<div>Hello Good Friends, Family and all...
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<div>I'm currently sitting in a hospital room at UCLA Hospital Santa Monica, LA, CA 90404. I arrived Saturday for a Monday arrival into the hospital. Tomorrow morning, <strong>my 50th surgery covering heart/vascular/abdominal/back and multiple joints that I've been battling since Nov 25, 2011</strong>. But - in stories that will be published shortly - you'll read them and how they go farther back than you can imagine.
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<div>Sorry for the crappy bedside pics but it's the best a lousy selfie taker can do!
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<div>Many of you who have followed my medical journey have not seen much about the destructive diseases outside the heart. What has been going on in several areas of my body, specifically my spine/back/joints, has been, in some cases, over 7 years and as little as 4 years...with incredible fury to areas of my lower back, facet joints of the L5/L4 (Spondylolisthesis &amp; Spondylosis) depending on the area of my back. The Spinal &amp; Joint Disease (Osteoarthritis) has done its devastating work tearing apart my left elbow, left-hand pinky finger (trigger finger), AC joints in left shoulder, and facet joint destruction from L4-L5; S1-S4 as well as L4 &amp; L5 intervertebral body endplate with Modic changes Type 1 &amp; 2.
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<div><strong>The trips to UCLA, flights, driving, hotels, airbnb's, food, travel to and from the hospital...etc, are not covered by insurance and these expenses are just financially crushing to someone in my position, whose barely been 'working from home' to get my body back into working full-time at some point and so on. </strong>
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<div>To cap off the physical dynamics of this set of 'genetic disease,' there is a tiny 'blood clot' or 'tumor' in the center of my L5 vertebrae with the spinal column filled with spinal fluid at the base, with subsequent swelling. There is no direct path to biopsy this or insert any surgical instrument to see if it's a clot or tumor. It is too dangerous and ultimately inoperable. Both spinal neurology and orthopedic doctors are running MRIs every so often to check to see if it does one thing - 'grow' and it's a tumor, 'shrink' and it's a blood clot. We are holding our breath deeply that it is shrinking.
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<div>Since September 2024, I have traveled to UCLA nearly 12 times, 4 surgeries and procedures to my back/elbow and for this major surgery, why I'm here for, the 'tumor' discovered 4 years ago and the damage and road to repair and recovery today.
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<div>The majority of these trips (April 2023) are to test my heart every 12 weeks with the Cardiac Heart Transplant team, which we are dealing with another, 2nd major issue of the heart - a 'double' major open heart surgery in a day... or so, it's extreme, it's the reason that brought me to UCLA in the first place.  I'll discuss this and more later on in my 'Journal Stories' which I'm starting to publish for you.. <strong> </strong>
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<div><strong>Each medical team and I pursue each medical challenge (new or old) with the basic's first, then increase options/treatments if the results to do not help or cure the issue - in many cases we know already that surgery is the only option, but we start from the basics, to gain strength and mobility, then move into Physical Therapy/Cardiac Rehab, along with analgesics, OTC's (if my body can take them) moving into injections and/or procedures with the doctors that are non-surgical to surgical but considered 'minor' and if the issue is still not resolved and my body is sliding backwards in this effort, we then move to first consulting and down the long road of surgery</strong>. Again, all these levels of disease are pursued until the pain management or responsible doctor's specialist team moves into 'injections' or 'non-surgical procedures,' and once all these steps are taken, usually over a series of years, we still go back for 1 more year of physical therapy and injections, etc. If and when that happens and still no results, then the team(s) look at surgical options of the lowest level and we proceed from there, this will usually take a year to two in regards to these procedures/surgeries and PT/Cardiac-rehab.
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<div>Back to why I'm here at UCLA and heading into surgery in a couple hours now... it was 'surgery tomorrow' but this was unfinished and testing always happens around the clock. This is the hardest and costliest of all the surgeries so far at UCLA. There are two damaged areas in my internal abdomen and lower groin area... 4 yrs ago a 'tumor' was discovered but was masked as a 'hernia' and almost impossible to find, but the radiologist found it, a hernia, possibly life-threatening, so surgery was scheduled quickly and I was under testing each week so the doctors could follow this, it was at Mayo Clinic, MN only when doctors were in surgery did they see the full extent of the damage and found this large tumor and my stomach/abdominal muscle detached from the pelvic cavity and had to take care of these two items. Unfortunately, the surgery was not a success and I was in critical to extremely volatile pain that basically followed the path above I just talked about... to this point here on 9/17/25 where I'm "T-Minus" a couple hours to lift off.
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<div>It's been extremely hard and costly to try and manage all these medical challenges and for the most part I've been trying to work to just pay a piece of the enormous medical and monthly expenses to just survive. This surgery is using the latest in 'robotics' and I'm extremely lucky to have one of the world's leading doctors in this type of surgery here at UCLA... which is crazy, because I thought I could cheat and go to another legend of a hospital next door so to speak... from a referral from my team back home. A wonderful doctor in his own right he basically said to me what I've known and all other doctors back home where surgery is the last resort - "No doctor or medical team will operate on you anymore" -- it's just to dangerous, my heart is not strong enough, and out of the near 6100+ hospitals in the US, I have about 100-200 I could go to. Without 'heart transplant' and 'heart pump' capability, then it's a no.
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<div><strong>For me, this year I've been here almost every month, 2 surgeries and 2 procedures along with today's surgery.   I need help, it's very hard to ask people for help when all you want to do is just be  independent enough to carry your own life and way.    SO many of you have put forward a financial giving to me and there are no words that can convey 'thank you' more than a million times over.  In the past years I've been able to eat, pay rent, by medical supplies and not be homeless because of the love, support and generosity you've given me to get through this.  Just the food/lodding/travel is well over $5000.    The bill estimate for this entire medical  extravaganza is: $172K - $306K...that depends on complications and/or if there is any further damage to the pelvic/abdominal cavity...(which insurance is going to cover 80-95% of, I'm so glad to have that help but everyday more and more of my insurance and benefits are being cut, and the burden is on me,  even at 10-20% of medical costs out of by pocket and then the 'doctor bills' which are not part of the coverage, it's still more money than I could manage in a year, and this is #4 since Sept 2024).  Without your help surviving and battling is nearly impossible -- thank you</strong>
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A 3rd critical surgery, 2 weeks, July 28…a continuation.

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A 3rd critical surgery, 2 weeks, July 28…a continuation.

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