Wednesday, July 15, 2009

A Tale of my Tail-bone

I've never broken a bone. So, today after my orthopedist found that I had a cracked coccyx, there was a mystery: I recalled no fall or blow, no auto accident. Here is what I came up with:
This past spring I began to have sweats. All tests found nothing; I cut my dose of Zoloft in half. That reduced the sweats, but my depression came back: my weight plummetted by more than 22 lbs.On June 7th we went to ballet. Lucy, our housekeeper drove and Yvette occupied the front passenger seat. I sat in the middle of the back seat of my Mercedes so that Irv and Sherry Kraft could sit on either side. It was a 10 minute ride to their house to pick them up; Sherry decided not to go so I was able to move off the middle section to sit on the softer side. At ballet I began have pain in my rump. It continued over the next 5 weeks. When the pain refused to leave, I sought help and the fractured coccyx came to light.
To put it all together: my loss of body fat exposed my lower back /coccyx and a 10 minute ride on the middle section of the back seat was enough to crack my tailbone.

Monday, July 13, 2009

An anniversary

Today I called Dr. Roy Sessions & wished him "Happy Anniversary." He laughed. "Which one?" Twenty-six. Yes, July 13th, 1983 is the date of my partial laryngectomy at Memorial Hospital in the Big Apple. I've called Roy every year to thank him for curing me of my laryngeal cancer and leaving me able to speak without an electronic device or through a tracheostomy opening. I've followed him (by phone) from New York to Washington,D.C., back to New York at Beth Israel and now in retirement at Hilton Head. He's writing a book on medical ethics in cancer surgery.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Fun in My Spare Time

I'm going through my photos, some as far back as 1982. Lots of interesting places: Grand Canyon in a rainstorm, bend of the Bow River (Canada), Scurlock Bldg Garage at 3:00am, interior view of a cone-like flower, dunes of gypsum, etc. Probably my biggest lesson was to learn that not every frame in a film cassete (36) was going to be a masterpiece, that I had to take frame after frame after frame to get the shot that would satisfy me. I learned something from every teacher: the first just said,"Take more," the last said, "Let's crop to make the print more interesting."
My world of photography has been replaced by bridge, also a stimulating, challenging pastime. It's more social because I have a partner and I have opponents, contrasting to picture-taking where I was alone with camera & tripod & light and my efforts to match Ansel Adams & other pioneers.
I wonder what I'll try next?