Update from Rusty on November 3, 2024

Dear friends, 

     Thank you to all who have donated to my go-fund-me. Your generous support have encouraged me during these difficult days. 

      I'm home from rehab for my leg.

      It's so good to be here and to wake up in my own bed. I can see out the windows and hear the neighbors. In the Skilled Nursing Facility, I was often awakened in the night by people in other rooms calling out for assistance. It felt sad.

     Now, here at home, thanks to your support, I have a sweet and competent care giver named Lenise. We talk about books. She loves fiction and I do too. She makes my meals, which are terrific.

     Of course, the hourly rate for caregivers is so expensive. That's how it is in the SF Bay Area. That cost is, in part, because it's an agency that is licensed and fully bonded. Kaiser sends wound care people and PT. 

   They say I am doing everything I need to do, in order to heal. I'm so grateful to all of you for your extremely generous support. It means the moon & stars to me. ~rusty 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

I was walking home from the Tibetan Meditation at Gyoto Center on Monday, October 14th at around 8:00 pm. It was dark. I crossed the street and was stepping up onto the sidewalk when a car backed into me. The car knocked me down and fractured my tibia in several places in my left calf. I hit my head and badly damaged my left hand. I was virtually knocked out. An ambulance came and a police car, and they took me to Richmond Emergency.

I was then taken to Oakland Kaiser where they have the best surgeons, and I was in surgery much of the morning and afternoon on Tuesday. Once I was stable, they took me to a Kaiser rehab facility, but now they are sending me home on October 31st where I will need some home care on a daily basis.

Kaiser will send someone twice a week to check on me and give me PT. I still can't put any weight on my left leg, and so it's impossible to fully care for myself for the next two months or more. 

Your gofundme donations will give me the chance to have someone in my home to take care of me, to help me to be safe as I heal, to help me get out of bed, go to the bathroom, walk around with a walker and not to fall or to re-injure my leg.

As we know, caregivers are incredibly expensive in the Bay Area. Your donations will contribute to my at-home care as my leg recovers, beginning October 31st.

Thank you for any help that you can give.

rusty