New Beginning +4 days. THE ACTUAL BEGINNING!!!

I just remembered a critical part of the story.  The Sunday before we met with the “ding a ling” Neurosurgeon, one of the ministry leaders at our church prayed over me and asked GOD to HEAL ME.  On the way home from church, my wife and I were thinking, “How come we never asked GOD to heal me?”  I mean, we were praying that the Lord would help us, give us strength etc… but we had forgotten how mighty our Father is and had somehow underestimated Him.  The next day was Monday September 13^th,  and I woke up with ALMOST no pain; it was as if someone flicked a switch and my pain was ALMOST nonexistent.  We were SO excited as we felt we were making a turn, and we COULD NOT WAIT to see the Neurosurgeon the next day. Surely now that the Lord was IN THE DRIVERS SEAT, we would be lead by the second member of my surgical team.  As you read in my last post…NOTHING WAS FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH and again it seemed that we hit a dead end.

So now after dropping our Cardiothoracic Surgeon on September 14^th, my depression and Oxycontin consumption was at an all time high.  I was now starting to get angry.  After all, my left shoulder was just wasting away.  It seems that because of the combination of nerve issues and the lack of use of my left arm, I was experiencing a MASSIVE case of muscle atrophy.  For those that do not know…that means my muscles in my left shoulder were wasting away…Big deal if it looks like a skeleton…Now I was having to digest the fact that I was watching the things inside me aggressively take my life.

It was then that I started to think of my family the most and I started to cry.  Not just any cry…but the hardest cry…the most helpless cry…and the most SCARED cry that I had cried in my life.  If I waste away and lose the fight to the mystery that has stumped every MD I’ve been in front of in the past 3 ½ weeks, that’s one thing.  But now I was seriously imagining my sweet angels growing up without their daddy. I thought about not being there to love them, get their morning cereal, brush their teeth, and most importantly, establish their foundation of how a man is supposed to treat a lady.

We were never gonna have the father daughter dates or dances; they would sit at the door waiting for me to come home, only to be told by mom, “Daddy is not coming home, honey.” I could just see them  night after night, crying themselves to sleep and telling everyone they met that they miss their dad.  I honestly thought that I couldn’t cry any harder…I was completely breaking down, just like now, as I type. 

Not having any luck with traditional medicine, it was now time for us to look at some “ALTERNATIVE” programs and treatments.  No "dancing with rattlesnakes" or "putting pins in dolls", but let's just say "NON FDA APPROVED STUFF"  It seemed almost instant.  As soon as we started doing "OUT OF THE BOX THINGS" my pain was gone, I was sleeping all night, NO MORE HOT BATHS at 3am…I mean things were really shaping up.

After about 5-6 pain free days, I thought to myself -  if I don’t have pain in the meltdown range, why am I still taking about 200 mg of Oxycontin a day?  The day was Monday September 20^th, and I decided that I was no longer going to take the pain medication, so I decreased my dosage from 200 mg down to 60 mg that day.  After doing some research on the internet, I learned the safest way to get off the hardcore pain meds was a step down method.  Most of those methods had a program that would take several weeks to get there.  This, for me, was not an option.  I began to have some clarity, and I felt that the pain medication was actually causing more harm to my body and making it weaker.  With my NEW, healthy approach to beating these things, I needed to get healthy and strong as quickly as I could and “weeks” to get off these pills was not an option.  So I took a more aggressive approach to the step down, and applied a BIG…DRASTIC drop in my medication.  The withdrawals were almost instant and very tough…Man- am I ever going to get a break, I thought to myself.  The answer would come the very next day, but it was the breaking of my heart that would occur at the same time.

The day was Tuesday September 21^st,  and I had an appointment to do some “UNDERGROUND” blood analysis.  A small sample of blood is taken and then placed on a slide to be viewed by a super strong microscope.  Pretty cool process: on a tv screen, I was seeing all the components of my blood.  The cholesterol crystals, the parasites (I know…it’s disgusting-but we all have them) and then we saw indications of severe stress on my kidneys and liver.  This was not good.  Then, just when I thought I was at the bottom of my world falling apart…the rug was pulled from beneath me.  

“OH NO,” SHE SAYS.

  My heart almost stopped.  

“WHAT?” I questioned.  

“RIGHT THERE,” she replied, “Those are malignant cells, and that’s not normal.”

  I looked,  and they appeared to be cells with no color.  They had walls, but then they were black on the inside of the walls.  Now I was sure I was a goner…My head bowed…my eyes closed, and I felt as if a death sentence was just delivered, and it had my name on it.

