Nerves, Friends, Surgery and bad fossil drawings

I have just read Jeff’s blog ( http://jbailey.livejournal.com/ ). In the years that I have known him, he never really complained about how bad his vertebral problems were. I knew he had problems, and as one sufferer to another, we kind of had that unspoken sympathy.

He has T1 - T6 problems, and is having a cage fitted. My. That is drastic.

At least I only had a ’simple’ L5 – S1 problem.

What has been been great though is that it has taken me years to get anywhere near normal after the initial problem. Great means that it has been fun living on a body that is trying its hardest to recover normal function.

When I was taught biology, it was a ’given’ that nerves, once damaged, never mended. I wonder if those who promulgated that particular nugget ever spoken to anyone who had damaged a nerve ?

It was obvious to me that my nerves were trying really hard to re-route. I could tell by the random firing of muscle groups that they were shorting out and causing ‘arcing’ across the nerve.

I can think of few of these things that probably got in the way of real diagnosis of problems, and I can only hope that the latest recruits question what they are told !

Actually – perhaps that is not such a good idea, as I remember getting into trouble with my Palaeontology demonstrator at University : he insisted that the cast of a fossil we were studying had the exact same suture line as the one in the British Museum book.

Some while later, an example of the original artist being wrong / inventive was provided, and thus I felt really good the day I found that out. I just wish I could remember the specimen in question !

But anyway, I wish Jeff well, and hope that the pain killers they feed him, don’t upset his karma too much