Holy cow ... my email box has been swamped tonight in response to this.

First of all, I want to say thanks for all the notes of concern and advice that I've received today ... I appreciate it.

I'll try to answer everybody's questions here

Been going to Physical Therapy for a while, and although it seemed to help with the everyday pain, I was still having lots of problems with the nerves, in fact, no improvement at all. Since August, when thing got really bad, my legs would often just forget they were there, an I'll fall to the ground in a heap ... sometimes 4-5 times a day.

The MRI showed the nerve canal was only about half the diameter it should be with the herniation compressing it. I haven't been able to feel my right thigh in over two years. The heriation is between L5-S1.

Actually Gooose, I am going to Swedish But I like Sparkey's idea of a Mud Pie over pickled herring any day of the week

Did a lot of research on this one before deciding to have it done. Fortunately, in this biz, you have lots of contacts and get to talk to lots of people when you need to.

Dr. Leyung from the Seattle Spine Group will be the surgeon. From those who check out the site's pix, one of my customers that you see on a regular basis, Chef Pete, had the same procedure done by Dr. Leung about 18 months ago and has seen very good improvement. He had several of his customers recommend the doc to him as well, so he seems to have a prtty good track record.

The PT will continue after the procedure and that's going to critical in the long term, but I remain pretty optimistic. I'm going to take 6 weeks off, work for a couple of week, then take another two weeks off after that when Fishgal and I go the Olympics.

As much as I hate them, I've already bought the sailboat riggings to put in a high-quality side anchor mount in the boat to keep me from having to twist and grab the anchor, and a new seat for both boats is being pursued as well.

Keeping my fingers crossed ... thanks again!