She asked If wanted to hear the good news.  Good news?  I thought to myself; what could be good about finding out that I have malignant cells in my blood and I can’t find any doctors that can help me?  Then she says, “The good news is your cells are healthy, and the bad cells seem to be very few.  This means that you are catching it early and if you make some RADICAL changes, you, may be able to beat it ON YOUR OWN without any doctors.” 

“WHAT?” I replied…”Tell me more” She proceeded to tell me about some serious diet options, MORE supplements than the 5-10 I was already taking.  Whatever, I thought…I’ll do anything...

Now, I had to go home and deliver the bad news to my wife…AGAIN!!!  After I told her about the bad cells, she said, “NOW WE KNOW…AND WE WILL BEAT IT!!!”  After she spent the rest of the day on the computer, she came to me and said, “HERE’S OUR PLAN.”  If I thought I had made changes to my diet before…those were nothing.  It took her about 20 minutes to explain the program, the thought behind the program, and all the components.  They included the elimination of sugar, wheat, meat, yeast, alcohol and MOST of everything else I ate on a daily basis.  

“You mean no more sugar frosted flakes for me EVERY morning?” I asked.  She laughed and said that I couldn’t  even THINK about eating that stuff.  It was then that she shared the MOST IMPORTANT part of my program:  My mind, thoughts and belief system…

 “They have to lead the way to you beating this,” she explained.  I was ready to get the party started; I had a  feeling of empowerment, as if I was taking an ACTIVE role in my recovery, RECAPTURING the chance for those father/daughter dances …but most importantly, as I would discover in the next few days, the testimony that this would  create.  

My excitement QUICKLY turned to SHOCK as I discovered the most critical part of this aggressive therapy would be COFFEE ENIMAS! Yes, I just said COFFEE ENIMAS!!!  Did I mention, I was SHOCKED?  Not only shocked…but scared to death.  I’ve never even said those two words in the same sentence…”FINE, LET’S GET THE PARTY STARTED,” I said.  Off to the Whole Foods she went.  She was stocking up on fruits and vegetables for the 100 ounces of fresh juice I would drink a day. 

 Then, she called and said, “Honey, would you like French Roast or just a Regular American Roast Coffee?” We both started cracking up.

The next day was Wednesday September 22^nd,  and it was about my 9^th day with ZERO pain…YES, I said ZERO pain.  In addition to that, I was down from 200 mg of pain pills to only 30 mg twice a day and feeling better than ever.  Then I smelled coffee brewing, and I knew it was about to change my GREAT morning.  I’m not going to “paint the picture” for you, but let me say that yes, it’s as BAD as you can imagine.  Then it got worse.  She told me that I had to do this twice in the morning and twice at night… 

 I said “LET’S ROLL…FILL ME UP!” And we both started cracking up.  She loved it!!!  She thought it was hysterical…  She even talked me into letting her FILM the first one.  Yes…WE made a dirty movie!!!  

With this new, aggressive attitude, came a calm that I had not experienced…maybe in my whole life.  At this point, I finally felt as if we were in the driver seat.  I was partly right…we were in the car, but someone else was driving as I would find out the very next day.

With Wednesday coming to an end, I received a call from a Dr’s office where I had been trying to get into for almost 2 weeks.  It was the scheduling department.  

She said, “Mr. Wooley, I know that you have been trying to get in to see the Doctor,  and I have some good news.  We had a cancellation. Can you be here at 9:30 tomorrow morning?”

  I said, “You bet!!!”  After, my nightly cup of Joe later that night, I downloaded the new patient documents from the website and started to fill them out.  Something was different now.  I had no pain, I was almost off the pain meds, and I had a strange peace about things…Almost as if I knew, Win, Lose or Draw…I had experienced a change as a person.  I didn’t know when or how I changed, but I was sure that something had changed in my life.

The next day was Thursday September 23^rd,  and I woke up with a “peace” that I had not had in my whole life.  It seemed that I was comfortable with whatever the visit with the Doctor would bring.  So I had my morning coffee, and I was off.  The hour drive was great!!!  The best drive I could remember having before, in bumper to bumper traffic .  After I jumped through all the hoops needed to get a visit with this doctor, the moment had finally arrived.  Here I was, pumped to be in front of a doctor that specialized in bone, joint, and nerve tumors…then he walks in, and he has a neck brace on.  It was  comical!!!  I was here to get fixed , and the doctor appeared that he needed some fixing of his own.  I was comfortable with his grouchy, abrasive, rude personality from the beginning.

