.... And so it starts...

And so it starts..

Back in the summer of 2010 I started getting a strange sensation in the legs, it was a cross between pins and needles and a numbness.  I didn’t do much about it at the time as it felt like a trapped nerve and figured it would work itself free in its own time.  By the end of the year things were not getting any better and after a visit to the doctor, who, couldn’t see any real problem, referred me to the local hospital to have a few X-Rays and blood tests. 

Being as I like to Google everything, there began my research.  Initially everything was indicating to Multiple Sclerosis.  Of course, I had heard of this but finer details of what it was eluded me, so a bit more Googling went on until the test results came back negative.  Nothing wrong with the blood, or the X-Rays and the doctor simply said that if it hadn’t got any better by Easter, pop back and they would do further tests. 

Easter came and went and then whilst on a trip to London my legs give way, just a couple of times and left them feeling weak, but enough to worry me into booking another appointment with the doctor.  I was referred for an MRI scan and was thankful when an appointment came up fairly quickly for a Friday morning.  Not really enjoying the confined and claustrophobic feeling of the MRI I was glad when it was over and not worried about the results, due in about 14 days.   A missed call on the following Monday evening from the surgery was asking me to make an appointment to see the doctor as the results were back….so soon?? 

Desperate to get an appointment, I managed to make one for the Tuesday morning and went with my partner, just for reassurance.  I went in alone, figuring it was something or nothing and joking asked my doctor was it serious?  He looked at me and said “it’s not good news at all”.  I called Mark in to sit with me because my mind was reeling, and that was even before I knew what it was.  He pulled out books and references, and explained what it was.   The scan results had come back marked as urgent;  I had a herniated thoracic disc, the t8 & t9 ones, which had calcified and were crushing my spinal cord, basically to the point of severing it.  Once severed, the spinal cord was beyond repair and I was facing a lifetime of paralysis and a wheelchair if something wasn’t done immediately.   I sat there in a state of shock, I knew about discs but had no idea the implications of a thoracic disc, it’s location etc.  He went on to explain the location being in the centre of the spine, an area so rarely damaged he had seen only one other in his 22 years as a doctor.  This news was not reassuring me at all.  He then went on to show pictures and diagrams but by then I wasn’t really listening, all I could hear was “paralysed” and “wheel chair” and how that would change my life.  He made an appointment there and then with a Neurosurgeon at the Claremont Hospital in Sheffield for the following week and that was it.  My Life was about to change in a way I never thought possible.

Looking back now on that day, I remember it as if it was yesterday, the feelings, the emotions, the panic and the total turmoil of what my life was about to face.  I stood for a long time crying, Mark trying to remain strong for me, but all the time feeling that my worl, OUR new life together, had just fallen apart.  The appointment with the surgeon in Sheffield couldn’t come soon enough and I had a restless, sleepless week ahead.