Can You Say "Staph" Infection??????? And Observations From A Year On Here......*

Well, my life as an ongoing medical experiment and curiosity here in Paris continues with the follow up visit I had with my Plastic Surgeon (I'm now followed by 4 doctors here) who informed me casually yesterday that the pathology results from my wound he re-opened a week ago indicated that I had a Staph Infection which sort of freaked me out and for the first time I became a bit adversarial with him. I'd been trying to tell various doctors including 2 of my other doctors about lump on the side of my leg for over a month including an emergency room visit follow up with my Internist both who informed me that it wasn't an infection but scar tissue even though it was swollen and hurt in ways that made me walk like an old man. Going forward, I'm to be just that......FORWARD in all aspects of my care here even if it goes against the party line. Don't get me wrong here, overall my care here has been very good but this infection could have been stopped over a month ago if someone had listened to me. Lesson learned..........* Nuff said about that topic. Suffice to say I'm being nuked with MAJOR anti-biotics presently that will clear whatever ails me up in short order.

Now some notes and observations on living here for over a year now which hopefully be followed by Cassie and the twins in separate entries.

1. You can't ever be in a hurry here although all of the locals endeavor to do so. There's a way things are done in the rest of the world and then there's France. Nuff said.....*

2. Some neighbors are always going to be assholes and that's the way of the world here too although we've met some lovely folks in our building which has been great.

3. The food and wine is BETTER than advertised and for the most part French people are quite pleasant and easily approachable. We love it here and will be hard pressed to leave when the time comes.

4. Paris is a VERY NOISY city although living right next door to a small hospital doesn't really help much. We do however love our apartment and wouldn't change if for the world. Now if one could just get rid of all of the scooters.

5. Lastly, it WAS a great idea for us all to come. Everyone is doing so well including the twins who are more independent here than they ever were in Lynchburg. They've really blossomed here and are all the better for the experience. Cassie has done so well with her new position and gained so much confidence it's a real marvel to see her and be around her now. What a transformation I've witnessed since we first started living together over 26 years ago! Pretty cool! And my audio mastering business is starting to get going here with the upcoming album project by the all American Country Rock Band from Berlin named "Modern Earl" who came to me through my friendship with Liane Edwards and her band who's "Branded" album I remastered last Summer for them.

Pretty cool stuff.............

That's all for now........

A bientot,

Sid

Gary Snow, The First Salon, And More Fun As A Medical Experiment

I know I indicated that I'd write more and here I am almost a month down the road. We've had guests galore, Oslo and Gaia, Gary Snow and his daughter Jessie and her fiance Joshua and hosted our first "Music Salon" with a rare Purveyors performance (Gary played with us while we were in Iowa...) that included our new friend Andy Guthrie in front of 30 plus people in our living room here that was was a huge success. There just hasn't been enough time to actually sit and write anything until this morning. Our next group of guests arrive on the 5th of April and then again later that month. We are planning to get a trip to London in sometime very soon and the twins are going to take the Summer off from College this year so we can do some traveling. More on that as it develops of course with pictures as they become reality.

After some success treating my illness (Dermatomyositis) with steroids and other things my docs were pleased and reduced the amount of steroids I've been taking (GREAT!) but the biopsy site on my right leg started swelling about 3 weeks ago to the point I became alarmed and went to the ER at the American Hospital here and they looked and proclaimed it not infected (Good) but it HURT a lot and about a week later saw my Internist who I showed it to and he said it was scar tissue and that I would probably be "ugly" on the beach this Summer (hahahahahahahahaha). It still hurt though and I saw my Dematologist who doesn't have a good poker face and he was unhappy and proclaimed it to be "un-natural" and told me it would have to be "opened up" to be cleaned out.......which happens this Friday at 2. My appointment yesterday also addressed scaly skin on my scalp (new development) and the return of some of my rashes (Geeeeeez........) with the accompanying itching and discomfort which now brings me to a whole new drug regimen that as a bonus includes weekly blood tests to measure levels of the auto immune suppressant drugs I will be taking. Whenever I show up at my local pharmacie here with my multiple sheets of prescriptions there's always a stir as the ladies all gather around and of course not many Americans frequent it so English becomes fractured but we always get to yes and they are all very sweet and caring. I can say with certainty though that Friday I'm not leaving the "Petit Chuigerie) until the doc gives me a scrip for prophylactic antibiotics. I'm not gonna go through that again.

That's all from here for now. More later.

Love to all,

Sid

Follow Ups

Thursday began my round of follow up appointments with all 3 of my Docteurs here with more blood being drawn and this morning my appointment with my Internist Dr. Khayat who was pleased with my progress and took me off one of my meds and told me to eat more salt. Good news and certainly welcome for me and mine here.