He started the interview.  

“It say’s here that you had to visit emergency rooms because your pain was bad.  How bad is your pain today?” He asked.

  “Zero,” I replied…”

“Fantastic, how many pain pills are you on?” he asked.

  “Zero,” I said with confidence. 

“ Really?  How long has your pain been at this level?” was his next question. 

 “More than a week,” was my answer.  

“What do you think decreased your pain?”  he asked.  

“Well, I’ve changed my mind set, my diet, had tons of prayer by tons of people, and I’m doing coffee enemas.”  LOL…I can’t keep from laughing when I say that…  

He laughs as well and says, “You know it has nothing to do with those things…it’s obvious, the tumor is getting smaller.  Let’s get a new CT scan and find out for sure.”  I thought to myself…I know exactly why it’s getting smaller…but hey, he’s an MD and everything needs to be proven scientifically for doctors. 

 I said, “Great, let’s ROCK & ROLL!” And… I was off to imaging for about the 7^th time in the last 30 days.

The scan went well, and I was off to the office for a late start to my day at work.  Now…here is the part that you have been waiting for.  Here  comes the magic!!!  I sell new homes for a National Homebuilder, and I have been in my new community and model for about 2 weeks at this point.  Most of which, I was maxed out in the pain department, pain meds, depression, fear, or all the fore mentioned. 

When I walked into my model home, it was like it was the first time I had been in it.  It was familiar but more unfamiliar.  It was brand new;  everything was perfect, and I started to SLIGHTLY remember, Wait a minute…this is where I work…This is what I do and this is my office  I thought, in TOTAL amazement.  I started walking through the model just in awe at how perfect everything was; then, I went to my office.  I saw my things, my pictures, but yet I had no memory of moving my things in.  I saw my legal pad with my notes on it, in my hand writing, but had ZERO memory of writing them.  I started to cry uncontrollable…I mean I was balling, but at the same time I was laughing just as loud…I finally had a piece of my normal “PRE TUMOR” life back, so I called my wife.

As she answered, she thought something was wrong because I was a mess - crying like a kid and laughing at the same time.  I recounted everything.  “This is so weird…I don’t know what’s going on…it’s like I have never been here…seriously honey, where have I been the last 2 weeks because I have not been here…in my office?”  I was pacing from room to room in disbelief with no explanation of what was going on.  My wife had to go, so we hung up.  Then I was alone in my model ,still crying like crazy and laughing at the same time and I became aware of my senses.   All of a sudden I was no longer laughing…I was still crying when I was consumed with THANKFULLNESS…  I was so THANKFUL.  I was THANKFUL for my job, for my model, my family, and then I became THANKFUL for my TUMORS and the last HORRIFIC month of depression, pain medication, bad doctors, dead ends and bad attitudes…because then I realized the lesson I needed to learn.  I needed to learn to be THANKFUL and live in the here and now and to appreciate what I have instead of pushing to get MORE!!!  Then I realized something else as I was sobbing… GOD was there… He was with me!!!  I mean He was in everything…it’s like the room was full of static electricity.  I even noticed I felt intoxicated…seriously…like a HEAVY ALCOHOL buzz or something.  Then, I started crying even harder, (JUST AS I AM NOW), and I started THANKING Him for everything, and it all made sense at that moment…The secret had been revealed!!! HE WAS THE ANSWER and HE WAS THERE THE WHOLE TIME WAITING FOR ME!!!

As I was waiting for someone that was helping me with some of the “ALTERNATIVE THERAPIES” to call me back, I could feel the intoxicated feeling slowly leaving my body…I even said it out loud, “It’s going back to normal…It’s leaving now.”  It was magic, and I started to laugh again like crazy. That day, September 23, 2010, was the beginning of the rest of my life.  It was the beginning of my life serving God…not just lip service any longer…really living my life for Him. That is why you are reading this right now, and it’s a reminder to me of the best experience of my life…the day that I started my life over!!!

In the coming days, weeks, months, years, I will document the rest of my story as it unfolds, and I am again so THANKFUL for finally learning the lesson. I hope you can learn from my mistakes, and it doesn’t take TUMORS, or some tragedy for you to realize that GOD loves you.  If he has room for me with all the wild things I’ve done in my life…then certainly He has room for you.

By the way, my name is Scott Wooley.  I’m proud to say that I’m married to Susan Wooley and proud to say that I live for Christ and I will never forget His compassion for loving a sinner like me.

I am so THANKFUL that you took the time to read this story.  Please, if you feel that my story would touch others… please pass it along.  

