What's Going On?

 So, I hate to use the 11th album of Marvin Gaye as a title. ( Produced 1970-71 in Detroit) 

But, I have had a couple of people in the last few days inquire about my health. 

As many of you know, I have suffered for years with my back. In '86 and again in '92 I had surgeries on my lower spine. Neither surgery did much good, and I used what was the best surgeon in the DFW in 1986 and one of the best surgeons in Houston for the second operation. 

This started with a combination of events including an injury to my coccyx playing church league softball, which lead to a surgery, leading to a fall off a ladder while painting my house in Ft. Worth, when I was in divinity school. 

I like to joke and say, I really would have been hurt if the brick planter-box had not broken my fall before I hit the sidewalk.  

The fall resulted in not only my L5-S1 spinal disc rupturing, it literally splintered into several dozen pieces. 

My second back surgery to to remove the remaining splinters the first surgeon missed, and that boy was supposed to be the best in DFW. He had done his residency at some fancy hospital in NYC. 

I never really recovered. And have suffered for years. This is one of those times you say, " Yeah, I am glad I have a college degree and a teacher's certificate so I can at least work."

Fast forward to 2022, Deb and I take a guided tour of Israel and the West Bank. Our ONLY guided tour. 

We will never do a guided tour again, and never will go to Israel again. This was before Gaza. 

As I said, when we were at what was supposed to be " Jacob's Well" the site Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, and they say, " This is where we THINK the well is." And they decided that 350 years AFTER Christ. Well, the history person I am, that "Ain't good enough." There is a lovely Greek Orthodox Church on top of the well.

Anyway, while there, I was so crippled, I could not walk. I thought it was the demands of the tour. And that may have been part of it, because it seemed like everything was uphill, both ways....

I came home in sad shape.....

So last year in 2023, Deb and I decided we would take a traditional Kerry, Debbie, and Cousin Andy Tour of England and Wales 2023. Rent a car, go where we want to go, eat where and what we want, drink alcohol because we're not with those darn Baptists and AofG.( Like they don't slip off and drink a cold one every once in a while.)( Andy lives in England and we always tell him when we are coming, it just isn't the same without him joining us. Andy is Deb's cousin, but I like him better than my actual cousins and consider him my cousin, if that makes sense.)

( Again, my favorite Baptist joke of ALL time. Why do you always carry 2 Baptists when you go fishing? Because if you only carry one, they'll drink all the beer.)

I almost died. I did not get to enjoy all the trip  I missed a lot of York and that made me very sad. 

Kiddos, I was in such sad shape when we got in from England, I was in a wheelchair when I went through US Customs. 

So, I started to do research on what to do. 

Trust me in the past, I have tried everything from chiropractic to osteopathic adjustments. Traction machines, PT, etc, etc, etc....

I finally decided to allow what was supposedly the finest clinic and team of doctors do something. 

I had an MRI, and my wife, who is in the MRI, CT field looked at the results and her first statement was, " You got a BAD back."   

Like I didn't know. ( She knew too.)

So, I jumped through the hoops, had a heart stress test to prove I'd live through the procedure, MRI's, x-rays, etc.....And had the surgery at Texas Orthopedic Hospital in Houston on February 9th of this year. 

I knew there was trouble when we got home and looked the scar. No staples, stitches, butterflies, just taped up.  And it was the biggest scar of all my previous operations. I have an indentation in my lower back.

It took 2 months to heal the opening.....

Folks I am worse today than before. 

I often become very sick to my stomach from pain. 

I can't stand more than 5-10 minutes at a time. 

I can't walk too far at one time.

I am sleeping about 3 hours a night. 

I have returned to the surgeon and in truth, have gotten no answers. 

I am literally living on "magic" and " Alchemy." Just to get me through the day. 

A while back I went through perhaps the darkest period in my life. 

It was bad. I don't think you know how bad.

For the first time in my life I considered seeing someone.....But, I've taken "the classes" in divinity school and used them on myself. 

Literally, if it wasn't for "magic" and "Alchemy"well, I don't want to think about it. 

So, if I seem off on someday, more "off" than normal, well, you know why....

And as always, as I remember you in my prayers, if you would, remember me in your thoughts and prayers.