Dear Reader:
As we were preparing to leave Mobile, an event occurred that hastened the retirement by 6 months but not the move. It also changed our lives forever. On an early October Sunday afternoon we returned from shopping. As I lay on the sofa, I was suddenly experienced a sharp blow to the chest. I knew immediately that I just had an MI (myocardial infarction - heart attack). Unwisely, I had my wife drive me to the local branch of the University hospital less than a mile away. Since I did not show any signs, neither the ER doc nor the nurses agreed with my pronouncement that I had an MI. The first blood samples were negative - I had arrived there very earlier in the development of symptoms. Then the results of the 2nd set of.blood samples came in and the values were off the charts. I was rushed by ambulance to the main hospital in downtown Mobile,
After moving and living in BB for a couple of years, I learned that none of my neighbors thought I would survive the first year.
BB was the end of the handball career. Tennis was a temporary substitute. Achilles tendon repair introduced us to an outstanding orthopedic group. Then, along with the heart problems other unexpected but significant events suddenly began to develop.
Coming back from a trip, I went back to my gym routine only to find that I could barely lift any weight. A neurosurgeon, who, unexpectedly was a graduate of the University of South Alabama and knew many of the people I knew, took an X-Ray of my neck and, after reading it, immediately set me up for surgery. I had developed a stenosis that was cutting the nerve. Another day or two, if I did not have surgery, the nerve would be completely severed. Releasing the pressure on the nerve during the cervical laminectomy was very difficult. When the nerve was finally released, there wss some damage to the left phrenic nerve. As a result, the left lung is virtually non-functional.
Part B other co-morbidities develop..