An amazing journey of Recovery

So, I’m going to deviate from talking about printing and graphics for a moment, because I’ve just taken a miracle journey into modern medicine. I say this now, being able to walk around without the chronic pain I’ve dealt with for years, only 3 weeks into a journey of invasive back surgery at Miami Valley on November 23. That is shaping up to be a true miracle in my mind.

I’ll start by saying a lot of people around me never knew I had back problems, I was just able to either keep them to myself or just mask them. I’ve spent years trying out alternative interventions like physical therapy and spinal injections. But once I decided on the surgery option, the worst part of this was seeing the pins & screws they put in my back … I think they could hold a muffler on an old Chevy Caprice. But when I was on vacation this past summer, I was unable to walk more than a block or stand more than 10 minutes, so I knew I had to do something.

Now they have special names for this type of surgery, and the names sound as intimidating as the procedure really is. Essentially what happens is they fuse your back together with these pins and screws…and then after the operation, there’s a point where the pain level is very high, so they put a little green button in your hand that lights up every 15 minutes…you push it and the morphine takes you away. That and my iPod turned up loud while laying on my back is what really pulled me through, although I did get in trouble for trying to push the button to many times.

This is really a success story on two major levels, First, a lot of amazing people all around me, some I never knew prior to this, were just unbelievably kind and caring.And the doctors, starting with Dr. Hodges at Dayton Spine and Rehab were absolute professionals. The surgeon, Dr. Amongero, in my mind is incredibly gifted and preformed a miracle on me. The staff at Miami Valley Hospital was just unbelievable. The nurses who tolerated me (Misty is the one I remember) brought me back to life for the 3 days after surgery and were truly caring people (and I mean that…there was not an impatient bone in any of their bodies). My opinion and respect for Miami Valley Hospital and all the Doctors and Nurses associated with them is at the highest level. I have nothing bad to say about our health care system.

The second part of the success story is all the people I work with, employees of Oregon, customers and everybody else who works with us. I owe everybody a “Big Thanks”. I know the staff have been busy working overtime at the shop,  and I’ve gotten cards, gift baskets and a lot of visitors; it’s funny how the world just seems to keep rolling when you step out with something like this. I normally don’t write stuff like this about myself, but this was a huge event in my life, and I just can’t say enough about all of the support I have gotten.

I can’t wait to get back (hopefully later this week), as we have huge plans for Oregon over the next couple of years. The industry is at such a huge crossroads, communications have become a lot more personal, the US Postal Service is at a huge crossroads, new digital equipment is changing the game every day, and in some cases, printing is crossing the line and becoming interactive. The winner is the customer who wants new and better ways to communicate their message. And on top of all this printing and communications, I want to be in canoeing shape come springtime. I’m starting on my 4th week of recovery now and looking forward to every day of the rest of my life.