How I Lived 50+ Years With a Spinal Cord Injury: "Press Onward" "Sisu"

I felt the need to share the things that have happened to my spine. My trouble started with a spinal fracture and dislocation in 1964. My right leg got paralyzed, and I spent three months on a Stryker frame in Rehabilitation. I walked out of that hospital with a cane. I lived with a loving aunt and uncle recuperating and spending a year on selling jobs. I then went to work and drove truck even with my bladder and bowel problems. Syringomyelia started in my spinal cord and continued to hollow it out. I had Paralysis on my left side and was biting my tongue when I ate, a spinal shunt at T-3 helped some. I continue to have more problems breathing and walking, and my balance was terrible. Another shunt was put in at T-5. In the year 2000, I had extensive work done in my thoracic and cervical spine for stenosis. Part of a vertebrate was removed and then put back in with a plate. I had a slow recovery after that surgery. In 2016 another shunt was placed in my spine at T-1 to relieve the pressure at the base of my brain. At present, my spinal cord is hollowed out entirely from top to bottom. I have learned to live with the different pain by staying busy. I continue to move; I do not dare sit in one place very long. I can still walk with a walker, so I'm pleased about that. In 1985 a cough or a sneeze would send a shock wave through my spinal cord to the top of my head. That pain was so severe I would almost pass out. That first shunt helped to relieve that from happening so bad. If that hadn't worked I know there's no way I could have been alive this long. In 1985 most doctors had never heard of Syringomyelia. A student doctor happened to be with my neurologist during an examination. She had recently studied about my Rare Disorder. She told the doctor she thought that is what I have. A week later I was having my first spine surgery done at the VA Hospital in Minneapolis. The head of the humerus bone on my left arm dissolved in November of 1985. The doctors declined to do an artificial joint for fear it would not heal.

Author: Leland Olson

Publisher: Independently published

Publication Date: Mar 08, 2018

Number of Pages: 115 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 1980400830

ISBN-13: 9781980400837