New Begining + 3 days - Donut Medicine

Sorry for the long post yesterday and more so, sorry to leave you hanging.  Before I get started, I want to say that GOD IS SO GOOD!!!  What?  It’s raining like crazy outside, and I have undiagnosed tumors! What do I have to be thankful for?   You’ll find out soon!!!

So in terms of time, we are now at August 31, 2010, and I just learned from the Doctor who saw me on my  4^th emergency room in only two weeks, that I have two tumors and some kind of crazy thing in my back that rot’s the spinal cord and has no cure… and now I have to tell my wife.

So there I am… a total mess, basically telling my wife that this is it and I’m a goner!!!  The first thing out of her mouth is “WE ARE GOING TO BEAT THIS!!!”  How? I thought- WE don’t even know what “THIS” is and besides, one of “THE THINGS” that WE are going to beat doesn’t have a cure.  So I really thought all the wrong things I had done in my 38 years were coming home to roost, and this was the beginning of the end.  I could not have been more wrong, but we’re not at that part of the story yet, so back to the “BATTLEFIELD”…

So the next day, September 1, 2010, I had a follow up with the specialist that had ordered the MRI’s.  When I asked about the Syrinx Formation (Google It), she said, “I have never heard of that”

I said, “YEAH, IT ROT’S YOUR SPINAL CORD, AND THERE IS NO CURE!”

She simply said “WOW!!!”

She said she would send me to a specialist to talk about that, which ended up being an Oncologist (C#N&ER Dr… we don’t say the C word.)  But before that, she wanted to test the Neurological response of my left arm.  For those that don’t know, this process is call an EMG, and they put needles into you’re the nerves in your arm and blast it with an electro-charge and measure the time it takes you to scream…Pretty much.  Really, they are looking to measure the time it takes to make your arm FREAK OUT, and yes…it was super painful even for a guy with PAIN THAT WAS A 50 ON A 10 PPOINT SCALE.  The test results were never shared with me, and I found out later they charged my insurance $1295 for this “SUPER IMPORTANT TEST”

The next step in my “DONUT” of medical care was my first visit to the Oncologist.  As he learned of my condition, he said, “WHY DID THEY SEND YOU TO ME, I’M A C#N&ER Dr.?”

I said “I have no clue, but hey what about this Syrinx Formation in my back? What do you know about that?”  I should have known the answer…Wanna  guess what he said?  Yep, you guessed it. He said he knew nothing about it. In fact, he said he did not even recall it from medical school.  So now here I am explaining the same thing again. “IT ROT’S YOUR SPINAL CORD AND THERE IS NO CURE” Again, the doctor sitting in front of me was clueless about my condition.  He was sure that the area was extremely risky to perform a biopsy, so his thought was, he would just refer me to someone else and that surgeon could just go in and grab it.  However, one thing that he was good at was prescribing pain medication.  Can you say Oxycontin?  I can…and I was… to the tune of about 200 mg a day shortly after that visit.

So here I am,  I have two tumors, a thing in my back that rot’s your spinal cord and has no cure, I’m  taking 200mg of Oxycontin a day, and I’m still not able to sleep because the pain was so severe that I was taking about 3-6 SCALDING HOT BATHS a night to relieve the pain.  In addition, they were giving me Morphine & Dilaudid.  Even that was not keeping me from my nightly ritual.  Sleep… wake up in 45 minutes… take morphine and a hot bath, rinse and repeat about every 45 minutes to an hour.  In the meantime, I was still trying to juggle work, being a husband, being a dad to my sweet little girls.  My oldest of which said that she could not “marry” me because I had to go to so many doctors… I’m laughing and crying at the same time, as I type at this very moment!!!

The following week, I was in front of the Cardiothoracic Surgeon that I was referred to by my Oncologist.  I had to ask him the question…”WHAT ABOUT THIS THING IN MY BACK?”  Second verse same as the first…he had no clue.  What he did have was a little strategy.  His angle was to make me feel comfortable by “TAKING CONTROL OF MY HEALTHCARE” in his words.  This is great news we thought….I mean finally, someone that is going to see us to the finish line and not just pass us off.  His strategy was to assemble a team that consisted of a Neurosurgeon for tumor # 1 in my left shoulder, a general surgeon for tumor #2 on the right side of my neck, and led by, him…to support on the Cardiovascular side.  It all made since, and we THOUGHT we were heading in the right direction….BOY WERE WE WRONG!!!

