Devi Matangi

[Guest guest]

Hi Ralph:

 

At long last, I'm answering your question of three weeks ago -- I

didn't mean to ignore it; I think it's just been incubating in my

head, growing into something very big and grandiose, then shrinking

away to something almost invisible, and finally settling into

something that's probably pretty bland and mediocre. *lol*

 

As a reminder, you'd responded to a post I left (just click "Up

Thread") when I returned from a few weeks away due to illness and

emergency surgery and thanked the SS members who'd called or written

or prayed on my behalf (I am grateful still). You asked: "Can you

write us or me about the experience of what happened, how you felt

and how this is possibly related to your vision of Matangi?"

 

First, for the record, I want to stress that I claim no "vision of

Matangi." I take your phrasing to refer to my general conception of

Matangi, with the basic meaning, "How did your beliefs interplay

with events?" Or something like that? Is that fair enough?

 

Anyway, what happened is, I was doing some heavy lifting early in

March and I ended up with a backache that got progressively worse

really, really quickly. I'd never had any problem with lower back

pain, but people who had known such pain told me it would pass (it

didn't). I knew I was in trouble when I began to get tingling, numb

sensations in my legs. I went to a back specialist who took me out

of work, loaded me up with pain killers and muscle relaxants and

prescribed a month of back-specific physical therapy.

 

Unfortunately, the drugs had no effect. The next day I called the

doctor to tell him the pain was getting worse not better, and he

basically told me to grin and bear it. By evening I'd lost the

ability to walk; when my wife came home, she found me non-

responsive, apparently going into shock. She called the ambulance

and they carried me off. Nora telephoned from the other side of the

world in the last moments before I lost consciousness!!! Decent

timing that girl has, eh? As my sister SVU she knows exactly when

I'm in trouble; as a registered nurse, she knew exactly what advice

to give: get to the hospital!

 

By morning, I'd lost all feeling from the waist down; it was pretty

terrifying. I was admitted, and stuck into an MRI tube. The end of

the spinal column (L4/L5 area) was totally blocked. My case was

taken over by a neurosurgeon who correctly diagnosed that I did not

have a back condition, but rather a spinal cord disorder called

Cauda Equina Syndrome (http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/fact/thr_report.cfm?

Thread_ID=285&topcategory=Spine ).

His diagnosis was (quite literally) a godsend -- so that's where

Matangi first comes in, from my point of view. The neurosurgeon was

preparing to finish his shift when he was shown my MRI. He

immediately canceled his evening plans, rearranged the operating

room schedule and rushed me into pre-op; he ended up working on me

until 9:30 pm. As I subsequently learned, CED almost always results

in permanent damage to or loss all bowel/bladder function, and very

frequently causes paraplegia -- every second truly counts in

minimizing or avoiding these effects.

Even as it was, when I woke from surgery I still had minimal

sensation from the waist down. But gradually everything came back,

with time and physical therapy; the principal lingering damage in my

case is currently centered on my hip-stabilizer muscles and a loss

of muscular control in my left leg, mostly from just below the knee

down to the toes. Happily, both feeling and functionality are slowly

but steadily returning, and my PT's predict that I will be largely

back to normal by the beginning of summer.

 

With CES, the odds against such a complete recovery are pretty

astronomical, mainly because the syndrome is little-known and is

often misdiagnosed as garden-variety back injury until it is simply

too late to reverse the damage (even a few days' delay can be

catastrophic); so while the neurosurgeon's quick action did not

quite save my life, it most definitely saved my *quality* of life in

a profound way. This too I attribute to Matangi.

And that would be the nature of my reply, I think. I would imagine

that Matangi sees me as a well-meaning but somewhat muddleheaded and

underfocused devotee, and She (in the most loving and motherly way,

of course) gave me a right kick in the arse to wake me up, knock me

out of whatever rut I was in, push me toward greater clarity and try

to help me sort my priorities. Did it work? I dunno. It seems I may

have been pushed a little further in the right direction. They say

that slow and steady wins the race, and I hope it is true ... but

these events certainly seem to have speeded things up a bit.

 

Thanks for asking. ;-)

 

aim mAtangyai namaH

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Dear Friend,

Really you are loving son of Maa.You have suffered a lot, Now the days for

new life. remember that you born again with grace of Maa.

 

VIJAY PATEL

UREA-1 PROD.

SUR,Sultanate of Oman

GSM : 0096892390493

 

 

 

 

 

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