Hi Everyone! First of all, thank you so much to Corri for setting this thing up for me. And thanks to all of you for checking it out. I guess I'm supposed to tell my "story" now, so here it goes. Basically, one morning last June I tried to get up from my couch and it was a lot more difficult that it should have been. Throughout the day I started noticing other oddities, like tingling in my fingers and toes, occasional numbness, weakness in my arms and hands, and for some reason I was walking like a drunk person. My legs just wouldn't go exactly where I intended them to go. I spent some time hoping it was just stress, and that it would go away on its own. I also started to fear that I might have diabetes, in spite of recent lab work indicating otherwise. When the symptoms did not improve, and after my unreliable legs caused me to fall a couple of times while walking my dog, I finally went back to my doctor. She ruled out diabetes and a stroke, and sent me on to a neurologist, who gave me an electromyography (EMG) test that I do not recommend, and sent me for an MRI. Those tests revealed that I have a condition called "cervical spinal stenosis." Basically, in the normal wear and tear that anyone's vertebrae experience over their first 50 years, a couple of the ones in my neck wore down in a specific way that caused them to start squeezing my spinal cord. The neurologist told me I would need surgery as soon as possible to keep things from getting worse. I talked to three different surgeons, all of whom agreed on pretty much every detail. I opted for Dr. Mark Nolden at NorthShore Skokie Hospital, because he was the only to tell me that while there are no guarantees, there's no reason to think I shouldn't be able to regain a decent amount of strength and movement with a few months of physical therapy after surgery. I go in for an "anterior cervical discectomy and fusion" on Friday, November 8th. I'll be recovering for about four weeks after that, and I will take all the help I can get. I really appreciate you taking the time to check out this page. Thanks again!