Thomas L, Gaulden:  

Don't know how many of you remember me, but since I left Spain, I've spent most of my years in Texas. After high school graduation, I got my first real job, as a patient escort in the radiology dept of a local hospital. Instead of going to the Univ of Houston as I was expected to, I worked for a year(saving money for a car). Finally my parents convinced me to start college, and I attended Grambling State Univ. Had a couple of strong years, political science major, dean's list with plans to attend law school after my junior year. Then I met "her". By the time it was over, I was in scholastic ruin, and emotionally drained. I returned to Beaumont, Texas, and got a job as an orderly in the surgical dept of the same hospital I had previously worked for. Some of the doctors and staff members realized I had more potential than mopping the floor. They got me into an on the job training program as a surgical technologist. It turns out that I had an aptitude for this type of work. Eventhough I was strong in all of the subspecialties of surgery, I choose orthopedics as my own subspecialty and excelled in the field. I worked at that hospital for 10 years. I gained the attention and trust of an orthopedic surgeon who left his group, to form his own. He hired, and trained me to be a first surgical assistant. Over the following 15 years, I helped him form and develop one of the largest sports medicine practices in southeast Texas. One Saturday morning in early 2002, I awoke to the sensation of being stabbed between the shoulderblades with an icepick. The hand and wrist of my right arm contracted as if I had cerebral palsy. Tests showed that my spinal cord was pressed near to compleatly flat. I had been struggling the previous year with my fine motor skills but didn't know why, and hid it as best I could. I underwent a quickly scheduled cervical reconstructive surgery. The object of the procedure was to eliminate the possibility of cervical severance, and relieve the pressure on my spinal cord. I have many more good days than bad ones. As long as I listen to my body, and respect my limits, I have very few problems. I no longer work as an orthopedic first surgical assistant because the physical demands are too great. My fine motor skills are too inconsistent for the more delicate surgeries, so I re-entered the workforce once again as a surgical technologist. I have a 32 year old son from my f...Expand for more