You were always one of my favorites here because of your crazy sense of humor.I wondered what made you change so much and why you weren't yourself.Sure is understandable,you have had a tough run but we can look forward to better times and a lot of laughs.

Oh you poor dear thing----I'm totally speechless.
My daughter had neck surgery and I had back surgery and I can't imagine having anything fall on either one of us. It had to be horrible.

Please keep us posted when you have a chance--I will be praying for you and hope you will have many pain free years.

Florence

Just let me know when the party is. I'll bring a playmate for Max.

Carla

Oh my God, we all have our ups and downs and we think it's the end of the world, then we hear of someone else in a far worse situation. So very sorry to hear you have been going through such a rough time, but you sound like such a fun person, I am sure it will not be long before you are sorted out completely, and back in the swing of things, with that extra lease on life which will only make you feel good, and LUCKY! Take great care, looking forward to seeing you here again when you are recovered, Good Luck - will see you at the big bash Teehee! Even if in mind only.
Pauline - Vancouver Island

I've been reading your posts for years. Looking forward to them. Then "hatland" appeared in your life. You disappeared. I thought that was the reason. I was happy to see you posting again and will be happy for you when you re-return pain free.
You never write about your flying furbabies anymore. Are they still with you?
You, Cindi and Rosanna were always the best reading. Knowledge and humor-can't beat that.

Wow sorry to hear this hope the comming year will be better.

Pagan, OMG, did you smack the little girl???! Sue the store?? I'm so glad you are going and it looks good and I'll cross everything I have till then! If you got a taste of pain-free I can imagine how exciting this is.

Prayers and I'll look for an old chicken hanging around ;]

Take care!

So glad your surgery was successful, I don't know what it's like to not have pain. I wish that your luck was better though. Your not the only one, stuff like this happens to me too. After my back surgery in August, I also ventured out some time in October to be hit by shopping carts, bumped into, then the biggie when a guy almost knocked me to the ground. I swear I'm worst since then but haven't had any tests yet (waiting).

Good luck with your surgeries. Thankfully there's the drip afterwards lol

I'm shocked, too! Like so many, I thought you were just busy with your hats or tired of us all - I had no idea. I am so glad that you made the journey through your depression and although it really stinks that you have to have more surgery when you were feeling so good there for awhile, your current attitude is so positive that I'm just sure all will be well with you. You deserve the world's biggest party for what you've been through, that's for sure. If you can't keep in touch while you are in FL, know that your "group" back here will be thinking of you, wishing you well and waiting eagerly for news. Take care!

Anne

I once had a relationship with a woman that had been in an accident and had some vertabrae in her neck fused. A few months later a car rearended hers and broke the fusions loose. From that point on her neck was always very painful and sounded like some kind of rattle when she turned her head.

Hopefully your surgery goes well and you can enjoy life more.

Lance

Thanks for the comments and support! I walked around singing "GLOOM, DESPAIR and AGONY on me" for a while, but things are looking up again! I really didn't do much of anything last year - just keeping myself from jumping ship. The medicine that caused my depression was Lyrica - if ever you have to take it, be careful! I nearly did myself in because of it - huge shudders to think that a chemical that is supposed to make you feel better can cause such hard-wire screw-up's in your brain. After I got surgery and had the arm cath, I couldn't use my arm very well, so sort of lunged around a la' the Mummy in an old black and white movie... no gardening and haven't done any hats in over a year but plan to pick it up again when I can... The flying furbabies are still buzzing around stealing nuts from each other and harrassing the dog. they will run right to his bowl while he is eating, grab some of his food and then stand and laugh at him while he tries to appear unconcerned. he isn't allowed to react to them, so he gives us pathetic-puppy-dog looks as if to say "PUUUULLLEEEZE, just once, can I get my food back??" the girls just giggle, poke him with sticks and buzz his head when he is trying to sleep.

The clinic in Florida specializes in treating people who have spine injuries that are supposedly un-treatable or that cannot be fixed. This dr. uses laser surgery and arthroscopic techniques and is a few years ahead of the neurosurgeons who put plates and steel rods in a spine and call it a day. Basically he uses lasers to kill the nerves that are causing pain. You are mildly sedated during the procedure so you can respond to questions and nerve stimulation - that way he doesn't kill off a nerve you need! Hurts like the dickens, but worth it in the long run - or so I hope! I didn't really get to give it a fair trial the first time. You can even watch the surgery through a monitor placed directly under you as you lay face-down on the table - kind of like a Star Wars fight scene,(complete with sound effects) with the laser blasting away the bad guys! If you know anybody who is in pain with back problems, tell them to check it out.

http://www.bonati.com/

The party is going to be huge - anybody I have ever met in my whole life is invited, and if I don't know somebody, they can show up so we can say we met!!

oh jeeze, almost forgot, can we say dangerous premises lawsuit?? I am making legal history according to my attorney - Charleston has never had a dangerous premises suit that wasn't the garden-variety slip-and-fall sort of case. In this instance, the columns (2 of them) were free-standing in a store, not attached at either end and sort of being used as dividers between the front and back of the store. We don't know if the child leaned on one or just bumped it, but it is kind of common sense to me that the suckers should have been bolted to something. I thought the wall had caved in on me, or the sky had fallen, or something. The thing that really burns me is that the columns remained in situ for the next week or more, before they were moved into corners and various display cases piled in front of them to keep them from falling on anybody again...

my surgeon said I am also making history at their clinic, cus nobody has been re-injured so soon after recovering from their procedures... I was about 6 weeks past my last procedure and released, except for the MRSA infection.

So, did I mention that 2007 is THE YEAR OF PAGAN????!!!!!!!!!

Well, tell us a good month in advance so I can arrange a driver and spiffy sequins for my cast, LOL! Seriously, I'd give my eye teeth for a great pagan party in Charles-town :)

You go girl with the legal! That decision of theirs was more than stupid... make them PAY ;]

Year of the Pagan sounds great by me!

Lyrica huh? Glad I stayed away from it. They wanted to give it to me a few months ago, but my pharmacist said it was the same as another I'd tried. No thank you!

Thanks for the link, I have it printing out and will look into it. The doctors here have suggested cutting nerves, it just seems so final. With stem cell research going the way it is, I'm hoping that if I hang in there another year, I won't need to go this route. The way my pain is today though, I may not be able to wait. We do have relatives in FL, will have to see how close Hudson is to Coral Gables because I'm seriously going to think about looking into what he does.

BTW, I think I'd do something to that store also since they left the columns there. How can they do that after you got hurt? Shame on them.

Pagan your squirrel stories were some of the first things I read when I joined this forum years ago. I laughed till I cried, they were hilarious, glad to see you back and praying that your next surgery is just as successful as the last and that this time you don't get bumped like that, never ever again, what a shame that happened, I hope you win your lawsuit.

Get well soon.

Valerie

thanks ya'll! the tot has just plickened... a friend was sub-contracting at this store's new facility. the store is re-locating to a bigger space nearby... anyway, seems the contractor on the job, an old friend of the friend, asked them to make a few changes to the structure that were not on the blueprint, not up to code and not safe! they refused and ended up walking away from the job... the thing is, my friend has worked with this contractor for years and has never known him to make a request or even imply that they somehow cut corners on a structure. Only this once, for this one location...

Of course, all this is hearsay, but it seems to point to a pattern - provided the contractor is following orders from his employer... I wonder if I should let my attorney know about this???

Are you saying the owner of the building refused to make the changes that the contractor suggested so the sub-contractor walked?

I'd think that anything you hear you should discuss with your attorney, so that he can see what info (paper trail) he can dig up.