My Brother-in-law

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone! I thought this would be easier than calling you all personally. There's yet another problem in Walt's life. He had an MRI scan done on his neck on Monday. Monday night his doctor called and said he is a mess and wants him to see a doctor which he would arrange. Yesterday the orthopedic doctor called and wanted to see him at 6:15 last night. I went with him and the prognosis is not good. He has 6 discs that are compressed in his upper spine causing the extreme pain and muscle immobility he's been having over the past few weeks. Due to the fact he's cut way back on prednisone over the past few months, the lowest he's been in 37 years, 7mgs. instead of 15-20 mgs., all sorts of problems are now erupting. The prednisone had been covering this cervical condition for probably some time now. His doctor says he needs to get off the prednisone which is no easy thing to do because he feels that by continuing to take it it will probably cause more Strep A infections. Now he has a huge decision to make. In order to relieve the pain and stop the progression of the problem he needs front and back neck fusion surgery. That is a long and hard surgery with a long recovery time. They aren't sure if he'd even make it through it in his weakened condition. If he doesn't have the surgery done this will progress and eventually his mobility will be worse and could end up in a wheelchair besides still having all the pain he has every day and night. The doctors will be discussing this today as well as giving Walt time to decide what he wants to do. I told him to pray hard about it and now I am asking you all to do the same. Prayer has gotten him through everything he's had to this point and I know it will get him through this too. GOD IS IN CONTROL AND LOVES HIM!!!!

I dont want to scare you but I thought you should all know what can happen if you stay on predisone too long. So try and talk to your Dr's about this so they dont keep you on it if you dont have to be.

Carol Applin