Next week is follow up with Dr. Zyberberg and Dr. Usdin with another Echo-cardiogram. And it continues......

I've lost essentially one and half pant sizes but that really translates into one for now. I'm down to 2 pairs of pants until my new ones come from the states but I'm enjoying that.

More later on......

Sid

If It Wasn't For Bad Luck

I know I haven't posted in many weeks. At the beginning of the year there was a whirlwind of activity here that included some pretty major oral surgery for me and of course the twins started a new quarter at Strayer which also resulted in Kian getting a less than responsive professor who started giving him zeros for assignments he didn't think were submitted correctly and Cassie traveling and naturally back at work.

All this time and in the months starting back in September I'd noticed a rash on both my hands with bumps that were hard to the touch and thought it was the hard water here and my washing dishes without gloves on. Various friends here recommended lotions and creams and although they felt good, the rash remained. Right about the time of my oral surgery I'd then developed a rash around my lower torso and on my arms which after the surgery spread to my stomach and my face looked like I'd been sunburned. The rashes were very uncomfortable and cause a lot of skin irritation and itching and that in turn started to keep me from sleeping much at night. On February 8th I called the American Hospital here in Paris and got an appointment with a Dermatologist named Louis Zylberberg. He saw me that afternoon and all I can say is that he should never play poker as his face showed alarm and he wanted to take pictures of where all of my rashes were and then sent me to the lab for blood-work which was 13 vials all at once! He wanted me to come back the following day for a biopsy at 10:30. Pretty much immediately after I arrived the next day and entered the small surgery suite Dr. Zylberberg told me that I was very seriously ill and he had to admit me to the hospital now........... It's then that he told me he was pretty certain that I had what is called Dermatomyositis .http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/dermatomyositis/DS00335

Of course I had no idea what he was talking about but was pretty freaked out when he told me how sick I was and seeing my level of stress he got his nurse to get me a valium which was VERY welcome........ Then I called Cassie and told her that she needed to come to the hospital as they were admitting me and after that Dr. Zylberberg's nurse accompanied me to the Emergency Room where I was admitted and the tests began which of course was 7 more vials of blood and the backless robe and EKG, full evaluation by the ER physician and then chest X-Ray, Echo Cardiogram, and deep muscle and tissue biopsies under local anesthesia which took an hour and that I'm still sore from 11 days out. A new doctor entered the picture during this named Dr. Khayat who is an Internal Medicine Specialist who would manage my medication treatment and also Dr. Usdin who's a Cardiologist I'd seen previous to my oral surgery.

Of course my diet changed to a low or no salt diet as well as restricted sugar and fat intake and my inpatient saga began. To tell the truth, I'm loath to go into too much detail here so I'll try to condense the schedule of tests and information that kept coming at me while I was there.

While in the hospital over an 8 day period I had:

3 different CT Scans all that included either radioactive injections or injections of something they called "contrast" as well as some kind of oral vaso dilator that would enlarge my aorta during the last CT Scan when they looked at my arterial spaces (which were fine thank you very much....)

1 PET Scan which was a full body scan with more radioactive stuff injected into me which was essentially looking for any kind of obvious Cancer (negative)

2 different radiological scans the title of which I'm still uncertain of that took more pictures of my heart which also included radioactive injection both of which involved me having to lay on my stomach for 25 minutes at a time with my arms over my head. This was one in the morning and another later in the afternoon......

1 MRI which was also a heart exploration with "contrast" injected which was also not fun but at least I got to wear headphones. This one is where the French Radiologist came to me while I was still on the table who told me that they saw something "not so good" on my heart which also freaked me out........

I spent a 24 hour period wearing a small telemetry device that was really a continuous EKG looking for "crazy rhythms" in my heart.

All through this, I was getting to know my doctors which all being French are a whole different animal than Americans. In the US, there is a giant specter of litigation so all doctors and health care professionals are very forthcoming with information about just about everything. Here in Paris, docs order things and patients comply period and so there were surprises for me in the hospital every day to the point that one morning the transportation guy came for me before I even had my pants on and the nurse just shrugged and said you must go for this test.
I lost my temper that morning...............

Overall though through it all, my experience was a very good one and what differences there were had to do with culture more than bad things happening.

11 years ago I suffered some heart disease while we lived in Iowa that almost killed me but I recovered fully after a year. I have a suspicion that some of the findings on my heart here by my medical team are residual from that time period but of course none the new guys had ever looked before so there was some consternation and resultant more "explorations" because of that. I give my medical team an A+ for their continuing efforts on my behalf and I will do everything they tell me to do. I'm not sure if I'll ever beat this auto immune thing but I'll sure as shit deal with it. Count on it.

