Remembering Don Jesseman on his Birthday

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Art

1 March 2013 so we’ll pretend this is 29 February and go from there.

Happy birthday Don. Lynn and I remember you still although Lynn missed your best years. Watching you sit on the garage floor smashing a trouble light to pieces is a good memory that very few will ever understand. You’re father coming out of the the kitchen to see what was going on, looking at me and raising a finger to say “I’ll be back when he calms down,” turning and heading back into the house and shortly after that with your fit of pique fading as fast as it came and finally leaving you, you said “I guess I owe the old man a new trouble light.”

Your son Scott makes me cry he’s so much like you. You know the spring line your dad allowed that girl across the street to tap into? It broke. Flooded the yard. The new resident called in a contractor and your serendipitously son arriving from Illinois missed the tinkle of water into the cistern and looked across the street. Like you he walked over with a smile and politely inquired of the workers and when they told him “It’s just an old spring line, we led it over the embankment to drain,” he exploded with “Are you some kind of stupid?”

Thank you for the beer, the parties, the food and the friendship. Thank you for all of those miles traveling in your cars to party, drink beer, eat and share stories with like minded people.

This was filmed with a camera-phone-thingy by some kid who had never seen a piano played at a party before and found it noteworthy. You shared with us this one last time your incredible talent on the piano and your knowledge of WWI party song. Miss you. Art

Posted in Art Joly | Leave a comment

Letter from Liz Dolan and my reply.

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Art

Dear Art and Lynn,

I am sorry you lost your jobs and will miss seeing you around. You and Lynn have done many positive things for the church while you were there including, but not limited to, your wonderful dinners, getting interest and work done on the organ, participating in special services related to HIV, and participating in regular services on a very regular basis. You also articulated a unique perspective that brought depth and much needed diversity to our congregation.

Having said that, and really thinking of you as friends, lay off Paul and other members of the congregation. Think about it. Why did you owe Paul money in the first place? Why did you lose your home when you had such a valuable possession? And I suspect more valuable possessions!

I really believe your anger is misdirected. You and Lynn need to accept responsibility for the situation you put yourselves in. AND stop casting aspersions on people,I should absolutely say FRIENDS, who acted in sincerity to support and assist you in your time of need.

Truly your friend,
Lis Dolan

This is about the rule of law, Liz. Yes Paul had loaned Lynn money that for one reason or another grew to $16,000. But there are laws and legal procedures to follow. Just because someone owes you money the law doesn’t allow you to lie cheat and steal to get your money back. Not to mention the vigorish on the $11,000 debt. $11,000? You thought I said $16,000? Yeah, well Paul forgets the $5,000 I handed him to show good faith. Where did this money come from? Why the sale of Lynn’s 1960 Pontiac Bonneville convertible.

Paul is pretty loose on the details when it comes to Paul’s own actions. Paul forgets to tell people that he extended the helping hand of friendship, talked me into moving all of that stuff onto his property, with the promise of a place to work from, then sold the crown jewel of the collection without benefit of legal process or the owners permission. In fact Paul insisted on selling Lynn’s Challenger against Lynn’s protests at which point Paul banned us from his property. Bet he never mentions the banning part now does he?

Now Lynn also owns his grandfather’s 1954 Plymouth Plaza Wagon, a mid western car that spent the rest of it’s life in southern California. Station wagons are collectible.

Lynn’s 1964 Plymouth Valiant convertible with the 225 slant-6 and the factory 4-speed and Hurst shifter.

Lynn had also picked up a New England car from the far north, a one-owner special order Valiant Wagon with the 273 V-8 and air-conditioning.

http://www.arts-attic.com/automobiles/plymouthwagon/plymouthwagon.htm

Liz, I think you’d feel differently if Paul had ripped you off hundreds of thousands of dollars. You’ve been charmed by the charismatic, confidence inspiring Paul Doolittle, while we’ve seen the thieving, conniving truth behind the facade.

Lay off the congregation? I don’t think so, Liz. when the members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, NH aligned themselves with Paul Doolittle so that he’d open the checkbook of the Doolittle trust for their new sprinkler system, they aligned themselves with a criminal.

Paul Doolittle lied to me to get me to move Lynn’s stuff onto Paul’s Sun Point Farm. Paul stole Lynn’s prize possession when he found out that I really could come up with the $11,000 through the sale of Lynn’s stuff already on Paul’s farm, probably because Paul had already promised the Challenger to Mike Mancini at a substantial discount to the price Lynn is asking for his car.

