A Special Message from Sequoyah

At this point, Saga of the Elizabethton Tarheels is being suspended, maybe to be reactivated at some future point. As much as I hate to do this, it is imperative that it be done. Perhaps a word of explanation is in order.

The past two years have been difficult. For sometime, I have been having back problems which were increasingly bad. Then a year and a half ago, my 90+ year-old mother's health finally reached the point where she could not longer care for herself. As a result, she moved in with my sister. My sister was on duty 24/7 and even with outside help, she was clearly suffering her own health problems as a result.  To help her all I could, I made the 650 mile round trip monthly to give her a well-deserved break. Needless to say, that was not good for the back. During that time, I was in physical therapy, seeing a chiropractor and trying new drugs with no improvement in my situation.

After my mother died, treatment intensified, but without  improvement. When I saw my primary care physician for a routine physical, he suggested referral to a different spinal care group. At the initial meeting to discuss my situation, the doctor said while I could continue with the therapies I was engaged in, I had done everything he could suggest without improvement and expected none with continuation. His suggest? Surgery.

By this time, my resistance to surgery was worn down and I had a spinal fusion with an expected 9 months to a year recovery time. Connection with the story? I had two problems—which explains why chapters have been, at times, separated by long time periods. First, and this had been a problems for at least a year, I found pain killers are also effective creativity killers. Second after surgery, my time sitting was severely restricted to no more than 20 to 30 minutes at a  time. That also is a creativity killer.

As if that was not enough, a severe and dramatic reaction to a drug being used to treat a prostate problem laid me low. While a temporary solution was found, the urologist suggested a procedure to reduce the prostate as soon as I had recovered adequately from the spinal fusion, which was done.

All looked good and then I had a fall. No permanent damage done, but I was back in physical therapy and with restrictions again.

So Justin, Marc and the Clan are presently living without their adventures being recorded. Again, I hope to catch up with them again, but it will be awhile.