05-JUL-A-3

DOMESTIC DERWOOD DETAILS AND DIAGNOSTIC WORK-UP OF LUMBAR DISABILITY

WHILE MAKING MAJOR PURCHASES FOR FILLING IN GAPS IN THE HOUSEHOLD AND YARD

WITH NEW FURNITURE—JUST IN TIME FOR THE HURICANE SEASON’S LEFTOVER TROPICAL RAINSTORMS TO DRENCH THEM

July 8, 2005

I have continued the domestic chores around Derwood, with the arrival of several new purchases to add to the planned filling in of the empty spaces. The Weston Park Bench with the deer motif of cast iron and seasoned wood arrived. It was assembled with care and placed in the shady spot in the front of the house overlooking the alcove where the hammock is—an ideal spot to have morning coffee—if ever I were so leisurely, and watch the deer that are already “decoyed” in the wrought iron images on the backrest. It was up only a few minutes before the torrential overnight rain hit and washed around all the branches and downfallen twigs; but it seems to have held up well under this with its own innate weatherproofing. I am glad I got that part put up after planning that a long time.

I have gone to Hecht’s company in Lake Forest, lured by their semi-annual sale of mattresses and later, beds. First I had a decision to make about the master bedroom, should I get a king size bed or a Queen, like the one in the guest bedroom? It would seem that I could use the same sets of bed linens interchangeably if I had both of them as Queens, so that is what I would do in any event. In the opposite direction are the facts that both King and Queen Size beds will be on sale for the same prices, although there is an atrocious difference in price for the mattresses and bedding. The king mattresses are already in three pieces, although the queen size come in their sale price as two piece. The last time I had bought a two piece mattress set up with the box mattress being delivered by Hecht’s, they could not make the turn up the stairs to get it into the room, so I had to send it back and buy a split box spring for a surcharge. Moreover, in the coming and going of the Hecht delivery truck, the new mailbox was taken out twice!

So, I resolved on getting the queen largely for its interchangeability with what I had already bought with that sleigh bed for the guest room quite recently. I had also planned to add to it to get a split box spring. There was a sale on the “Bed in a Box” that I thought might do for the master bedroom, but the one for just exactly the right color and scheme was a set that was not on sale, so I had to spring for its full price. The beds that were on sale are just beyond what I had wanted, so I found one I really like which is called the vintage, with leather headboard and a modified foot board not quite at sleigh level, although it cold be custom fitted for that with an extra charge. So, if I order the bed ahead of the sale period, and buy the mattresses now, and use the new Hecht’s charge card on which my first purchase is a ten percent discount, I will wind up with a very nice bed getting the full kit of mattresses and bed as well as bed in a box linens for about what the price of it was before the sale. So, I have just returned from Hecht’s after carrying home a flounce from the bed in a box set to see if it fit the “Primrose Sprig” colors of the master bedroom paints and the oriental them of the art works I have put there for my travels. I will charge all the purchases tomorrow when I go through Hecht’s in packing out to go to the Killet’s, where Robert and Mary Killet are the husband and wife team of SCI “Master Measurers” who had come to my house before and after the remodeling to measure the sheep on the first visit and to measure the elk and Siberian stag on the second. Now, I will go up to their place in Sykesville to tour their game room just being completed, and compare notes, as well as have the wolverine measured for the SCI trophy books.

I have decided that the new oak pedestal mounts that I had had custom made for the Game Room, one of which will hold the red fox full mount which is being fitted on the pedestal now, and the other the wolverine, getting him up and off the coffee table—that the two big pedestals are heavy and decorative all right, but they occupy too much nonfunctional space. So, even thought they have been custom made as great looking pieces of furniture, I will have a door cut in the front of each with shelves, and maybe a glass front, for display of the skulls and a rack for the photo albums of the hunt. This would make the large and heavy oak pedestal mounts into more than just pedestals, but make them into functional pieces of furniture as well.

SO MUCH FOR EXPENSIVE NEW FURNITURE:

NOW, WHAT ABOUT EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE STUDIES OF MY

PERSISTENT LOW BACK PROBLEM?