Liz, my world revolves around facts and the rule of law. The facts are that Paul lied to me to gain physical possession of Lynn’s stuff then stole the most valuable piece of all and sold it for a pittance. This is fact.

The Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, NH has made it clear that they support Paul Doolittle 100%. As far as I’m concerned this puts the congregation’s money, the UUCM endowment and the UUCM property in legal play.

Posted in Unitarian Universalist Manchester | Leave a comment

Letter to Curt Smith and the UUCM Congregation

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Art

Curt you and the Board voted to fire us if we didn’t take down select sections of my web log.

My blog is still up:

http://www.arts-attic.com/blog

Heck, you’re here aren’t you?

You claimed this was because of a letter Paul Doolittle solicited from Michael Mancini of All American Auto Restorations, a man Lynn Shackelford refused to sell his car to because Lynn (aka the owner) wanted his car to go to someone who would cherish it the way he does.

Here’s the letter Paul solicited from Mike Mancini:

Mancini

As you can see it begins with “Hi Paul, thanks for the info.”

Well since you chose to fire us for the good of the congregation and to remove the threat of a lawsuit by Mike Mancini, here’s what I’ve done:

I’ve continued posting on For E Bodies Only:

http://www.forebodiesonly.com/forum/showthread.php?6065-1970-440-6-Challenger-RT-Convertible-V-I-N-JS27V0B100421

And I’ve got a discussion about Lynn’s stolen car going on AllPar.com:

Read more at: http://www.allpar.com/forums/topic/148387-looking-for-vin-js27v0b100421-lynn-shackelfords-6pk2go/
Text copyright © Allpar, LLC, publishers of the massive Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, and other Mopar site allpar.com

This discussion ends with:
“Very cool. 1970 was the last year for the RT on Challenger convertibles. That is one very high dollar car. ”

The only thing that you may have accomplished it to give another friend of Rick Carkin a job, and that would be Chris Jacobson. But I don’t know that so this is only an educated guess.

You’ve certainly put me on the warpath and I’ll supeona every member of the congregation if I must, before this is all over, in my battle for justice from Paul Doolittle.

Or do you have something else to hide from the congregation?

Posted in Unitarian Universalist Manchester | Leave a comment

Hypocrisy and Greed, Unitarian Universalist Style

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Art

Four twelve years Lynn and I have been members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, NH. Since 2004 we’ve been the official church Sexton’s caring for the building and cleaning up after the congregation. Until the 5th of February. I’ve been taking the only action that I can afford against Paul Doolittle of Derry, NH since he stole Lynn’s 1970 Dodge Challenger. Here’s a link to another post I’ve written. Paul bills himself as “the world’s most honest man” and why not? Do you think a confidence man is going to announce his intentions to clean your pockets? No one want to come forward officially but I’ve talked with several people who’ve had a close shave from Paul Doolittle. Paul’s technique is to never got greedy. Take people for some money but not enough that his victim won’t be able to write it off under the go along to get along mentality. Then there’s the cost of legal fees and the embarrassment from admitting in public that you’ve been conned.

Then there’s the crew at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Manchester, NH.

After a dozen years we knew these people had their faults and hypocrisy but we forgot that we’re the wrong type of gay people to be accepted by these kinds of people.

On Wednesday the 30th of January we went to work as usual and found ourselves in the middle of a meeting concerning us. Board members Web Anderson, Anne Smith and Board President Curtis Smith came to the church to see us along with student Minister Julie Lombard and Interim Minister Steve Edington. These fine people sat us down in the Lounge at the big meeting tables so everything was a civilized as could be. Curt smith then opened with some notes on a threat made by Paul Doolittle to me and Lynn. “If you two don’t take down your website threatening Paul Doolittle he says here that He’s going to the Derry, NH police department and swear out a restraining order against you and you won’t be able to work here any more.” We responded with our side of the story. and Curt S. came back to us with “I’ve read your web site and agree that it has a threatening tone towards Paul Doolittle especially where you say “I hope you’re warm and safe in your home.””

Now that was written while we were living in a tent in the woods. We did not feel safe. Even now living in our RV in now undisclosed locations we fear physical reprisal by Paul’s son Matthew or other people in Paul Doolittle’s employ.

