Sabrina,

I have always been a bit claustrophibic. When I was in grade school several of us decided to crawl into a big sewer pipe and see where it went. It kept getting smaller and branching off yet into smaller pipes. Eventually we were crawling on our stomachs in pitch black. I had several people behind me and suddenly the pipe filled with water. I was kicking trying to get out wondering if I would drown before they realized I was under water. We crawled backwards just as I gasped for air, my heart pounding. I didn't think much about it after that but as I got older, my fear of confined space has gotten greater. Three years ago I flew to Japan for the first time since 1960 and we went from Dallas to Washington DC to pick up my youngest son, on to Chicago and then to Tokyo. We were flying for about 17 hours and about 3 hours into it, I just about freaked.

Do you think I was a bit tense with my head latched down and barely able to breath and swallow? I tried to play it cool but I questioned everyone as to what would happen if I started choking on the thick, long, stringy, brown goo. Pants or no pants, you were a bigger man than I laugh when they kept you constrained while they did the Bill Gates Microsoft standard support "reboot". I almost had to go outside of the house and walk around thinking about it!

Hang in there, it is almost time to pass go and progress on to the next phase of your journey.

Ed

SCC Stage IV, BOT, T2N2bM0
Cisplatin/5FU x 3, 40 days radiation
Diagnosis 07/21/03 tx completed 10/08/03
Post Radiation Lower Motor Neuron Syndrome 3/08.
Cervical Spinal Stenosis 01/11
Cervical Myelitis 09/12
Thoracic Paraplegia 10/12
Dysautonomia 11/12
Hospice care 09/12-01/13.
COPD 01/14
Intermittent CHF 6/15
Feeding tube NPO 03/16
VFI 12/2016
ORN 12/2017
Cardiac Event 06/2018
Bilateral VFI 01/2021
Thoracotomy Bilobectomy 01/2022
Bilateral VFI 05/2022
Total Laryngectomy 01/2023