Answering a couple of questions

I have received a couple of questions from several different people. I thought I would take the time to answer them today. First, I do not have a Facebook page. When Facebook was first becoming popular I was working for a company that requested we not join Facebook. We were never given a clear reason for this request. The company seemed to be a bit paranoid about “information” leaking out. If you want to start a page for the Bringer of Justice, please let me know before you do. You can post your comment here in my blog or email me.

The second question asks for more information about my disability. I have explained several times that I fell off a pile of logs on an obstacle course at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. I do not know what the official title of the obstacle was but we called it, “the backbreaker.” We named it that because if you fell you would fall on supporting members and that is what I did. You may think of logs as being rough with bark, but the logs it made up this obstacle had either been worn smooth by the many men going through the course or the logs had been smoothed before putting up. It was the third time we were going through the course, and it was a hot summer day, so we were sweaty and covered with dirt making it hard to hold onto the logs as you went through. The next thing I knew I woke up at the base hospital. I temporarily could not walk and had no feeling in my feet because they were sticking needles in my feet and I could not feel them. It scared me! They told me that I had a badly bruised spinal cord but no break.

It was many years later I began to experience back problems. I was to learn that it was happening because of something called “spinal stenosis.” Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the open spaces within your spine, which can put pressure on your spinal cord and the nerves that travel through the spine. This condition generally happens because you have had an injury to the spine. The VA has been very good to me, and I had a seven hour operation that eliminated most of the pain. What cannot be treated now because of the danger of doing more damage is trying to remove excess bone around the nerves. This means you lose more and more function of whatever part of your legs is controlled by the nerve being pinched off as the bone continues to grow. For example, I have no feeling in parts of both of my feet because the nerves originating from L4 are being effected by the stenosis. One of the VA doctors put it very succinctly, “Look at it this way, it will not kill you, but just put you in a wheelchair.” His prediction seems to be coming true because I have a very limited ability to either stand or walk. My legs simply refuse to work if I do either too long. The VA classifies me as being 70% disabled. I hope this answers everyone’s questions, but if it does not, please feel free to ask anything.