UUCM student minister Julie Lombard in the pipe chamber of the UUCM Estey pipe organ.

UUCM student minister Julie Lombard in the pipe chamber of the UUCM Estey pipe organ.

Student Minister Julie Lombard stepped in with some productive suggestions regarding dispute resolution and we agreed to go through what could possibly be a year long process. But the only leverage we have over Paul Doolittle is our web log at http://www.arts-attic.com/blog and we refuse to take the references to Paul Doolittle and, we’re learning, the auto restorer Michael Mancini of Mike Mancini’s American Muscle Car Restorations Inc Now Mr. Mancini had a web site that was featuring Lynn’s Challenger because it is such a rare car and such a spectacular find. But the web site is down.

What can be found with a Google search is the text: Jun 2, 2012 … 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Convertible 440-6 Factory Promo Car … 2012 Mike
Mancini’s American Muscle Car Restorations, Inc. All Rights …

and the Google cached:

“1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Convertible 440-6 Factory Promo Car
Posted on June 2, 2012 by admin”

“This is a very rare 1970 Challenger 440 Six Pack RT Convertible. 7 Identical examples were built to debut the new 70 Challenger. This is the last of the 7 that had not been accounted for. It is loaded with every possible option. It will undergo a complete OE level rotisserie restoration. This will be the 2nd of its kind to be restored by us. We know more about all 7 promo Challengers than anyone on the planet. Very exciting project.”

And I have here a .pdf file from printing the Google cached page.Current Projects | Mike Mancini’s American Muscle Car Restoration, Inc.

Just in case you want to believe Paul Doolittle and the UUCM leadership when they tell you that this theft is nowhere near as big as Lynn and I are making it out to be.

From where I sit, Curt Smith did a risk analysis and chose the wrong side to come down on.

Posted in Unitarian Universalist Manchester | Leave a comment

The UUCM, Paul Kleihauer and Barbara Stadtmiller

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Art
Lynn and Art, picture taken for us by interim minister David Boyer. Sent in to the Advocate's A Day in Gay America with a caption mentioning our employment by UUCM. The Advocate's fact checking person was told by the UUCM office administrator Deborah Ross that "We don't want our name mentioned in a gay magazine."

Lynn and Art, picture taken for us by interim minister David Boyer. Sent in to the Advocate’s A Day in Gay America with a caption mentioning our employment by UUCM. The Advocate’s fact checking person was told by the UUCM office administrator Deborah Ross that “We don’t want our name mentioned in a gay magazine.”

Your church, the Unitarian Universalist church of Manchester, NH is for all practical purposes a public corporation and you are one of the stock holders. Even if the argument can be made that UUCM is a charity organization, you as a donor, have the right to know how your money is used. Unfortunately for the dozen years we’ve been members and the eight years we’ve been members and employees what we’ve seen is a culture of “What they don’t know, won’t hurt them” combined with “We need to protect our reputation.”

Paul Kleihauer was a respected member of the church, looked the part with the shirts, sweaters and beard associated with a serious academic but when it came to computers he liked to talk in a dizzying flurry of buzzwords. Watching him work, and talking to Paul K. I began to realize that he really didn’t know what he was talking about. I mentioned this to people in authority but Paul K. had the look and sound of competence and was a trusted member of the “go along to get along club” so my fears were dismissed. Until Paul K. suddenly and without warning left for Montana to “pursue his next degree.” Paul K. was your trusted Treasurer. UUCM doesn’t have a separate accountant to account for the money so the UUCM Treasurer does both jobs. Or neither.

Barbara Stadtmiller is an upbeat, positive energetic person who at the time of Paul K.’s departure was working on a Masters of Business Administration, non-profit. Barb S. volunteered to take over the position of Treasurer and was accepted and dug in the way she always does, with her full attention and effort. I can go on in some detail but let’s just say the books were a mess and things that really needed to be done weren’t. You never heard any of this because of the culture of secrecy and the attitude of keeping up a good face at UUCM.