So after a nightmare scheduling the appointment with the first leg of the “Dream Team”, the Neurosurgeon, we were starting to ask…”Why are we having such a hard time getting some help?”  It was like something was working against us…Not quite- Something was working for us by not letting us get any peace until I had learned THE lesson from a “Certain someone that died 2010 years ago”… More on that later!!!

The following week it was “GO TIME” with the Neurosurgeon.  There we were…filling out the same freaking paperwork we had filled out the previous 6 or so times.  After our normal 45 minute wait, we were called into the patient room.  After a normal 15 minute wait, the nurse came in, and I gave her the details and then she was gone.  I had to hit the men’s room , so I opened the door and the doctor, his assistant, and what appeared to be an intern were there reviewing my MRI’s.  “Excuse me,” I said as I slipped past them heading to “handle my biz”.  When I returned they were still there, and as I tried to slip past again, he said “No please, let’s talk about your films.”   He pointed the tumor on the right, which I was having ZERO pain from and was talking about how small it was.  I interrupted him and said, “No Dr. I’m not having issues with that one; I’m here to talk to you about the one on the left.”  As soon as I finished, he went back to talking about the tumor on the right.  I interrupted him again and said “Excuse me doctor, the General Surgeon will go in after that one; I’m here to talk to you about the one on the left.”

  He said “Well, I was just about to say, it’s only an inch. You should just leave it in there, and the one on the left is small as well…you should just leave that one in as well…and the thing in your back…no need to worry about that thing either.” Needless to say,  I was freaking out!!!

I said “NO…NOT AN OPTION…I’M HAVING LEVEL 50 PAIN AND I’M ON TON’S OF MEDS…IT’S HORRIBLE.”  You will love this….  He said, “Wow, you really need to get that thing out of there, and I think I have the perfect guy.  He’s at LSU Medical School” I was blown away!!!  Not only had the MD said “LEAVE THE TUMORS IN” now he was referring me out of state.  I started to collect my things, having heard enough and told my wife, “Let’s Go!!!”  As I was collecting my things ,I asked the Doctor for the phone number for the guy at LSU, just as a gesture…I had no intention of calling him.  He said “Oh, he’s not practicing medicine any longer.  I was thinking you could call him to see if he knew anyone.”  We were just as blown away as you are reading this.  It should be no surprise that we walked out.

Now it’s September 14, 2010, and we are right back to square one.  With a ding dong like the Neurosurgeon being referred by the Cardiovascular guy, we now decided to drop the Cardiovascular Surgeon and try our luck again in the open market.

That, my friends, is where I am leaving it today…I hope to wrap this up tomorrow…at least I hope to get it to the lesson I had to learn, the way I learned it and caught up to daily events in my crazy world of DONUT MEDICINE.

New Beginning + 1 day

After resisting my wife's advice to start a blog, I felt that today would be the day that I start to share my thoughts, opinions, and most importantly, the UNBELIEVABLE experience that the last 30 days has brought to me.

I’m going to share the story of my medical isolation, the high jacking of my awareness by pain medication,  and the crowning moment of getting my life back.  After that, who knows where it will go!

I think the last 30 days of my life will excite most emotions: Happiness, Sadness, Excitement, Fear, Belief, Disbelief, and most importantly...THANKFULNESS!!!

Just so you know, I am a 38 year old male from Texas, madly in love with the love of my life for 16 years and my wife of 6 years, the proud father of 2 girls, ages 4 and 2, and a sweet little baby boy of 8 months.  My life was the best...so I thought.  Amazing family- check, great career-check, super hot wife who gave birth to all 3 children at home and runs every part of my life, including homeschooling our children-check...Little did I know that my life would come crashing down only to rise from the ashes all in only 30 days...Need a hint to stay interested?  Can you say Tumor?  Ahhh...see where this is heading?

Today is Friday, September 24, 2010, and I just realized that my new life began yesterday.  Marriage? you may ask...divorce? A new job? Birth?  Well kinda...More like a rebirth. I just made one of the biggest shifts of my life, and it all started about 30 long but short days ago.

It was August 16, 2010,  and after about a week of “OFF THE CHART PAIN” in my left shoulder that started with a simple ache in my left deltoid, I was dressed for my Monday meeting, walking around in my chiropractor’s office completely freaking out from the pain, just about to hyperventilate and unable to even stand in one place for 2 seconds...back and forth...back and forth...I paced all over the room, screaming in pain.

My chiropractor, a great friend of mine, walks in and say's, “Dude, what happened to you?”  

