Another one

[JamesVincent]

As most of you know I was scheduled to have an ablation done back in January. Well, they did the ablation and it brought my heart back in rhythm. For 4 days. I also caught pneumonia, again, while hospitalized. Was a pretty miserable couple of weeks recovering from the surgery and pneumonia. I had a cardioinversion done in February whose effect lasted for 2 days. Had another one done in April whose effect lasted for a day and a half. Since January they've added 2 more medications, which seem to have helped but not fixed anything. I saw a different cardiac surgeon today, same office but different specialty, upshot of which I'm going back in on July 13 for a series of surgeries spread across 2 days. From what he told me the first day they will cut below my sternum and go through there to burn areas on the back of my heart. After the one surgeon is done a second one will come through with a laser and burn pinpoint sections of the heart while the first surgeon cuts my left side to remove the left atrial appendage of my heart. Supposedly that is where 90% of the strokes suffered by people with atrial afibulation start. After having 5 strokes really wish someone had mentioned that before. After that day of surgery on the second day my normal surgeon will come back through and do a normal, but more intensive, ablation. Supposedly everything they are doing has the added side effect of helping the issues I have with my mitral valve, helping to support it. If it does it would be really nice to be able to breath correctly again. From what the surgeon told me they only have me in the hospital for 3 days total.

Back on April 22 I finally had my disability review hearing. During the hearing, by phone, the vocational expert testified that I would be unhirable by any company for any position due to medical limitations. After the testimony my lawyer asked for an immediate finding of disability. The judge informed us that her decision would be mailed out. Still have yet to hear anything and SSA website lists the hearing as the last active thing in my file.

I do have a question for some of you. I'm up to about 80k words in my book, probably only a few chapters until the end. Is there anyone who would be willing to take a read? I want to find out, not just what other people think, but there's some areas where I talk about possible legal issues that I want to make sure are accurate. It is a work of fiction but would like to make sure it seems right. I talked through some of it with a friend who is a LEO but IANAL so I'm not sure on some of it. Also any ideas or thoughts on publishing would be helpful. I know several people who are published authors and they've all told me to self publish but that is an area I am completely clueless on. I spoke to a publishing company who is willing to take on a first timer, if they like the content, but I don't even know what a fair contract would look like. If you would like to help with proofing just message me and I'll email it to you.

[The Observer]

James, it seems with you when it rains, it pours. Your recent and upcoming surgeries/treatments sound very invasive, painful and stressful. But glad to see you are still hanging in there and putting up the good fight.

As far as getting a book published, unfortunately I have no advice, insight or knowledge on how to get it done. It seems like its comparable to winning the lottery from the number of published authors' experiences I have read about. Some of the successful ones had to endure years of rejections, numerous re-writes, and struggling to get their first book published while for some, their submission ended up on the right desk at the right publishing house at the right time.

I am sure you have probably checked out some public forums out there to see what others have in the way of advice of getting your foot in the door. My wife has a step-sister who self-published, but beyond getting a few purchases, nothing really came of it. On the other hand, the "Fifty Shades of Grey" author E.L. James self-published and hit fame and glory. So again, I have no idea of what constitutes success other than timing and luck. Wikipedia does have a large entry on self-publishing so you might want to read that.

As far as providing legal advice on situations in your book, I will leave that to the experts since IANAL.

[wserra]

I'm sorry to hear about the latest health issues, James. You have indeed been through a lot.

As far as reading what you've written: sure, so long as I accurately understand what you seek. You're not seeking legal advice on some IP, defamation or any other legal issue, right? Instead, you're looking for someone knowledgeable about the law to comment on the accuracy of some legal scenarios about which you write. If I have that right, I'd be glad to take a look. I'll PM you an email address.

Publishing: what Obs said. The only things I've had published are court opinions - which the respective courts published, not I. So I'm also not the one to ask.

[JamesVincent]

As far as getting a book published, unfortunately I have no advice, insight or knowledge on how to get it done. It seems like its comparable to winning the lottery from the number of published authors' experiences I have read about. Some of the successful ones had to endure years of rejections, numerous re-writes, and struggling to get their first book published while for some, their submission ended up on the right desk at the right publishing house at the right time.

I have looked online but a lot of what I've seen talked about is just gooblydegook to me. There's two published authors that I've talked to on and off over the years on Facebook that both self published, and did well, when they started out. However one published small and easy children's books and the other was a (relatively) famous reporter who went out on his own so he already had an audience prepared. I've talked to both since I started working on this and the one who did children books sent me links to some of the resources he used in the beginning but, again, I really don't understand it. I have a hard enough time working through a word processing program.

[JamesVincent]

As far as reading what you've written: sure, so long as I accurately understand what you seek. You're not seeking legal advice on some IP, defamation or any other legal issue, right? Instead, you're looking for someone knowledgeable about the law to comment on the accuracy of some legal scenarios about which you write. If I have that right, I'd be glad to take a look. I'll PM you an email address.

Publishing: what Obs said. The only things I've had published are court opinions - which the respective courts published, not I. So I'm also not the one to ask.