Now everybody knows Rick Carkin! He is the director of Religious Education, sings in the Choir, and runs a popular Pampered Chef business. What you don’t know and really should have known since it’s your money that’s being spent is that Rick C. had a vague idea of where your money ended and his began. Until Barb S. came along. Barb S. began reconciling the UUCM books by going back many years and checking bills, receipts and checks against each other and eliminating duplicate accounts and missing or duplicate entries in the journal. And this is after Webster Anderson had worked on the same thing for several years. Along the way to a book balance that was based in reality, Barb S. found a pattern of missing receipts from Rick C. members of the Religious Education committee went to Rick for routine purchases because Rick C. “Had a church credit card.” Well, sort of, it turns out. Rick C. had a personal credit card and would submit a list of charges to be reëmbursed to him for official purchases. But this was a minor annoyance compared to the big one. He slipped in a few on-line doo-dads he liked to use for his Pampered Chef business but when he was made DRE he discovered Professional Development reëmbursment and travel and fun at your expense. You never heard of this now did you and neither did the Religious Education committee. But Paul K. wrote the checks because it was the easy way out.

When people fell they need to keep secrets, how often is this a good thing?

Oh, and Barbara Stadtmiller? You guys owe her big time for the work she did. If you had hired an accounting firm to sort out your bookkeeping mess the total would have run into the tens of thousands of dollars for the work that she did as a volunteer.

Posted in Unitarian Universalist Manchester | Leave a comment

The Infamous Auto Stop Propane Fill Valve.

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Art

We live full time in a 1987 32′ Rockwood in New England, starting in November 2011 so Propane is near and dear to our hearts. As we revived and grudgingly updated the quarter century old systems we danced around the 100 pound propane tank and its original fill valve. The only other place that I had seen these is on the VW type II Westfalia campers. Finally we couldn’t fill the tank again. Couldn’t find anyone willing to touch the tank. So we took the least intrusive route and disassembled the Auto Stop Valve and replaced the o-rings. We bought Viton o-rings because that what stands up best to halogenated cutting oils and the like. Never considered that propane boils at -40F. Buna-N is the material of choice because it works well with propane and stays resilient down to -40F. But we managed to keep most of a tank of propane and that was enough to allow me to order a modern 1-1/4 inch ACME thread double check fill valve and a 10% outage or bleed valve for the 80% fill line.

The solution is a lot easier than dealing with this early attempt at a solution without a problem. In the long run the only use that I can imagine for this Autostop valve is to allow operator-free propane tank filling.

The solution to the AutoStop problem is to replace this valve with two new valves, an industry standard double check fill valve and a 10% outage or bleed valve at the 80% fill line on your tank.

In some jurisdictions state regulations require that this work be done by a certified propane technician. Having these parts on hand may make it easier for your certified technician because for his day to day work these are not a high replacement item and would not be a stock item.

Here are the AutoStop patent drawings and description:

AutoStopPatent

Posted in Full Time RV Life | 27 Comments

Paul Doolittle is Staying True to Form

Posted on February 5, 2013 by Art

Ever since Paul Doolittle engineered the theft and sale of Lynn Shackelford’s prize possession, his 1970 Dodge Challenger factory show car I have maintained that Paul used psychological duress to force Lynn to sign a Bill of Sale for far less that his car’s true value.
Paul has contacted our employers several times threatening action if our positions are not terminated. Today this has come to pass. The Board of Directors of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, New Hampshire told us that they have unanimously decided to terminate our employment because we refuse to stop pursuing justice from Paul Doolittle.
To be fair to these fine upstanding people, they gave us several chances to do as they say. The first chance was to enter into a formal dispute resolution process. We agreed on Wednesday 30 January 2013. Paul Doolittle then contacted Michael Mancini of Mike Mancini’s American Muscle Car Restoration, Inc. with the response from Mr.Mancini to Paul Doolittle on 1 February 2013 “I’m not putting up with this bull. “You can tell the church to expect a lawsuit coming unless this matter is handled immediately. Harm has already been done.”
Since the letter from Michael Mancini to Paul Doolittle begins with “Hi Paul, thanks for the info.” and ends with the threat of a lawsuit against the church I’m pretty certain that this is more of Paul’s work to pressure us to drop this matter. We lost everything thanks to Paul Doolittle. Paul lied to us to get us to move our stuff onto his property. Stole the most valuable thing Lynn owned so Paul could line his own pockets then sent the rest including Lynn’s brother Dan’s earthly remains to the dump.
Michael Mancini should be suing Paul Doolittle and his son Matthew Doolittle for fraud. But then again I was advertising Lynn’s car at $250,000 on-line, Lynn was negotiating with three people at $100,000 trying for $125,000 so buying Lynn’s exceedingly rare, incredibly valuable collectible car from Paul for only $40,000 must have seemed like a bargain at to Michael Mancini.

