My Dad

Today my Dad went in for his third back surgery.  I should probably give a brief history on why he's having to do this.  My Dad has been a Mechanic for pretty much his entire adult life.  Being a Mechanic is not good on your back.  He has had nothing but problems with it.  It doesn't help that he has also inherited my Grandma's back issues, as well.  I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but my brother, and both of my sisters suffer from back problems, too.  I had a slight instance with mine back in 2004, but a quick trip to the chiropractor and days of doing lower back stretches solved my problem.  I still do those back stretches when I feel it coming back, but aside from that I've been fine.  With each of my Dad's surgeries they have appeared to only offer a temporary relief for him.  It doesn't take long before he's back to being in pain again.  Eventually his back pain turned into an even worse problem.  My Dad found out he had a pinched nerve in his lower back that was causing the blood flow to his left leg to lessen.  His left leg is now considerably smaller than his right leg, he has problems lifting it, and it no longer grows hair.

About two weeks ago his left leg started to go numb and by last Wednesday or so he had lost all feeling in it.  He woke up to a paralyzed leg.  He has fallen twice as a result of this; once at the doctors office and once in the shower (yikes!).  He is now seeing a neurosurgeon at the University of Utah to try to regain feeling in his leg.  We feel confident that this surgeon will be able to fix him.  Hopefully the damage is not too far gone.

This feeling of my Dad becoming dependent on things like walkers to help him walk is very foreign to me.  I don't like seeing him in pain or needing to see a doctor for anything.  In my eyes he is just supposed to be healthy and able because that's how he's always been to me.  My whole life I have relied on him to be the strong one.

He's the one who always:
..came to save me when my car was stuck in a snow storm
..fixed my car when repairs were needed
..helped me move all my heavy furniture from one place to the next
..opened the cans I couldn't open
..shoveled the driveway
..mowed the lawn
..picked me up when I fell down

Now it's my turn to do for him what he did for me.  Getting old sucks especially when you're too young to be considered old in the first place (he's only 57 for crying out loud).

I'm praying that this surgery helps.