The Reed Report - Phil's Medical Journey

One thing that I love to do after I get home from a trip is to take a nice hot bath to relax my muscles. And that is exactly what I did. After my bath, I went to bed, but I could not sleep because of the pain that was going through my body. Because I found some relief during my bath, I decided to try again - but the second bath did nt help and I found, much to my dismay, that the pain was actually getting worse. One thing that I have not yet mentioned is that my wife, Denise, was in America for two months (from June 27th until August 28th) visiting and helping her parents. Once she was able to fly to the US (after some COVID restrictions were lifted in June), we got approval for her to fly home, bought round trip tickets, and she left. So here I am, early in the morning of my birthday, laying on the couch in agony. I start thinking what could be wrong with me and, as things go, it seemed that I could possibly have appendicitis. 56 is kind of old for that, I thought, but I feel like I h...

Me in April 2014 Every story has a beginning, though u nfortunately, my journey does not have a clear beginning.   In mid-July, I was at the best form of my life at almost age 56, with a lean weight of 172 (had been 254 in mid-2014). I did a chin-up for the first time in my life. And I was proud (in a good way) of my successes physically, though my life change also included taking better care of myself in every aspect of life. About that time, I started having lower back pains/issues and I could not figure out what I could have done to cause it. Like so many other people who sometimes suffer from low back pain, tried to seek relief. I did the things that I could do in Ukraine (massage with a little "chiropractic" adjustment, ibuprofen, etc.). Nothing seemed to help.  Meanwhile, life and ministry continued. I led my cell groups, preached, met with people, even played ping pong with a friend - all with a sore lower back. July 18-23, I was at a camp in another city where we slep...