the base was a place called “Trifecta”.

In my day there as a young, skinny, Q-Tip’d looking Warrant Officer Candidate wannabe pilot, this restaurant was known as “Larry’s Pit BBQ” and was always standing room only for lunch. Their lunch special is the gyro sandwich where you have to eat half the meat first before you can even fold/roll it in half. The thing is huge! I couldn’t eat anything for the rest of the day to include dinner I was so full. Chris did all the driving and Daniel (our co-ops) was getting me up to speed on the latest technology ideas. Did you know that kids in schools now have “mosquito” ringtones on the cell phones because the high pitch level these sound waves make are undetectable by the majority of adults when their phone(s) ring? Amazing! They are engineering seniors at the University of Alabama – Huntsville so they keep me up to speed on this kind of stuff.

The trip, although fast and furious, was very fulfilling in many ways. The best part was having lunch today with my two favorite ladies (and former Black Hawk helicopter pilots) Lettie and Dana. Although the trip from Huntsville to down south L.A. (Lower Alabama) is nearly five hours, little do they know… yet… I’d drive twice that to see them  On the way back home, I received a call from the realtor that my final house plans are ready for signing tomorrow morning and all of the deficiencies I noted were approved and corrected. That’s it for now. I promised a new special friend of mine I’d meet her for coffee when I came back so I’m a dot. BTW, that means when an aircraft departs and gets smaller and smaller as it gets further away, it looks like a dot…phillip

The weekend went very well as I was able to capitalize on a clear schedule to allow me to rest and that is what I did a lot of. I woke up Monday morning with a fully charged set of Energizers. Curtis came over to the house Saturday for a visit and to check out my new motorized standing chair and although he’s about 5” taller than me, it got him standing pretty well with about a 20 degree bend in his knees. This was the first time in over a year he’s stood in an upright position and he had no complications. He is now looking into getting a standing chair too. Curtis, his wife Melisa and I bounce a lot of ideas and information off of each other and it really has been helpful. They are both very resourceful.

On Sunday, I went to the builder’s office and spent the entire afternoon going over the house plans centimeter by centimeter. I found some more discrepancies that need to be either corrected or explained so by this Friday the final plans should be ready for signing. I spent all the rest of my weekend working with Webmaster Scooter Magee in enhancing this website. I don’t know HTML code very well but I’m learning and this site will just keep getting better. I had an appointment yesterday at the Spine and Neuro center of Huntsville to consult with the neurosurgeon Dr. Tao about the baclofen pump implantation. He didn’t recognize me but as soon as I heard his voice, it sent a chill down my spine. After a short dialogue, he appeared to remember and I told him that to this day the thoracotomy procedure he performed on me in the first surgery is the most painful problem I’ve had. I don’t believe I will have him perform this procedure on me for the simple fact that he only implants the device and does not perform the maintenance of refilling and regulating the device afterwards. I want a specialist who not only will implant the device but will maintain it afterwards and who too will have to live with this with me.

I went upstairs to the Pain Clinic on the 4^th floor to check on my appointment that fell through with a Dr. Roberts who meets my requirement so I am to be contacted shortly for my initial consult with him. They had me scheduled for a consult on August 7^th but never contacted me to advise me of that. I also stopped by the physical therapy section of the Spine and Neuro center and was shocked to see that not only do they not have any therapy equipment for quad/paraplegics but neither were their therapists experienced in this type of care. I was shocked without the awe. I need to get on to work. My team has been working very hard for weeks on preparing to present the after action review briefing on the first simulator to go through the complete testing cycle. As the Air Force would say… “I’m a dot!” (I’ll explain this on my next post… Phillip