View a scan of the e-mail from Michael Mancini to Paul Doolittle here.
Oh, Mike? It’s spelled view, viewed not vued.

Learn more about Lynn’s one of seven produced Dodge Challenger:

http://www.arts-attic.com/automobiles/70challenger/Why_so_rare.htm

Posted in Paul Doolittle | Leave a comment

For E-Bodies Only

Posted on January 5, 2013 by Art

1970 440-6 Challenger RT Convertible V.I.N. JS27V0B100421

I’ve put this page together because Lynn’s car has been stolen from him.

http://www.arts-attic.com/automobile…nger/proof.htm

If you see this car, know that whoever claims ownership does not own this car.

The Bill of Sale from Lynn Shackelford is bogus.

Lynn was trying to sell his car when Paul Doolittle of Derry, NH proclaimed
himself the owner. I ran a seriously pissed off Lynn Shackelford down to his car and took these photographs to
show Lynn and his car together because I was beginning to see Paul Doolittle’s true
nature. Soon after I took these photographs Paul removed Lynn’s car to an, as
Paul put it so delicately, “undisclosed location.” That’s car theft
to any reasonable person. Lynn hasn’t seen his car since.

Challenger 6pak said: What are the authorities doing about it?

74 Challanger said: Thats messed up,I hope Lynn gets it back. Dont know whats worse my car was stolen and never seen it again.Kicker is my x-brother inlaw had something to do with it.

I posted: Authorities?

Paul was able to smooth talk the Derry, NH police in some manner that the police wouldn’t take a stolen car report from Lynn. It helps that Paul D. owns one of the last land grant farms in New Hampshire. Lynn’s owned that car for nearly 30 years, kept it original and wants it back. We were asked to leave a cruise might in Worcester, MA one night because some guy with a $7,500 paint job didn’t want his car parked next to “a car with the sun burnt interior.” Lynn took half the cruise night with him when he left because the other car owners were incredulous that a car with this pedigree would be asked to leave because the paint was worn through on the sharp edges and the plastic was sunburn’t from its life in California. I pissed paint job off by responding to his “I got $7,500 invested in this car” with, “I’m sorry.”

challenger6pak reiterated: Right now I see a puzzle; but not all the pieces. How and why did Paul get the car? What is his paperwork trail that makes him feel the car is his. He had to show something to make this more of a civil matter than a legal matter.

I first responded to 74 challenger with: It’s harder to make a car disappear when the car is question is one of the original promotional cars.

and I responded to challenger6pak with: Paul didn’t have a paperwork trail. He took possession of the car with a trailer and a barn in an undisclosed location and presented himself as the owner of JS27V0B100421. Lynn was dealing with several people at that time trying to find the right buyer for his car, when each of those people told Lynn that “You don’t own that car, you’re just a scammer.” Funny, but Lynn had that vanity plate 6PK2GO registered to that car in Lynn’s name.

whereas challanger6pak pressed for more information: You still didn’t answer my question. If I pulled up to your place and loaded a car on my trailer that was yours, the police would arrest me unless I could show them something that proved I was the owner. How has he presented himself as the owner? You took pics with the car because you knew he was going to do something. Obviously there had been some type of contact before he loaded the car up and left with it.

and I responded with my dirty laundry: I had a great motorcycle accident in 2007 when an oncoming car turned across my travel lane and stopped. I managed to leave 17 feet of brake stripe, measured, before the point of collision and most of me went over the car. Needless to say I broke a lot of stuff important to me. Not too long after this Lynn accepted an offer of financial help from Paul to pay for storage fees until I could get back on my feet. This ended up being some $16,000 at the end and Paul suggested moving our stuff to his farm in Derry, NH where he would set up a small warehouse in his converted chicken coop with internet access where I could work selling our stuff. We had some choice pieces of amateur radio gear to sell, to give an example we had a very nice National HRO 60 with a complete set of coils, and a rack mount Collins 75A4. Both of these are high end vacuum tube amateur radio receivers. I sold the HRO for $800 from another location but Paul banned us from his property before I could sell the Collins. Lynn sold his 1960 Pontiac Bonneville convertible project car for $5,000 cash, which I gave to Paul on the $16,000 Lynn owed him. Lynn had previously sold his 1936 Plymouth for $2,500 and still owned a 1954 Plymouth Plaza wagon that had belonged to his grandfather, a 1964 Plymouth Valiant convertible with the 225-6 and the factory 4-speed option not to mention a 1966 Plymouth Valiant wagon with the 273 V-8 and factory air-conditioning. All of these are easy restoration projects but the Valiant convertible and the Plaza wagon were road-able with little more than a brake job.

