E-mail update sent on April 26, 2002:

Hi, again,

More good news!

The next time you see me I should be walking on two feet!  I’m not smooth yet, and one ankle is awfully skinny, but I can stand and walk like I have not in almost 3 years.  I’m pretty excited.

A week ago I got my first prosthesis.  Adjusting to walking smoothly on it hasn’t been as easy as I had expected, but I’m learning.  The made me use a walker the first few days even though I was wearing the prosthesis.  Since I hate using that walker, I moved to a cane much quicker than my prosthetist, Anne, had recommended.  Yesterday, after walking on the prosthesis for a week, as I was leaving her office, she told me not to put much weight on the cane.  What I didn’t tell her was that I had been walking a little without the cane already.  Both devices have been a really great help over the last couple of years, but I’m ready to toss them both.  I’m told that I may have to use the cane from now on due to the lack on peripheral vision as a result of the loss of my right eye.  We’ll see.

I’m doing “gait training” three times each week at a rehab center in Fort Worth.  It turns out that the physical therapist at the rehab center knows my prosthetist (this was strictly coincidence) and this has been a really big help.  Both are fun people, great to work with, and both appear to be quite accomplished in their field.  This is just one more of the many blessings of which I keep saying I’m the recipient.

I’ve said before that I believe God has been extremely good to me.  I don’t have any delusions that I deserve such generosity, but I’m very appreciative that He chose me for this experience.  Over the last two and one half years, it’s been quite a ride and I’ve learned a ton about myself like what my limitations are and how I react to troublesome situations.  I’ve learned there’s nothing like being cared about and loved.  What a great time in life to learn that lesson!

I don’t want to bore you or to preach, but I’ll tell you that I believe this whole experience has been a benefit to me.  I thank God for allowing me to experience His care and love through some really fantastic friends and a wonderful extended family.  I have realized just how much I depend on other people for support despite having thought for years I was an independent person—an island, if you will.  One is never too old to learn he’s been pretty foolish for much of his life.  * grin *

In case you are interested—well, whether you are or not—I’m still not taking any diabetes medicine.  I check my blood sugar every day and, while it’s on the high end of normal, it’s still in the normal range.  I cannot tell you how thrilling that knowledge is to me.  I can endure seeing out of one eye, or walking with one leg shorter than the other, or even both, but the idea of giving myself a shot is one I don’t think I can deal with at all!  Back when they told me I could take medicine for the diabetes I was anxiously awaiting the announcement regarding how I would ingest the medicine.  Had they told me I had to give myself shots, I think I would have just hung it up right there! 

You wouldn’t believe how big a baby I was when I realized that to test my blood sugar, I had to stick my own finger.   I can do that easily enough now but there is a limit to what any man can endure!  Sticking myself with a needle would require a miraculous act of God, as the world has never seen.  Well, fortunately, I do not have to do that.  Thank you, God.

Okay.  I’ve rambled on long enough when all I really intended was to say I was walking and doing great.  Thank you for all your prayers, concern, love and care.  You are another great blessing God’s granted me.

 John