Four Years Ago

It began four years ago today.

I told the story so often back then that the dates tend to stick in my mind. Four years ago today I had a continuing education class down in Little Rock. On my way down to the class, I adjusted my watch and noted a spot with no feeling between my wrist and my thumb. I didn't think a whole lot about it, though I did worry at it most of the day, trying to figure out if it was supposed to be like that, I just hadn't noticed.

The class passed without incident and I drove back home. When I got out of the car, the back of my leg felt like it had cramped up, causing me to limp around a little bit.

I wouldn't walk normally for another four months.

Obviously, that's well in the past now. I still occasionally have people ask me if I had any long-term effects from the whole thing. Save for a little "dead spot" on my big toes, really not much at all. Thankfully, I seemed to have a mild case, though it didn't seem mild at the time. The more I've heard and read about it since then, though, has made me feel fortunate that I was able to recover as well as I did and as quickly as I did.

Still, with that whole Christmas season in 2005 shaded by trying to figure out what was wrong and what we were going to do about it, it's not too surprising that when the calendar flips to December, my mind tends to remember where I was that year and what I was doing.

And give thanks that I'm not doing it now.