Joanna, Amelia, Sarah, Jade, Javier and other loved ones:
Dr. Christopher J. Winfree http://www.columbianeurosurgery.org/doctors/christopher-j-winfree/will install a spinal stimulator in early August.
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The process takes two weeks.
They should be two pleasurable weeks because the process involves sampling vibrations to see whether they are pleasurable, assemble the happy vibrations inside a spinal stimulator the size of my pacemaker and surgically implant it in my back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKpjP7gwiIM
As you know, I am requesting that Mozart’s clarinet concerto in A Major be broadcast to the nerves in my very unhappy L-5 and L-4 area of my spine (where I sit). So, far I have no idea whether the clarinet concerto is an insane idea or totally realistic.
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I have survived cancer three times
1. Hodgkin’s disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system then described as “universally fatal.” 1976
2. Hodgin’s disease again requiring a second round of radiation treatment. 1989 the same year Taylor Swift was born.
3. Kidney Cancer. My local urologist urged me to go to Memorial Sloan Cancer Center “immediately” where Dr. Paul Russo saved my life. 2013
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Therefore’ these words are especially significant to me. Tim McGraw’s song Live Like You Were Dying which he co-wrote to me. Ever since 1976 I have had to live as if I were daying. Believe you me that is exactly how I have been living since 1976.
He said: ‘I was in my early 40’s/
‘With a lot of life before me/
‘And a moment came that stopped me on a dime/
‘I spent most of the next days, lookin’ at the x-rays/
‘Talkin’ ’bout the options and talkin’ ’boutsweet time/’
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https://joelsolkoff.com/live-like-you-were-dying/
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To get to Memorial Sloan Kettering Center from State College PA as a paraplegic is difficult and expensive. To repeat the difficulty repeatedly is bordering on imprudent. I am in the process of permanently relocating to Newark, New Jersey. Newark is the largest city in New Jersey. New Jersey is the 11th largest state in the Union
Why Newark?
It is a subway ride away from Manhattan. Equally important Newark has the third highest murder rate of any U.S. city. Consequently, rents are low.
The relocation process is proceeding smoothly.
I drive to Newark one week from today. I am staying at the Hampton Hotel in Downtown Newark. My reservation is for July 23-July 30th. Heaven is a week in Downtown Newark.
On Saturday, July 24th at 9:30 in the morning I will be attending the op Congregation Ahevet Shalom. Ahevet Shalom is a Conservative Egalitarian congregation housed in the oldest synagogue in Newark. The bema is not wheel chair accessible. If there is a Minyan and if I have the honor of an Aliya, the congregation brings the sheepskin open beatifically calligraphed Torah scroll to me.