Unfortunately when Paul’s son Matt went on the internet and found out what the Challenger was really worth all plans changed. Paul began his “let’s have a meeting” phase where the rules for our business arrangement changed on a daily basis. All Paul focused on now was selling Lynn’s Challenger. After Paul started representing himself as the owner of Lynn’s Challenger Lynn went to the police and the Derry, NH police had a talk with Paul. I took the pictures of Lynn with his car and Paul banned us from his property. Paul then removed the car from his property to, as Paul so delicately put it, “an undisclosed location” where he sold Lynn’s Challenger. There were no legal proceeding, there were no court orders, just unabashed theft.

There is a lot of he said, he said involved here but the single most important fact is Paul Doolittle of Derry, NH removed Lynn’s car from Lynn’s possession without benefit of due process and sold Lynn’s car without Lynn’s permission or the legal right to do so. that’s theft and for a car this valuable this is theft on a huge scale.

Posted in The Theft of Lynn's Beloved Challanger Convertible | Leave a comment

Knees aren’t replaced only re-surfaced.

Posted on December 24, 2012 by Art

X-ray image of both knees

The one on your right is the bad knee, and the one on your left is the knee that needed to be resurfaced due to wear and tear.


My partner in life, my spouse, my husband using the word to mean that we husband each other, that we take care of each other, has spent several years hobbling from chair to chair. He used narcotic painkillers whenever available to enable him to function. I say whenever available because the Grand Old Party of the Republic in its war on people has made it increasingly difficult for humans living in pain to find relief.

Lynn’s left knee was crushed in a motorcycle car collision in January 1985. That Lynn lived is due to an incredible string on circumstances beginning with an ambulance crew being parked near where Lynn came to a stop, a trauma center nearby and a vascular surgeon on duty in the emergency room.

X-ray image of knee joint

If you look closely you can see the scar lines where the individual pieces healed back together.

Lynn lived with this knee and a leg length disparity of 2 inches from 1985 until, well today. He couldn’t bring himself to give up and embrace his disability with a Frankenstein boot so with every step he lifted his body weight 2 inches. After 27 years of this abuse Lynn wore through the cartilage of his right knee. Now this isn’t something with a clearly defined end point but by the time of Lynn’s surgery bone spurs had grown our from his knee to form a crown of bony points poking into the skin around his right knee cap. In October of 2010 Lynn was on track to have his right knee repaired but I chose that time to finish off my right shoulder and I required immediate surgery to retain the use of my arm and minimize my chances of dieing from fat embolisms or cut arteries. So Lynn had to wait.

X-ray image of Lynn's resurfaced right knee.

This is what a new knee looks like when it’s all done. This is the same view point as the original equipment left knee. The metal pieces are outlined clearly,, the bone appears as shadows and the plastic wear piece is totally invisible.


This is the result of Lynn’s knee resurfacing surgery. The surgery went well even though Lynn’s clinically obese. In his favor was a winter spent exercising at Planet Fitness doing as much as he could to build up muscle strength and flexibility. The down side was the disparity in leg length, and this was worsened by the surgery. Lynn is bow legged and the knee resurfacing surgery has the net effect of straightening the leg and increasing the difference in leg length to 2 1/2 inches.

If you really want to see how this work is performed, there is a YouTube video of a class demonstration. If you are contemplating this surgery you really need to decide whether or not you want to know all of the details. Many people prefer to take the “And then a miracle occurred” frame of mind. But if you don’t mind seeing the leg of a used body, power tools, and hand tools you will understand just why your new knee hurts so much after the surgery. I have learned over the years or more accurately over the many hospitalizations I’ve required that knowledge helps take the edge off the pain and that fear of the unknown is the most painful of all.

