So when did things turn really bad?

Other than the hip replacement my health has always been pretty good. Considering the extent of the stenosis the doctor wondered if there had been some kind of precipitating event. The only thing that comes to mind is a very hard fall I took about 10 years ago.

My wife Heather, and I were vacationing in Portugal, and I was the last in a line of tourists exiting a large motor coach tour bus at a place of interest. My old running shoes, the bottom, worn smooth and hard, slipped off the steel top step at the rear exit, both feet went straight out in front of me and there I was, falling belly up in perfect V position, out the exit door. I caught the bottom steel-edged step, about 2 feet down, right across the lower lumbar area of my spine.

It hurt like hell for a few days and the bruise lasted a few weeks, but there didn't seem to be any long term effects at the time. The really remarkable thing about the fall was that I remember very clearly, falling in what seemed slow motion. I was completely aware of what was happening to me and having time to examine two distinct thoughts that sprung to mind. One was OK, now I'm falling - I hope I don't kill my self and can walk away from this.

The second thought, seemingly much more important than my physical well-being relates to what I was doing just before I slipped. That is - I was holding my new (expensive at the time) digital camera in my hands. When I slipped, my hands, along with the camera flew up into the air in an instinctive but futile effort to regain my balance. The net effect was that my camera was flying up and out of the bus ahead of me, like a little comet with the strap trailing behind.

The second and most important thought was something like "Geez, I have to save my camera!" As I was approaching my landing, the camera, trailing the strap was plummeting toward the ground just ahead of me. In a desperate but extremely lucky move I snapped my legs together on the strap, catching it in mid air between my ankles. I bounced off the bottom step and landed on the pavement with my feet still out and up, and the camera dangling by the strap a few inches off the ground.

Since most of the rest of the tourists were waiting for the last passenger, me, to get off the bus before the tour began, they were looking in my direction. Several people applauded and when I could finally stand, patted me on my shoulder and commented on what a fantastic save I had made. Unbelievable! I was happy and could almost forget the pain for a while.

All was good, for several years.