"I have no idea!!! I woke up a few days back with this ache in my deltoid and now this," I explained in complete agony. He attempted to touch me, and I started freaking out even more. 

He said, "There is no way I’m touching you- you're going to the ER right now!!!"

After arriving at the nearest ER, dressed in my Monday morning best like I was really going to get a quick adjustment and hit my meeting...yeah right, they rush me in immediately (lucky for them) and asked what was wrong with me. I'm holding my left shoulder in meltdown mode from the pain and say,

"My left shoulder is F'ing killing me"

“How did this happen?” they questioned.

"I have no clue; I just woke up a few days ago with a simple ache in my deltoid, and here I am.”

BAM!!! Before I knew it...Valium shot #1 and things chilled a bit...

“How does that feel?” they asked.

"I feel pretty chill, but my freaking shoulder is still killing me." BAM!!!  Morphine shot #1...

“How do you feel now?”  they asked.

 "I'm now very chilled, and ready to hit the club...I'm feeling pretty good here, but my freaking shoulder is still killing me" BAM!!!!  Diluadid shot #1...

“How do you feel now?”  they asked.  

"I'm SUPER chilled, I'm ready to hit the club, and finally my pain is about a 9 instead of a 100, on a 10 point scale."  

“Perfect” they said...Off to imaging for what would be the first of about 6 MRI's in the next 30 days.

By the time my MRI was finished, all the medication was failing to keep the pain manageable, and they repeated steps 1,2 and 3 and it was off to the club again. I was feeling much better even if my pain was just manageable.  They gave me Percocet 7.5 and told me to see my primary physician pronto.  Little did I know that I would hit the emergency room 3 more times all in the next 2 weeks.

The next day, I hit my Primary Physician, and they put me through checking my temperature, checking my weight...REALLY?  The Percocet is barely keeping me from being arrested for slapping the people and saying “HEY YOU! MY FREAKING SHOULDER IS KILLING...I COULD CARE LESS WHAT I FREAKING WEIGH, OR WHAT MY TEMPERATURE IS...I WAS JUST HERE 2 MONTHS BEFORE FOR THAT POOR EXCUSE TO GET MY $20 CO-PAY AND BILL MY INSURANCE COMPANY FOR $500, FOR A BUNCH OF LAME CHARGES!” They call that an annual exam in case you are wondering.  So they begin the process of avoiding admitting that they are clueless about my condition, by the standard process...A referral!!!  This would be first of about 20 + over the next few weeks.

In the next 2 weeks, I would hit the ER 3 more times and even worse, I was treated like a drug addict in one of them because they thought I was just in there for pain meds because it was 4 in the morning.  I tried to explain to them that I had been up all night with a pain level that was close to making me pass out, and I was not working them for drugs.  I guess I kinda get it… They see people all the time trying to work them for pain meds, but they should have a pretty good radar by now and be able to tell real pain from fake.  

Then I hit the ER for the 4th and final time. I was just in the same ER a couple nights before and the Dr. was aware of my situation and had contacted the specialist after my 3rd ER visit to confirm my story, so he was anxious to give me injections of Diluadid and get my pain down ASAP. After meltdown mode had passed, he said, “Weren't you just in the imaging department yesterday getting 3 MRI's?” 

"Yep, I sure was.”  

He said, “Well let me see if the reports have been issued yet.”  He came back, and it was BOMB #1.

The Dr. sat me down and tells me I have 2 tumors and a thing called a Syrinx Formation in my back.  What?  Me?  How?  I mean that stuff happens to other people, I was thinking.  It was almost like I expected a life changing event based on the crazy turn the last 2 weeks had taken, but this?  For real?  Yes, it was for real, and now I knew what the enemy looked like as he showed me MRI images of the tumors: one located on the left side of my neck, just behind my collar bone and the other on the right side of my lower neck close to my spine, and the "cyst" type THING called a Syrinx Formation located in my upper back.

Instead of talking to me about my tumors, the Dr decided to talk with me about the Syrinx Formation.  Here's what he said  "I'm sorry to tell you that you have a syrinx , and it is a pre cursor to a condition called Syringomeylia. There is no cure.  It rots your spinal cord."  

What?  As if me being told I had 2 tumors wasn't bad enough...now I have something I can't pronounce and it doesn't have a cure?  As you can imagine, I was devastated. Now, the hard part: I had to go home and tell my wife.

I hate to leave you hanging but mama bear has a girls night tonight that is long over due, so it’s daddy and 3 kids for the rest of the night.  I hope you come back to read the rest of my story...it gets intense.