To my friends. I cannot contact all of you individually so I am posting this info here. I thank you all for the cards and emails and thoughts and prayers over the last few weeks.

I had my 6 week checkup at my surgeon yesterday.
He took X-rays and I now have a better understanding of what he meant when he said I had a hairline crack in the vertebrae.

In fact there are several small cracks in the top two vertebrae where he bolted the titanium support rods. Apparently he overtorqued the bolts. The bone density was not
as much as he had expected. It hasn't healed yet so he has told me to continue to used the large "turtle shell" brace and to continue with the same medications and come back to him
in six weeks. Everything is in place so it will just take time to heal.

I also have to use a walker to walk. I am now walking 1/4 mile twice a day and trying to slowly increase that. I can see that my leg muscles as starting to come back. They
had atrophied a lot. I am still unsteady on my feet but that is starting to get better.

I no longer have the pain in my legs and hips so apparently the purpose of the surgery, to relieve the pressure on my lower spinal cord has been successful.

I am hoping that things will heal enough in 6 weeks so that I can travel by car to the GMCMI convention at Rapid City. Hope to see many of you there.