From 2016 Self Authoring

7.1. UCLA writing classes

Very soon after retiring I saw the UCLA Extension catalog and looked for memoir writing classes. There was one called “The Art of the Personal Essay” taught by Samantha Dunn, who had published two very lively and well-written memoirs. I signed up for the course, read all 3 of her books and very much looked forward to working with her. I wrote 3 essays for the class: “DMHS Loves Mr. Levin”, “Called by the Dream of the Earth”, and “Holding Gently”. I communicated in class with the SpeakIt app and my Bluetooth speaker.

The next quarter, January 2012, I took a class from UCLArts and Healing program called “Writing From the Senses” taught by Nomi Prinz. I wrote short responses to prompts in each of the 4 meetings.

7.2. Right hip surgery

After putting it off for as long as possible, I finally had a right hip replacement surgery on 8/29/12. Irina had been pushing on me to try to go to a pool to get some exercise, since it was too painful to walk. I went to the Westside YMCA weekly for the class until I couldn’t walk up and down the stairs any more to get to the pool. Toward the end of that time I met Bosmat Eynav, who invited me to come to her private trainings at the Marina Beach Club. I went for a while before the surgery. Coming out of the surgery I was extremely weak and disoriented in the hospital. They had to give me 2 units of blood. I was extremely weak at home. Five months after the surgery I was finally strong enough to go back to water therapy with Bosmat, now in the rehab pool at UCLA. Very helpful for recovery. I drove myself and walked unassisted from the car to the pool.

7.3. Online courses

While I was doing the pool rehab sessions, I wanted to take more classes but I realized it would probably be better if I could find an online course. I got an email from Parker Palmer’s Center for Courage and Renewal inviting me to his first ever online course, based on his newest book, Healing the Heart of Democracy. I jumped at it. The technology infrastructure was frustratingly weak for my speech problem, but I had an excellent experience in the homework for Week 4. I clearly identified the “Tragic Gap” that I wanted to live into. My note at the time says “It is the gap between the out-of-control industrial growth society we live in and a sustainable way going forward for humans to relate to the earth.” Then on 5/31/13 I wrote this note. “After writing the above I discovered Joanna Macy’s most recent book, Active Hope. It’s precisely about finding one’s specific place to work from in dealing with the global crisis. I sent for the book, it came today. While waiting for it, I looked it up online and found out they are doing an online course in September. Perfect! That will give me time to read the book before the course.” I loved the course and the technology was much better for integrating me in the community. I came out of it with a project to start a blog,which I called Active Hope Support Group.

7.4. Left hip surgeries

After recovering from my 8/29/12 right hip surgery and finishing my course of water therapy with Bosmat I was able to exercise by walking around the block with my cane. As the left hip wore out, the cane was mostly just to keep weight off of it. There was no pain in the new right artificial hip. I then had a series of falls, on outings and around the house, as the left hip deteriorated. After the fourth fall, on 2/14/14, I started using a walker and stopped driving. Finally when I could no longer put off the left hip surgery, I had it on 12/22/14. The recovery in the hospital was much less traumatic than the right hip. I was walking with the walker on the day after the surgery, ate well, and felt very strong. The prospect of being able to walk again looked very good.

At the three week follow up with the surgeon we found that the 1% chance of infection had happened. I had a very serious MRSA infection that required another surgery immediately to clean out the artificial hip. The second surgery was exactly one month after the first, on 1/22/15. The recovery was more traumatic than either of the previous surgeries. My neuromuscular condition worsened and I was very weak. I had a 6 week course of intravenous antibiotics twice a day. We started having virtually round the clock caregivers. Fortunately the infection was cleared up by the antibiotics and I eventually stabilized, although my walking was more impaired than after the surgery of the previous month.

7.5. Mandala Discovery, Memoir class, and WordPress project consolidation

By August 2015 I was ready to jump into online communities and courses again. In September I was actively involved in three that were very exciting to me.

First, Heather Plett’s “Mandala Discovery”. Second, the “Ecosattva Training” offered by One Earth Sangha. Third, Rachel Ballon’s “From Memories to Memoirs”, offered by UCLArts and Healing. As they wound down in October I was inspired to combine all my writing projects into one megaproject which I planned to put on WordPress. I designed a structure with three parts: Stages, Strands, and Resources. The Resources section has subheadings for every writing project I have on my shelves and in my computers. The Stages section has subheadings for the 8 life stages in Bill Plotkin’s “Nature and the Human Soul”, where I’m combining everything I have about my life in each of the stages. The Strands section is based on Bernie Glassman’s adaptation of the 5 Buddha Families mandala: Spirituality, Relationship, Livelihood, Study, and Social Action.

7.6. Urosepsis from UTI

On Thursday May 19, 2016, I made a same day appointment to see a doctor at Kaiser because I figured I had a urinary infection. It was painful to pee and I was sweating and shivering from chills. When the doctor saw the results of my lab test he immediately sent me to the Emergency Room for antibiotics to get my white blood cell count down from an extreme level indicating the infection had gotten into my bloodstream. We were in the waiting room of the ER for a very long time. When I was finally seen, processed, and tested again, they admitted me to the hospital with a diagnosis of Urosepsis from UTI (urinary tract infection). The antibiotic cleared up the sepsis very quickly. I was admitted shortly after midnight Friday, and was in all day Friday and Saturday, discharged mid day Sunday.

In the hospital I had been unable to deal with food except for clear liquids. They sent me home in that condition and no information on how to get enough nutrition. I was extremely weak and tired. The first day home I frantically researched how to get enough nutrition and started an Excel spreadsheet on my iPad. It shows that for the first week or two I was getting about a third of the daily calories and protein I needed to maintain health.

The post-hospitalization follow up with Dr. Brettler had been scheduled for Thursday 5/26. He was very concerned and brought up the conversation about planning for what to do if I wasn’t able to increase the amount of nutrition I was getting orally. It was pretty depressing and very motivating. Since then I have steadily risen to a healthy nutrition level. I am now up to pureed food (with nutrition primarily from liquid supplements), and have gained 3 pounds. When I saw Dr. B. today for the one month follow up he said he was “very happy” several times.