A Message Directly From Dick Brown

Got this note from Dick Brown himself and many thanks to Mary for keeping us all up to date:

"Finally arrived home around noon today , and after taking a nap , decided to send out some info. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, cards, phone calls and e-mail . As Mary might have told you the surgery went well and I have not had any pain since February 25 relating to the condition that I underwent surgery for. My next 4-5 weeks will be spent under the supervision of the rehab units, and I then return to the orthopedic surgeon as his patient until the long-term recovery s complete.

For info purposes, my incision is 18.5 inches long, from T-11 to S-1, with a " lammie ( their term ) " from L-3 toL-5. It took 8 hours to accomplish this surgery , but the x-rays show a extremely straight spinal cord , and I think I'm back to a 5'11 " height again . What I severely underestimated was my lack of overall strength and my ability to overcome numerous complications which hindered my recovery . A cardiac event, stomach and bowel problems , potassium depletion, bladder and a few other minor situations moved me from the Recovery area to ICU , to acute care , back to ICU and finally , in a weakened state into the Rehab Unit on March 3 . I really think that when they moved me to Rehab , there were few expectations that I would be released on March 23 . A Home Health Unit will be here on a fairly consistent basis for the next 4 weeks and then I will move on to Outpatient , so my plans to get rid of the walker and the cane by the end of April are not realistic but still doable by the end of the summer I hope .

I'm now officially taking charge of my e-mail , Jeff & two grandchildren are coming Friday night for the weekend , with Mary's help (what a god-send she is) another phase begins .

Thanks again for staying in touch ......and thanks for all your responses which Mary passed on . Many nights when I laid in the bed watching time pass on the clock , I thought how fortunate I was to have great friends and family ......and I was anxious for morning to arrive so as
to try again . "