Happy Easter everyone! As we head into Easter this weekend I thought I’d take the time to put up a post before we head to the lake. Like always we will be headed out to our cottage to spend the Easter holiday with family out there! I’m looking forward to being out there with family and don’t really want to be at home in the city because we are having new floors installed while we’re at the lake.

I’m writing this post tonight with a bit of a heavy heart. This week I found out that the surgeon that’s been responsible for my care over the last couple of years passed away suddenly on Sunday night. Words don’t really explain what he did for people suffering from chronic pain over the years. Dr.K.Kumar was a world renowned neurosurgeon who had been recognized through numerous awards for his achievements in the field of neurosurgery including the Order of Canada in 2009. He will be missed by many not only in the medical community but by those of us who he has helped in trying to deal with our various issues of chronic pain. Over the time that he was my doctor he did a lot to help with my CRPS.

I can still remember the first time I went in for surgery to get my first implant. At that point I still wasn’t sure if I was making the right decision or not in getting the implants. He came to my bed before the surgery and I still remember him grabbing me by the arm and saying to me “we’re going to try give you back a quality of life you haven’t had in a long time”. Those words really stuck with me and for the first time I really saw how much he cared about me as a patient. At that moment I knew that God was putting me in the hands of a surgeon that was going to make a difference, when up until that point nobody had been able to help me at all. I had been going back and forth in my head should I do this or not. In that five or ten minutes before the surgery talking to him there was a calmness and peace that I had that this was right! It wasn’t him saying all the right things, it was the look he had and how sincere he was about what he was saying. You could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes!

I feel very blessed that I was able to get treatment from someone with such skill and so much knowledge in his field. Last May after my most recent surgery he informed me that it was time to slow down, and that he would be retiring so he put me in the care of a new neurosurgeon. There were a few mixed emotions because its hard to leave a doctor when you know your in such good care. Sure there were times when I didn’t agree with what he was saying but I had to take a step back and ask myself who the expert was! Not me that’s for sure! Twelve hour days in surgery followed by other countless hours in his office after that showed just how much he was dedicated to his patients. I can remember my first appointment and seeing him in his office at eight o’clock at night. A doctor at the hospital I’d been seeing called him and without hesitation Dr.K.Kumar said send him down I’ll stay and see him. There was no clock in his head! It truly showed his level of dedication to his patients and the field of neurosurgery.

A couple of years ago I was hardly walking and he was the reason that I can walk without a cane today. Even though my CRPS is still affecting my life in a lot of ways he made a big difference and gave me a quality of life that I didn’t have before. When I met him for the first time that was what he said he’d do for me! He told me point blank that there wasn’t a cure for my CRPS but that he could make a difference in how I could live my life. Dr.K.Kumar will be missed!