So, this just described the yard and its park bench, the master bedroom, now finally getting a bed and beddings, and the Game Room new pieces. What have I done to spend more money on me to redecorate and make me more functional? I had already told you of the decorative parts: I went through the Zoom teeth whitening processes, but it made my teeth much more sensitive, with occasional little surprises of pain. I have been nearly disabled from the kinds of things I must do often—stand around, as in museum going or guiding a tour, or worse, making rounds. I can run, climb, and walk fast, anything that has an aerobic part to it and a slight leaning forward. Coming downhill or downstairs, or just trying to stand up right with out the flexion of the back and the stretching of the left hip and buttock makes for pain. I can then feel my left leg radiate the S-1 radiculopathy and have to stop to stretch it out and cause the lumbar lordosis to come back in. Finally, I decided to go to see a rheumatologist to se if there were any more things I should or should not be doing (with the exception of stopping running, which I do not think would be a good idea at all!) I talked with David Bornstein, who directed the spine center here at GWU until seven years ago when he pulled out into a private office on K Street. So, I went to him on the appointment I had made and he examined my back and agreed that I should have an MRI to see if I have a lumbar stenosis, or just the facet pain on the left or a foraminal insufficiency which is giving the radiculopathy. So, when the MRI was ordered, the WRA –DC office said, “Could he come today?” To my surprise, within the hour I was being rolled into the tight seclusion tank of the MRI magnet.

It is not an experience for those who are claustrophobic or who might freak out in the sensory deprivation of being wheeled into a cylinder close in over their heads with loud clanking sounds as the magnet reverses for seven minute periods re-done for forty minutes. Fortunately, I rather like the cocoon existence of being in small covered spaces, and can Yoga-out for long periods neither breathing deeply nor moving much. I had a suspended animation and a little nap as the clanging of the MRI proceeded and never moved. The technician said they rarely see that and spend most of their time trying to calm down freaked out patients, but that I seemed to be enjoying it. So, in a few days I return to David Borenstein with my expensive lumbar MRI to see if I should be doing anything other than ignoring it and muddling through for another decade of long endurance running and stops for periodic stretching when I have to stand for long periods in idleness without the ability to flex and bend forward.

MEETING WITH JOHN HOWE, CEO OF PROJECT HOPE,

AND FORMER PATIENT OF MICHAEL GEELHOED, PT,

WITH GWUMC CEO, SKIP WILLIAMS,

AND INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL PROGRAMS

DIRECTOR, UDA AYAS

Michael had introduced me to his former patient, John Howe, who was then CEO and president of the UTHSCSA, and is now Project HOPE CEO. I met with him the day I left for Sudan, and suggested that he come to GWU to meet with us in collaborative projects we might undertake together. I had earlier read and edited Huda Ayas’ proposal for studying cultural diversity among the students who were going to be going with me to Haiti right this month, as she had accompanied me before last year and had seen how this might make an ideal study for her ELDP program, one year ahead of mine. The US State Department had pulled the plug on this year because of the political instability of the Haitian status just now, so that made her already approved proposal hang up for lack of a large number of beginning medical student s as we can have only during the summer of the break between freshmen and sophomore years. She suggested that if it has to be next year before the next summer of that first year group of medical students is obtained, perhaps we might do a joint study with a different aspect that I am looking into than the cultural diversity sensitivity that she is pursuing, and the project has already gone through the IRB so it would not have to wait a second time for clearances. This might be a good idea.

John Howe was very flattering and said a lot of nice things about Michael in his treatment and about me in what he had learned of the projects I had led. He congratulated Skip Williams and the GWUMC on having someone like me out in the world for them. He showed the projects that HOPE had been working on after the Tsunami, and also in starting a children’s hospital in Basra Iraq, as well as in Shanghai. I believe we can work out an ideal collaboration and will host him and his vice president at a later time as we go over the sixth floor of the GWU Hospital’s education unit and introduce them to Jean Johnson who is Dean of Allied Health. So, we will work that out in the next weeks before I leave for Eritrea.

I just got a note form George Sevich who asked if I would be interested in going to Kyrgyzstan to hunt Ibex on a cancellation he has had for a hunt there in the next two weeks just before I leave for Eritrea? I will see if he is around this weekend and we may have to talk further on this! Besides, I have been inviting him to come to see the Game Room and realize that there is not a lot more room to add many more specimens!

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