I have been having some problems with weakness in my left leg lately. It bothered me, a little, and I decided to go to the Dr. He gave me a consult to Physical Therapy. They told me a couple things; one I already knew, but feared and the second I anticipated but did not know for sure. The thing I already knew was that the muscles in my legs are strong and fine. There is no deficiency in the strength of my legs. What I feared was that the problem is really a neurological problem, balance issue and not a strength issue. Where this can be a problem is that this "problem" probably will not get better but will, over time, get worse. That was no surprise; what was a surprise was that there are exercises I can do that can "hopefully" teach me to regain balance. In other words, the nerves probably will not get better, I can just relearn how to do certain things. The weakness is not, in truth, weakness; it is a balance issue. So, I have some more exercises to do over time that will hopefully re-teach myself how to do some things. I will keep you posted on how things go.
On December 8, 2008, my life changed forever. I had a double sided cerebellar stroke with 2 brain stem compressions. It was not until December 10, 40 hours after my stroke, that surgery was finally done to relieve the pressure. Dr. Piper, the neuro-surgeon from Iowa Methodist hospital in Des Moines, told my wife that surgery was nothing more than an attempt to save my life, but that it would not erase the deficiencies as a result of the stroke. Although she admits that she did not really understand what Dr. Piper had just said, my wife, Laura, agreed to the surgery and the care team performed a decrompessive craniotomy, to hopefully relieve the pressure and allow my brain to function somewhat normally. For those who have followed my blog for the last 14+ years, the surgery was successful, I returned to the church and I now live a relatively normal life, although I do have some pretty severe, though not always visible, defieciencies. I really thought that life could not get any worse th
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