I’ve been having increasing problems over the past 4 months. Most likely due to the surgical resection of the spinal cord tumor from my lower neck. Sometimes I’ll wake up and my heart has weird flutterings which traces up to my head and makes me dizzy. This is always coupled with the right side of my torso being numb along with much of my right leg.
Today was different however. During pulmonary rehab my right leg buckled a dozen times and I needed help to my car. I’ve had weakness before but not quite that much. Easily dealt with. Just be more careful walking. But while driving to my next appointment that leg simply stopped working as I tried to pull into a parking lot. My brain was telling my leg to move to the brake and press it, but instead… it kept light pressure on the accelerator. Because I never expected this kind of thing, I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t getting a response. You know when a key on your keyboard stops working and you just keep pounding it saying, “work darn it!”. That’s what I did. Just kept sending commands to my leg, and kept getting no reaction. You’d think after the first cognitive attempt one would try something else, but instead, I was just mired in incredible confusion why nothing was happening. At this point I was headed towards a concrete barrier and all I could think of was how I was going to wreck my wonderful Prius. And since I still couldn’t get my leg to move, for the briefest moment, I almost gave up trying - thinking a crash was inevitable. But then it suddenly dawned on me, “that leg isn’t working, you have another one”, and I say this without exaggeration, I screeched to a halt within an inch of the barricade. I sat there in bewilderment for several minutes. Dragged myself to the front of my car and couldn’t believe there wasn’t a scratch. I’m home now and my leg half-way works, and I will have to go back to the neurosurgery to see what’s going on (120 miles away).
I still can’t get over the fact my leg just stopped working, though in hindsight with the increasing issues I’ve been having I shouldn’t be that surprised? You just never expect it. But the strangeness here is instead of feeling like a human with a critical issue, I felt more like I was doing tech support on a motherboard that failed, and attempted to troubleshoot it as such along with the same frustrations of, “why isn’t this stupid thing working?!”.
That is terrifying, Jeff. Stay safe and get a doctor to check that out stat. In the meantime, it’s good to know that leg redundancy was an effective design decision!
Yeesh! I’ve had moments where my leg has fallen asleep and I’ve nearly fallen over, my leg feeling like a wooden stump.
Conversely maybe the same animal panic when you’re grabbed two porcelain soup bowls and are halfway to the table when the burning heat hits you and you have the instinct to just let go!
One time I was moving fast in traffic on my bike, hopped in a very thin median at an angle, hit my brakes, but my old style front brake line hopped out of the pin and so didn’t work, which gave me a half second of sheer adrenalin when I thought I’d go head first into dense opposite side London traffic. But luckily the rear brake was enough with an extra squirt of panic pulling (my bike is so old, the friction is terrible, so it really is a horrible analog pressure system that needs extreme pressure for decent stopping).
Anyhoo… we should all be dead several times over, all things objectively looked at, but that is scary stuff… hope you come back on line, systems green!
Wow, that sounds scary indeed… I hope the doctors can sort it out for you Jeff! In the meantime though, I would advise you not to drive. Crashing into a barrier is one thing, but imagine not being able to stop at a pedestrian crossing or something…
Holy crap, that’s terrifying. I hope the doctors get you situated ASAP. I also agree; don’t drive until they do in case it’s a recurring issue, but bravo for having the wherewithal to avoid the crash.
Neuro sent me to emergency. The emergency room is swamped :( and I could be stuck in the waiting area for hours. Waiting to be checked in behind several drug addicts. One of them keeps falling sleep after every question. One said she’s here because she’s suicidal. 10 minutes later they get to the suicidal questions and she answers she’s not suicidal to all of them.
A lady who thought she was having a stroke just asked a nurse if she could leave because she’s been waiting 2 hours to be seen and hadn’t died, so she might as well go home. She’s obviously very irritated.
Jesus, JP. Scary stuff and glad you’re taking it seriously (although the ER sounds like something out of a bad 90s movie). Try to keep your sense of humor!
