Nan Your post about "disease hunting" hit the nail on the head for me. I have nowhere near the amount of years that you, Glenn, Bobbie and so many others have, and I certainly respect each and everyone's decision to treat their body the way they choose.
However, I feel myself fortunate because I was 51 years old when I broke my neck, and I had had a very interesting life, not always easy as I had been a single parent for seven years with three children. We lived in Europe for 10 years and I finally decided to come back to America even though I really loved living in Europe where I was a professional dog trainer and had the chance to show dogs all over Europe. To my knowledge I was the first person to take an American born German shepherd to Germany and compete against some of the top dogs there. Heck, I was 21 and did not even think to question if they would allow us to do that-the power of being young :-). But I finally came to realize that my children were American and that I was depriving them of the chance to choose if they wanted to live in Europe or live in America. I don't regret my decision. When I broke my neck I was standing on scaffolding only 9 feet above the ground, stepped back and hit my head on one of the joist hangers that I had just installed in our new barn that we were building. It pushed my head forward so when I fell off and landed flat on my stomach my head pronated very sharply and I totally crushed C4. I knew immediately what had happened as I had two quad friends who were C5/6, and when I tried to move my arm nothing happened. Fast forward-Santa Clara was great and after several close calls they kicked me out as I was not making any " significant progress" with the advice to go home and enjoy what time I had left, possibly 12 to 15 years. Reno is known as the "Biggest Little City In The World" but it certainly did not then nor now have any support for quads unless you were a Vet. We had a physiatrist who specialized in SCI for about two years, but everyone else is sports medicine. So plain ordinary GPs have been my main doctors were treated me as if I were ordinary as I did not have many medical needs that were specifically SCI. I consciously made the choice of not using any medication that was not absolutely necessary and took an proactive part in my treatment. Yep, there were up's and downs, some very scary, but 22 1/2 years later and looking forward to my 74th birthday I am eager to see what the future holds. I still have a 24/7 day a week job helping to guide two mentally retarded adults to make the most of their life which really enhances my life also. I started a seedling growing business seven years ago which has grown to our raising about 2000 seedlings each year for sale, which we do here at the house and it has introduced me to so many fantastic people that I look forward to every spring to see what it will bring. It frustrates me that I can not be a normal "grandma" to my grandkids so I compensate by attending every single swim meet, gymnastics meet, middle school band (that's hard on the ears) and trying to be the one that they can come to an talk about whenever they want knowing that I will keep it a secret and then only with their permission talk to their parents if I feel that what they are doing could be a really bad choice. My daughter often has to remind the grandkids to tell their friends that I am in a wheelchair and cannot move below my shoulders, because to them I am just " Grams". Hopefully I have taught many children that being in a wheelchair is only another way of living a full life. My grandchildren are from ages 32 to 3 and three great grandkids and believe me they help keep me on my toes. Do I regret? Of course I do, but I also regret some of the things that I did before I broke my neck. That's just life. I look forward eagerly too what each day will bring and have learned patience to accept whatever the day brings and to find something to make other people laugh because then I can laugh. Thanks for your post, and maybe I should put in the subject matter don't read unless you want to be bored with personal details. Big :-) face. Joan
