As some of you know, I have been whining like a baby about back pain. complaining to our surgeon that “There is something really wrong with my back”, his response has been, “Give it time, it takes time to heal.”

After I had a screaming meltdown in the surgeon’s office on Wednesday, he finally ordered an MRI. I had the MRI on Thursday last week; this was the final bit of the report.

“at L-5 S1 there is a metallic body resulting in severe neuroforaminal
Narrowing and impingement on the right L5 nerve root suggesting a
Graft extrusion into the right neural foramen with post surgical changes and inflammatory changes of the soft tissues and within the spinal canal.”

I was fortunate enough to have a copy of the report to take with me, when I saw our family doc, last Friday. Now as you may remember, on Nov.3rd 2007, I had all the hardware removed from the spinal fusion area, because of the unresolved infection.

Our family doc, felt that I should nuke the surgeon, and tell God he got lost doing laundry calmly discuss this MRI report with him. I didn’t mention this last week, because I was in major overload. I spent the weekend in bed, sputtering and hissing every time the MRI subject came up. Wondering what the heck is this “metallic body”?

Yesterday TheMasterOfTheUniverse and I met with the surgeon.
It is very clear from the pictures on the MRI that the second cage at L-5-S-1, has popped out of my spine. This was the cage used to space my spine, when the L-5 disc was dissected out. These are a few of the things the surgeon said. “It happens Once in a blue moon, when it rains, it pours, it’s like a domino effect.” I didn’t find him too amusing in fact, I am still pretty angry. He has been putting me off for nearly five months now.

TheMasterOfTheUniverse sat next to him, and I sat across the room, because I felt like biting him, hard. I must be picking up Tigger’s bad habit of biting when he’s upset.
I mentioned snidely that I was sure he was as thrilled to see us, as we were to be seeing him. He smiled at me.

Bottom line, I am scheduled for surgery on Monday, April 14th. At 7:30 in the morning, that is if our family doc will clear me for surgery. I see him late this afternoon.

The good news is the edema in my legs and feet is much better, and the pneumonia, seems to be getting better.

Thank you all for your prayer support, it has meant the world to me. Please continue to pray for all of us!

I saw our family doctor this morning, and after several x-rays…
It was determined that I have another episode of congestive heart failure, and pneumonia..

To Avoid being hospitalized, I will be staying pretty quiet.
Prayers and good thoughts are appreciated!

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Mary Ann

Spc. Jeffrey Jamaleldine Company C, 1st Battalion, 77th Armor

“How can I say to my sons, stand up for something, fight for what you think is right, if I don’t do anything myself?”

The Jeffrey Jamaleldine that you speak to today is a complete 180 from the Jeffrey Jamaleldine that you would have spoke to in the past. In 1991, Jamaleldin was living in Germany when joined in anti-American protests on Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm boulevard during Operation Desert Storm. “That was the way it was back then,” he says. He was 15 and “America was simply the enemy.” And today, Jeffery Jamaleldine is a wounded veteran of the U.S. Army. On June 6, 2005, after the terror bombing in Madrid, Spain, in the middle of the Iraq war, he showed up at the U.S. Army recruiting office in Little Rock, Arkansas, to enlist. His father, Bashir, told him at the time: “Son, this won’t be a picnic.”

On June 30, Jamaleldine was on patrol in Ramadi, Iraq. The patrol ahead of him had been ambushed by at least 70 combatants and were now under fire. During the fight, Spc. Jeffrey Jamaleldine was hit in the face by a bullet. In the end, the battle lasted into the next morning and the soldiers were able to stop the enemy from returning to Ramadi.

The article on Spc. Jeffrey Jamaleldine is five pages long, and I simply can not condense it down to only a few paragraphs. You can read the entire story here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

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