This has been quite an eventful month, now drawing to a close. As many of you may know, we had an incredibly successful picnic. In so many ways it was exactly what I envisioned, but even more. From time to time I would just sit under a tree and look across to where the kids were playing with bubbles, where people were paddle boating and horse shoeing and volley-balling. Music was playing, people were chatting it up. It was a great gathering and I enjoyed every minute. From a fund-raising standpoint, it was also successful beyond my wildest dreams. I remain totally humbled by everyone’s generosity. Thank you all, for every minute, every day.
The Monday after I was exhausted. By Tuesday our houseguests who had come into town for the event were on their way home. By Thursday I was in perhaps the worst pain I can remember since the accident. Maybe worse. Afternoon doctor’s appointment, and I’m admitted to the hospital running a high temperature and delirious with pain. Being in the hospital was not necessarily the safest place for me, since most of the staff have little or no experience in dealing with a quadriplegic. The source of this pain and fever appeared to be that some form of staff infection had set in the pressure sore in my left elbow. This sore has been a chronic problem for me, and has been under the care of a special wound care nurse for going on close to two months. It seemed to be getting worse instead of better for a while, and was the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I was in the hospital for five days, and then on home bedrest. The combination of the intravenous antibiotics and the (now daily) treatment from the wound care nurse seemed to turn things around, and about a week and a half ago I started to feel better. My last day of IV treatments will be Wednesday this week. I’m feeling better, much better.
I went to Malibu today, to building and safety, and said hello to Craig George (chief building inspector), and to Roberta who issues the permits. She and her husband came to visit me in the hospital when I was at Craig. Something like they had a timeshare in Denver, and knew I was in the hospital there so they came to look me up. Anyway, it felt good to cruise into the office there and see familiar faces. Craig had an interesting suggestion for me about learning about the California accessibility program. Possible source of future work. The reason I had gone in was to track down the answer to a question for Dan, but I think the real reason was just to show up.
Some of you may also know that I’ve been suffering from pain and spasms ever since my release from the hospital a year ago. In the spring of this year I went back to Craig Hospital for a reevaluation, which revealed I have some posttraumatic buildup of scar tissue, and I’m a candidate for surgery to fix it. My insurance company originally denied preapproval for the surgery, and I spent several months composing (procrastinating) an appeal letter and gathering my backup information. Immediately after the benefit my friend John Robertson helped me with the final draft and I sent the appeal in to the insurance company. They actually received it while I was in the hospital a few weeks ago. The fantastic and slightly scary news, is that they have reviewed my appeal and reversed their previous position, granting me preapproval for the surgery. There are quite a few details to work out still, and I don’t know when I’ll have the surgery, but hopefully before the end of this year.
So there you have it.
Gratefully yours,
Larrydubey
PS — I would’ve loved to add pictures, but I just didn’t have my act together, and I wasn’t about to let that keep me from making a post.