That is correct Wes. There's certain things that I kinda assume in the book that the main character and others do that I wrote up in a "as I understand it" capacity. It's still a work of fiction but I want it to be as realistic as possible. At the very least I'd like to avoid a "what the hell, you can't do that" moment. As a bonus it even has hints of maritime law.

The longest things I've ever had on the interwebs are the comments and threads I've written on here. The only "book" I've ever had be published, in a way, was when I was working as a cabinet maker I rewrote the company training manual and wrote the one that they used for a new process.

[JamesVincent]

Quick update, they pushed my surgery back to July 20. Three different surgeons operating on me over 2 days there was a scheduling conflict.

[Arthur Rubin]

I know some science fiction/fantasy authors who I would feel comfortable asking for general advice, but good advice in those fields might not be good advice for you. [Grammarly says I sound "joyful". Any idea why?]

[JamesVincent]

So this happened. I went to the hospital yesterday for my surgeries. Get up in the room and get prepped. Bloodwork done, IVs in, stripped down and robed. EKG done to show my heart is still in Afib. My surgery was scheduled for noon. Surgeon didn't show up until 12:45, just a normal day, right? He said they aren't doing the left atrial appendage removal for reasons, won't tell me why. Less than a minute of talking he leaves, didn't answer anything I asked. Literally told him that I had been feeling dizzy on and off past few days. He asks me if I knew why. I say no, he walks out the door. At 1:10 a physicians assistant comes in and announces that they cancelled all of my surgeries, both days worth. Why? My white blood cell count was elevated.

Backstory. Couple weeks ago I had another tooth break. I was in an accident years ago that cracked a bunch of them, plus I've been punched in the head a few times too many, and I've had issues for years and no insurance up until past few years. And those years weren't exactly helpful. So I called an emergency dentist down the street and got an appointment. Appointment was last Thursday. They did x-rays and all those good things and found out my jawbone is infected and has some other issues no one had noticed before, recommended extracting several teeth. I talk to him about my upcoming surgery and he said he didn't feel comfortable doing anything without speaking to the surgeon. So I leave the dental office, go home and call the surgeons office. I talk to the PA there and they call the dentist. They work what ever it is out and start me on antibiotics. Which I'm still on.

Fast forward back to yesterday. They knew, since they were the ones that talked to the dentist, that I was being treated for an infection. They never said a word as I got prepped and ready for surgery, didn't say anything after I talked to them on the phone about it at all. Not like this was a new issue and they had obviously prepared to go ahead with the surgeries. And the surgeon himself never came to speak to me at all about the cancellation, he sent in a PA to do it. I actually did not get any real answers until my regular surgeon came in, which was about 5:45 that evening. He had to finish his normal caseload first since I wasn't on his schedule yesterday, I was on it today. Oh, the PA and nurses were in and out all day trying to get things done but the first surgeon had left them in almost as much of the dark as he left me. So my surgeon sits down and we talk about it. Upshot of that talk is this.

The surgery they had planned required me to be on prednisone afterwards which can have the effect of suppressing the immune system. OK, can kinda understand that even though that was something no one had told me. So the surgeon wasn't sure if they wanted to run the risk on operating with me having an active infection. Duly noted but, as I pointed out earlier, they had known about it for almost a week beforehand. Surgeon says but they didn't know if the antibiotics had killed the infection yet. Ok but then why make me wait until after scheduled surgery time to tell me. PA answers that the first surgeon didn't read the bloodwork results at all, the PA had to call him and tell him what they said. Ok, why didn't someone come and talk to me about all of this? IDK Ok, why wasn't I informed about the refusal to do the atrial appendage beforehand? IDK, I wasn't even told about it until today. Apparently someone had done one last week on an overweight client and it had torn so he didn't want to risk that. Shouldn't I have been part of the process of determining risk management? Absolutely, so should I since your I'm actual physician. I wasn't informed or asked either.

Conversation went on for a while but that's the gist of it. Now, unfortunately, the surgeon who did all this is the head of cardiac surgery so he's technically my surgeon's boss even though they're in different offices. This creates a whole bunch of other problems. This surgeon has informed the staff that no one is allowed to operate on me until I have had every tooth extracted that the dentist recommended, which is 6. Couple of problems there. My insurance does not cover extractions. At all. Not even like a copay thing, full price. It does not cover any dental surgery at all so they wouldn't pay for the work on my jawbone since it would be considered "cosmetic". They also wouldn't want to touch me with me being on heavy blood thinners. I had to stop taking them for a few days pre-surgery but, then again, the surgery was supposed to remove most of the need for them. I do not feel comfortable stopping them time and time again to have the teeth done and neither did my surgeon. I've had 5 strokes, kinda high risk for it. And from what my surgeon was saying working on someone like me is a specialty, not every dentist would do it anyway.

So the outcome of all this I'm kinda screwed unless something changes drastically. The head surgeon has told mine that he won't just accept me infection free, I have to have the teeth extracted and my jawbone fixed. There's no way I can afford to do that. Physically I don't have the money and mentally I really stress over having another stroke. This past week was rough enough, I really don't want to keep going through that. The School of Dentistry in Baltimore offers reduced dental work but they still charge something for extractions and I just don't have it. Apparently Union Memorial has a dentist who specializes in people going in for open heart surgery and the PA was trying to get in touch with him but, again, my insurance won't cover it.