Location: Crosstown Surgery Center
Time: 11 am
Arrive at: 9:45 am
was the referral from my surgeon
who reconstructed my right knee,
Dr. Mark Heller
Internist: Dr. Jennifer Hines
Procedure:
Arthroscopic surgery
of the reconstructed right knee
(9/27/12)
to clean out the scar tissue
, and then forcibly break the scar tissue
with a physical manipulation
- I will be strapped to the gurney to ensure my hip prosthetic
will NOT be dislocated.
The surgical center has agreed to play:
Charles Lloyd/Billy Higgins
” Which Way is East”
in the OR as the procedure is being done.
I will be under a general – which I detest!
So having my body “hear” Charles and Billy will be soothing
for my bodyMIND
- as scar tissue/adhesions are forcibly broken,
and
as my BODYmind is acted upon + traumatized.
The procedure itself, if all goes well, is under an hour.
I will put under with a general anesthetic
- which I detest due to childhood experiences.
This knee has been “worked” on!
Twisted around my neck at birth.
Untwisted by Dr. Mark Coventry,
my beloved guardian and artist/surgeon.
Worked on again after my assault in NYC
- when the meniscuses were torn during the assault.
And, then the total knee reconstruction!
And, here I am NOW
…and, unwilling to concede to < 90 degree flexion
Objective:
My reconstructed right knee was only able to achieve
less than 90 degrees post-op
with SIX months of targeted physical therapy.
In the OR the flexion was 110 degrees!
With this frozen degree, I am unable to drive,
climb stairs, bicycle, etc.
If, unsuccessful my mobility and independence
will forever be limited.
I am taking this risk to break through.
This is it!
Communication:
I had the carpal tunnel surgery on 4 February at the same facility
by Dr. Clare McCarthy:
CPS in BOTH hands!
My sacredwingart right hand received
the endoscopic release surgery first
- then the left hand will be done.
My fingers in my right hand are still numb.
No sensation.
Imagine after dental work and the anesthetic does not leave
and, you put your PEACH ME lipstick on without a mirror
- and, once YOU see a mirror you see that you made
a big PEACH ME circle around your mouth!
Classy.
Yes, my Stradivarius instrument is still numb,
no sensation.
It is easier and abets the healing process
to not text on my old decrepit BlackBerry.
Last week, I did my FIRST painting for Charles Lloyd
in celebration of his Ides of March,
75th birthday,
- my FIRST painting in SIX months!
Very, very challenging.
Guiding my hand with my eye.
My art is my breath.
Yet, musician Dan Choma and I are collaborating
on sonics
- which I am XXXcited about
and
feel blessed to discover a new vehicle!
My breath + expression + my body + soul is my art.
A relief.
Post-op:
Two weeks of daily physical therapy
and
six weeks of being on the Otto Bock CPM machine:
All you know the last few days were “staying on course”
to OBTAIN this machine.
The company refused because
my health insurance would NOT pay for it.
After talking with Laurenn Cano,
the executive at their headquarters in Tempe,
and
relaying my personal narrative,
health CARE v health COSTS v health PROFITS v HEALthy,
- they are providing the machine.
I thanked her for her company’s choice
for humanity
and
upholding human dignity.
Their sales rep came out Friday to measure,
adjust and train me on how to use the machine.
I will have to use this machine
every day for six weeks – 6 to 8 hours daily minimum.
PLEASE NOTE:
Excellent!
+
Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us
Brill’s Time magazine cover story, an investigation of billing practices,
reveals that hospitals
– and the executives who run them –
are gaming the system to maximize revenue
and sticking patients with bills
that have little relationship to the care that’s provided.
The free market in American medicine is a myth,
with or without Obamacare.
Time magazine’s managing editor Rick Stengel writes:
Why do we spend nearly 20% of our gross domestic product
on health care,
twice as much as most other developed countries,
which get the same or better health outcomes?
Why, Brill asks, does America spend more
on healthcare than the next 10
highest-spending countries combined?
… It’s a $2.8 trillion market, but it’s not a free one.
… Brill meticulously dissects bills and calculates the true costs
… right down to the 10,000% mark up that hospitals
put on acetaminophen.
… If the piece has a villain,
it’s something you’ve probably never heard of:
the chargemaster,
the mysterious internal price list
for products and services
that every hospital in the U.S. keeps.
If the piece has a hero, it’s an unlikely one:
Medicare,
the government program that by law
can pay hospitals only the approximate costs of care.
… According to Brill, there are things that can be done.
He argues that lowering the age of Medicare entry,
not raising it,
would lower costs.
And that allowing Medicare to competitively price
and
assess drugs would save billions of dollars.
Most of all, health care must be a market in which patients
can help control costs by understanding them better.
+
MSNBC
“Caught on Camera”
REVOLUTION
“…WHEN WALLS ARE BUILT, PEOPLE WILL TEAR THEM DOWN.”
Yes!
Spirituals
&
the need to tell/voice the truth!
Like true artists whose art must be free,
expansive,
call and response:
R/evolving.
No boxes.
Breaking through!
Creating
another genre
is a box that contains
and
illustrates the rules/conventions
of the new genre.
Love, hope, faith, freedom, compassion
are all energy,
and
cannot be captured, labeled,
boxed, branded, photographed,
frozen into a solid form.
Yet, one can see/sense/record
the effect of
love, hope, faith, freedom and compassion.
And, yes, one can see/sense/record
the effect of the absence/negation/repression
/suppression/loss/constriction
of love, hope, faith, freedom
and
compassion
It is all a choice.
It is in the moment
and
riding the edge of the next moment.
Courage.
Thank you for the majestic, deep, vast sea & sky love of
Sherrie, Rob,Stephanie, bothConnies, Aunt Anne,
Uncle Bob and Aunt Sharon,Holly and Jonathan,
Lisa,Lori, Mike, Justin, Dan,Richard,Jan, Justin
Jessie, Laura,Dan,Laura, Patty, Vanessa,Christa,
Carrie, Peggy, Donna, Lowell,Tim, Daide, rene,
bothAnnes, Jeff,Kath, Joey, Kip and Sharon,
Karen,Jessica,Cynthia,John, Steve, Michele,Matt,
Janet, Deborah & Keith, Henry, Nancy & Bob,
Ann,Charles& Dorothy,all 3 Robs
and
Jaspar Obi…
…and,
to the Russians who drive me
to all my appointments,
and to anyone I missed..thank you for you.
I have to be asleep and awake in 3 hours.
Sweet Dreams/Dreams Sweet
