Pat has decided to go ahead with his release surgery. He said that he has reached the point that he has to do it. or he is not going to be able to function. His scars are so tight right now that his chest is drawn down so much he is becoming hunchbacked and his neck is so constricted he cannot move his head. To look right, left, or up he has to move his whole torso.
He has one big job lined up which i think he said was going to take 2 months. This job involves about 900 feet of crown molding which he says is hard for him to do. Hmmm, perhaps if he could look up…. He is going to try to schedule the surgery for right after this job ends. He has made an appointment for the preliminary exam.
The surgery should be free. There is an agency that pays for medical procedures for people who have financial need and will not be able to continue to work without said medical procedure. Problem is after the surgery he has to be able to support himself for a year while he heals. He will have to wear an elastic thing that is hot and so confining that movement is almost impossible. He has to wear this garment all the time. He says that if he takes it off for even as little as 10 minutes (like to shower) he can tell that the scars have begun to constrict and that letting the new scars constrict not only means thicker tighter scar tissue, it also means slower healing. He is going to look into social security temporary disability but even if he is able to get some help it is not going to be enough to meet his expenses.
Heavens he is barely making it now. He was telling me that he bought a pound of hamburger this weekend so he could make the boys some hamburger helper. Meat is a real treat for them. He said he has not bought beef in over a year because it’s so expensive. Usually he eats “treat” which is sort of like spam but not as expensive. Now, he does, he says, stop and grab a burger at burger king sometimes when he has a little money and is tired after working all day and does not have the boys… or when he does have the boys to give them a treat. So, he assures me, he does get his meat.
He has been trying to come up with a way to supplement his income for years, but now he needs a way to support himself without un-air-conditioned physical labor, maybe some sort of online business. It would be nice if he could find something he could do that he could continue to do after he goes back to work so he could supplement his income.
Of course what he would love to do is find a way to market his art… but he would be willing to do most anything.
I have been reading online about online businesses and becoming more irritated by the second. I hate hype!!!! Unfortunately i think Pat is vulnerable to hype. I am a skeptic. As i read i am looking for the ulterior motive, rolling my eyes and trying to skip ahead when they pause (frequently) for hype. Pat seems to take people at their word even when there is no reason to trust.
Thing is, i know that some people make a pretty good living selling. (Possibly some people really are rolling in wealth, but all i want for Pat is a pretty good living.)
I wish i had a clue how to sift out the legitimate business opportunities… how to find something that Pat could do.
You know those sellers who sell DVDs on ebay for example… there are so many of them, but some, at least. have to be doing ok. How does one find a good company thru which to work? How much could one really, reasonably, expect to sell?
Sigh……… I wish i had a clue where to find this sort of info.
I have wished to find it for myself and tried to look any number of times, but i have never been able to get past the hype. I HATE hype!!!! Spend much time telling me how great it could be and i am outta there…
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looking at categories (which i usually forget to do). Is news like national news or is it family news?
Let’s see …..
1, I am glad Pat is going to have this done and I’m glad there’s a way to pay for the procedure itself. It is so long overdue, it will be worth the upheaval
2, wow, what a long recovery. That sounds really really uncomfortable. I remember when Judy had some leg work done and had to wear compression hose for 6 months after; she hated it. This sounds like the same concept only much worse. I take it he’s familiar with it? Wonder if that makes it an easier or harder thing to face.
3, online businesses; have you talked to Ann? I’d recommend her as a resource, someone who started up an e-bay business and has reached a fair level of success with it. Of course, they have the double income that has let them get through many months where the e-bay business wasn’t … but still, I’d recommend her as a resource.
There has GOT to be something around there .. custom cabinetry, something. I wish we lived closer to Florida or he lived closer to us .. closer to where any of us are. Just have no idea what there might be in Florida. But there just has to be something.
The procedure overdue… Pat is supposed to have this release every 10 years. It has been, i think, 18.
The recovery… yes it is long. Pat’s scars are over a large part of his body and they are deep. Maybe that is why it takes so long, or maybe it takes that long for any burn scars to heal. I don’t know. I have wondered if the release will be more complex since he is more constricted. I doubt if the number of cuts will make a difference in recovery time, though. I do worry about his health and ability to heal. According to Carrie he is very skinny and according to him he doesn’t eat right. Carrie, Nathan, and I are getting him some sort of super supplement that Nathan and Carrie believe in and Pat, who knows that he is in bad nutritional shape, seems to be happy about it.
Another of the things Pat has been having trouble with over the past few years is chest pains. He thought he had a heart attack a while back and went to the hospital. They checked his heart and said it looked good. He and i were talking the other day and he said that he wondered if his chest pain is because of the constriction. I hope so. He also has those shocks when he falls asleep; those can cause the heart to stop. He has said that he thinks the shocks are what are going to get him. Heavens, just lack of sleep is hard on the body.
I think sometimes about how i would feel if i could not move. How stiff i would get if i could not arch my back and twist freely, could not move my head to the right, left. or up, could not lean my head to the right or left, could not even sit up straight…
Custom cabinetry is what he does… sort-of. He does finish carpentry which includes building custom cabinets as well as stairs and molding and all. The problem is he cannot work in the heat while he wears this wrap. It will cover his whole torso. Pat has already lost the ability to sweat over much of the main sweating areas. He has to carry a spray bottle to simulate the cooling of sweat. Wearing this hot garment will make the whole sweating and cooling issue worse.
There is also that his movements are restricted. He will be physically unable to move enough to do what he does.
He says he can do his art, though, and intends to put an art table where the dining room table belongs. It is unfortunate that he can’t make a living with is his art. It is frustrating too, since he is so good.
I had not thought about asking Ann about a net business. You are right that she is someone we know who has experience.