The last thing that I'll mention here was what I now refer to as the "twofer" which was a colonoscopy/endoscopy that was conducted by Dr. Louis Zylberberg's twin brother Herve' which was disconcerting a bit but that too ended up with a negative report. Go figure, I was treated by twins in the hospital here........*

Of course the American Hospital here is billing Blue Cross back in the states and we had to pay the Doctor's fees which although steep were nothing as high as would have had to pay in the US.

I'm still a bit whooped from all of this but have been out walking and am on a strict diet now which will result in me looking like a Frenchman before years end. I will however NOT wear pointy toed shoes.........*

Through this all, I received numerous emails, phone calls, and visits from our friends here in Paris and my friends and family in the US. As I've told all of them and for you who might be reading this now, you all lifted me up in what was for all intensive purposes a very scary thing for me and my family. Cassie was magnificent as always as were Kian and Niall who ran the house without us pretty much for 8 days which included grocery shopping, going the library by themselves and basically holding the fort down while there was an upheaval happening. I'm so proud of them and so humbled again to be a part of such an amazing family without who I would most certainly be lost even on the best of days......... Even through all of this, I woke up under a rainbow every morning and continue to do so..........*

I promise to be more in this blog on an almost daily basis as I have a lot of writing to do the rest of this year.

Love to all everywhere..................

Bon journee!

Sid

New Year Tidings 2011

Cassie, Kian, Niall and I brought the New Year in this year like we have for the past10 or so years together with a toast at midnight although there was no ball that dropped here nor anywhere on local French TV although there was a countdown. We had Chinese food New Year's Eve and did our annual New Year's Day Open House but to a very small but quality group of guests and the jambalaya and chili with the bloody marys were all very good.

The guys started a new quarter at Strayer University and from what we're hearing they are on track to make the President's List academically which I think will put them both in the top 5% of students there. Not to belabor a point here but again, what a difference a year makes particularly for Kian who's thriving in the Strayer Model.

Cassie has re-tooled her approach to her job which has left her with far more time to relax and do much of what she loves doing which is GREAT!

AND, on January 12th I underwent oral surgery to have the growth in my mouth removed and several of my teeth worked on and my last 2 wisdom teeth removed. Along with that was a total cessation of any kind of alcohol consumption and restricted diet which has left me losing weight and on which I may remain for a while to drop so more weight while I'm at it. The saga of my mouth is not over yet as I still have some other dental work that will need to be done but my French Doctors have been great and they have my full confidence.

Oh, for those of you who watch, my hair is finally starting to show some gray.

Live is good in Paris.......

Love to all everywhere.....

Sid

Another Day

After taking a jog this afternoon that took me past the Eiffel Tower, I'm enjoying a hot soak with a glass of wine and a good book while the housekeeper cleans my apartment, when it hit me (to steal a phrase from Davy Crockett): You may all go to hell, and as for me, I will go to Paris. Despite another cold, rainy day that left me soaked...another day that the Christmas gifts my sister mailed more than two weeks ago still have not arrived...it was another day that found me amazed to be living where and how I am.

By the way, for those who were wondering, the castrated cock was delicious. I still can't resist referring to the "chapon" or capon that way. He gave well and long: I made a hearty chicken soup that I finished up today. God bless Anthony Bourdain, and my neighborhood boucherie.

Bonne Annee!

Cass

A Christmas Capon

A colleague from a training seminar in British Columbia, Canada, last September is visiting friends and family in Europe for the holidays. We basked in the sparkling splendor of the Eiffel Tower before dinner on Wednesday night. Earlier in the day, Sid and I bought the main course for our first Christmas dinner in Paris. After asking some friends and colleagues here about the traditional Christmas meal, I decided to make Poulet Roti, or roast chicken, using a "chapon" or capon, and following Anthony Bourdain's recipe. We got it from our neighborhood boucherie (butcher). It was in the front window -- feet, feathers, face and all. The butcher doesn't speak any English, but he understood when I dragged a finger across my neck and asked "s'il vous plait." He chopped off the clawed feet, torched off the feathers, and hacked off the head -- the scrawny neck hanging. (And Nora Ephron feels bad about HER neck!) At least he won't be looking at us while we're eating him. Although I've certainly heard of capons, I've never known what they are. Turns out I'll be spending Christmas day cooking a castrated cock. After a few glasses, I'm sure I'll stop giggling about that.

What beautiful Christmassy weather we've been enjoying. Picturesque snow dustings almost everyday. It's made daily shopping excursions that much more festive. Not so festive for travelers, unfortunately. Europe's airports have struggled with the early snowfalls, so much so that de Gaulle airport here in Paris has canceled half its flights because they've run out of de-icing fluid. It's nice not to be visiting here on business and be desperately trying to get home in time. My only rush is to get out of the cold & wet and back to Rue Nic to settle in with a good book and full glass. We may go out and see the lights on the Champs Elysees tonight...or we may not. ;~)