Just over five years ago, my husband suffered an autoimmune attack on his nerve system. It was sort of like Guillain-Barré, but not exactly. It may have been a mix of a paraneoplastic syndrome (the body running amok due to cancer) and a case of MADSAM (aka Lewis Sumner syndrome), which damages peripheral nerves, though usually over a longer time frame. Whatever the origin, he was in horrific, world-shattering pain, and he quickly suffered wide-ranging paralysis.
The first morning after his nerves came under attack, his left hand was immobilized. He told the neurologist, “I guess I can write off guitar-playing.” The neurologist made noises in Austrian-German that I didn’t fully understand but clearly promised a full recovery. That didn’t happen. In November 2007, my sweetheart underwent surgery to re-route a tendon to restore some mobility to his left hand. The initial gains were limited. He took his guitar out once or twice, then packed it away again.
Tonight he is playing his guitar. Before all the trauma, he was a gifted classical guitarist, good enough to teach lessons. He is still gifted. And his fingers are now slowly catching up to his gifts – haltingly, sometimes frustratingly – but so beautifully I can only tear up and wallow in gratitude.
I want to hear this music for the rest of my life.
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
Oh Sungold, how wonderful!
This post made me cry. Big hugs to all of you, and keep up that beautiful music!
You two have certainly been through some stuff. The human capacity to overcome never fails to lift my spirits, and thank you for sharing it. Love is alive and well.
Any particular classical guitar music, or just the fact that you can hear it coming from your husband’s fingers, with all that this represents?
I expect a lot of the story you tell has its positive outcome in spite of, rather than because of, the position taken by your so-called health so-called insurance providers. We survive by love, tenacity and luck, all of which your family has, and may it continue to have.
Thanks, Sugarmag!
KRS, you know how it used to be, so you have some idea of what he lost. He brought up Django Reinhardt, who had two partially paralyzed fingers on his left hand. I brought up Jerry Garcia, who lacked one finger on the right. Obviously there are limits to how far one would want to emulate Jerry …
Reg, he used to play a wide range of classical pieces, and it’s not a particular piece that moved me so; it’s mostly the fact that he’s playing at all and not feeling horribly discouraged by it. My feeling is that he’ll keep improving steadily as he learns some work-arounds.
The story of our health insurance is complicated, because we were in Germany at the time, and I had far more contact with the hospital billing office than with his doctors.
I eventually had to fight to get reimbursement on many of the bills (and I mostly succeeded), but the worst part initially was the fear that the hospital might stop treating him because they wanted cash up front – $10,000 – since there’s no treaty between the U.S. and Germany. As a UK resident, you wouldn’t have that issue if you fell sick in Germany, because your system is civilized enough to enjoy reciprocity with the German system!
I gotta say I am psyched to hear this!!!!!!
Yeah, and he played again this evening!
