Recovering

I have been on medical leave (such as it is for a freelancer) since late January while having surgery for spinal stenosis (compression of the spinal cord).

In late January I noticed a little strangeness in my walking, just that my legs weren't quite responding correctly, and I thought I might be having a problem with my hips. But over the next week it got worse, much worse, to where I was walking peg-legged and lurching around like Frankenstein. My arms stopped working normally, and my fingers, too -- I wasn't able to hold a pen or write, or even type. I lost my coordination and was falling down a few times a day and ordinary activities like just getting dressed took five times longer than normal. This all happened in the course of about two weeks and was difficult to grasp.

I went to the ER more than once, and they thought I might have a vitamin deficiency. Finally they admitted me and found, via an MRI, that my spinal column was being compressed in my cervical region from bone spurs growing there, and that I had a congentially small spinal canal to begin with.

I saw a neurosurgeon the next day and we talked all about this, and then he called me at home that night to say I needed to come into the hospital tomorrow or I was at risk of paralysis from the neck down. The next morning I was trying to figure out what to do with my cats and finances and some deadlines, and the hospital called me and said drop *everything* you're doing right now and call an ambulance or the state police and come in immediately. That really shook me up. I drove (slowly) to the hospital, and had surgery ("a laminectomy") the next morning.

I spent a week in the hospital and then a week in a rehabilitation home, and am back home now in a big neck brace that looks a bit like a football helmet facemask, but healing. My motor functions are back to about 75% of normal, and I can type again, and write (slowly), and walk (slowly but mostly smoothly) and am getting a little better every day. The biggest problem is I can't sit up for longer than about 1/2 hour before my neck complains, and my fingertips still lack some sensitivy, which is a bigger problem than you'd think. And I can't drive for two more months. But I'm no longer on the Big pain pills.

Everything happened so fast that I almost feel like I was a detached observer of my own life.

I'm very thankful I found my neurosurgon (Dr. Joseph Sherrill at Pacific Surgery at Legacy Emmanuel Hospital in Portland) when I did. He is the best doctor I've ever encountered in my life -- smart, kind, caring, thorough, patient, direct, understanding, excellent, and a dapper dresser as well. And everyone else at Emmanuel was extremely caring and helpful and generous, as have been lots of people here at home. I couldn't have asked for better.

So I should be back shortly. Hopefully the cesspool that has overtaken climate science will have dried up by then, but I seriously doubt it. I'm not sure I even want to write about climate science any more. The dishonest pukes like Morano and Watts do not even deserve to be acknowledged.

Meanwhile, reading suggestions are welcomed.