It has been a month since my back surgery..... I had it on March 17th.... St. Patrick's Day....

The surgery went well..... When he got to my back, he discovered that he could not put in the six screws and two composite bars that would help with the fusion. There was too much deterioration to to do that.... Actually, he could have put them in, but with such limited space, if there were any slippage the results would be devastating and he did not want to risk that. The fusion of L3,4,&5 is being accomplished with a combination of synthetic material and ground-up bone material that he removed in the surgical process....... so far so good....

I had a couple of set backs - one day lost in the hospital because of an irregular heart beat... the results indicated that my heart had not blockages and we are trying to regulate the heart beat with medications.... The other set back was/is a small blood clot in my lower left leg.. that is being treated with the blood thinner commanding....

I am able to get up and about and am walking as much as I can tolerate... I did manage to get to church on Easter but that really wore me out!!!

I appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers and all the help that Dennis and Marie have given Sandy and I..... Sandy has been a wonderful care taker....

God bless you all, john