My Post Navy Life
After being discharged I eventually moved back to Jacksonville. I attended the spring term at what was then FCCJ. I was diagnosed with a peri-rectal abscess. This was the second. The first happened in late 1974 while I was on active duty. I was admitted to the VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida. While there recuperating from the surgery to drain this abscess I had a nervous breakdown. I spent 77 days at the VA Medical Center. I was discharged and returned to Jacksonville to stay with my parents.
My physical problems were becoming worse and I now needed to use leg braces and crutches to walk more than a few steps. I took the Civil Service Examination and was hired as a clerk-typist at The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). After being at OSHA for approximately 120 days I applied for a position at the Internal Revenue Service.
While working for the Internal Revenue Service I became heavily involved in wheelchair basketball and doing road races in a wheelchair.
I had been in and out of the hospital with several peri-rectal abscess. This eventually led to my getting a permanent colostomy and because of urinary incontinence I also had a urostomy. My father had developed a brain tumor. It was diagnosed in April 1985 and he died August 15, 1985. A week after my father's funeral my mother had quadruple by-pass surgery. About the time she got over that they found an aneurysm and she needed surgery to repair the artery. She never got any better. She sold her house and bought a patio home in Gainesville to be near my sister and her grand-daughter.
I applied for a position with the Milwaukee District Internal Revenue Service Appeals Office in Milwaukee, WI. While I was up in Milwaukee my mother died. I came home for the funeral and my youngest sister convinced me to come back to Jacksonville. I returned to Milwaukee and put in for a hardship transfer back to the IRS in Jacksonville. I really liked my job with the IRS Milwaukee Appeals Office and regretted leaving Milwaukee.
The spasms I kept getting from a spinal cord disorder of unknown origin kept getting worse. Everything had been tried to control them. Nothing worked. After talking to neurosurgeons-surgeons I was given two options. The first was to cut the spinal cord at the T-6 level or amputation as an alternative. I opted to be short and functional rather than tall and have no feeling in my behind. My legs were amputated on September 6, 1990 and I left the hospital to come home on September 10, 1990.
Thus ends another segment of my life.
Copyright 1998 by Denise Anne Fell© updated December 31, 2001