Posted in Elliot Hospital | 3 Comments

Total Joint Replacement Surgery

Posted on December 9, 2012 by Art

I was having a good day. My day began picking up an order of bubble wrap in a VW Type 2 transporter and ended up in the emergency room at The Eliot.

In the year 2007 I wrecked my beloved Yamaha XS 750 Special while on my way to Concord, NH for some business and a lunch. I have never had an accident when I’ve been doing something foolish, my collisions occur when I’m obeying the traffic law. This time it was a young man with an armful of girl on the way to the lake to enjoy a beautiful Sunday afternoon. He turned in front of me and stopped, I left 17 feet of rear wheel brake stripe and flew over his mom’s car. I tumbled ferociously because of a rucksack full of metal gadget boxes I was going to wrap for shipment to their new owner. I survived but sad to say the gadget boxes did not. Neither did my rucksack. Ambulance technicians just can’t wait to use those sharp shears.

Fast forward to 2010, and it’s the end of summer I’m happy because I was able to finish some repairs on a customer’s 1951 Plymouth. Now I’ve been living with a cracked humerus because it refused to heal after the 2007 collision, so that’s been limiting what I can do with my right arm. I’m happy as a clam, I’ve had a good full day, there’s a full moon in the sky and I want to drive the Plymouth back to its owner’s home providing I can get a ride back to the garage.

The temperature is about 40 degrees F so I walk up to the house to use the telephone and warm up my leathers in front of the wood stove. I know the way in the dark. The lawn is known to be smoother with no rocks or tree limbs in the way and I set off at a normal walking pace through shadows cast by the trees in the moonlight. The next thing I know I’ve hooked my left instep under something and I’m falling forward. And I’m falling over stuff. I hit the ground and hear that snap and the world is white with pain. I know that snap but I’ve never felt pain this bad so I concentrate on what I can do and what’s important, breath in, breath out and heartbeat. Okay, so far so good. I still hurt but I can think now and I realize that I’m entangled in a rotary push lawnmower. I roll a little bit and the lawnmower disentangles itself from me and I lie there for a moment with my right arm up in the air. The arm still hurts a lot and once I catch my breath again I slowly pull my right arm across my chest. Oh this isn’t good but I can get to my feet and I head for the house again, enter and call for attention. Bob comes down and helps me out of my jacket and helmet and I try and figure out what I just did to myself.
Up stairs, I stand around until Jim finished his shower and I ask Bob to help me with my tee shirt. checking front and back on the mirror I don’t see anything sticking out of place so my current working hypothesis is a dislocated shoulder that re-set itself when I pulled my arm across my chest from the statue of liberty pose I was in right after the great lawnmower collision. So Ii did what any normal sane person would do, I accepted an invitation for a slice of pizza and a beer while I waited for my shoulder to settle back in place so that I could ride my motorcycle home in the dark. Well after an hour, I asked if the offer of a ride home was still open because let’s face it, these are good guys but they have real jobs in the real world and need to get up and going in the morning. Jim said sure and he carried my stuff down to the garage, I managed to arrange myself in the car beginning to think that maybe my arm was hurt worse than a dislocation. Jim made me put on my seat-belt.

When we got to my condo in Manchester, Jim asked with a smile if I wanted him to go in and smooth the way. I couldn’t do that to him again. In 2007 Jim drove down to Manchester, found Lynn, drove Lynn up to the Hospital in concord to see me and then home again. So, no thank you, I’ll do this one myself. Two years later Lynn still says “Art’s friends just dropped him on the doorstep and ran.” I managed to get inside the building and onto the condo and stood at the back of the room. Lynn got up and looked me over and said “what’s up?” I tried to talk my way into my firm comfy bed so that I could get some sleep and think about =what to do next. Lynn asked difficult questions like, Where are your leathers? Where’s your bike? How did you get home? And when I couldn’t come up with anything other than that I couldn’t lift my right arm to work the throttle on my bike and Jim gave me a ride home all Lynn could say was that he was taking me to the hospital.
Nobody likes to wait in the waiting room but waiting is a good thing. Now this is 9:00 PM and The Eliot is on night-time protocol and fairly well locked down. The clerk behind the glass just looks at me and takes me next. I’m looking for a free chair in the waiting area and I’m being led into the triage area. After a polite conversation with a nice young man I’m in the emergency room. Trust me, this isn’t good. The orthopedic doctor on call tells me that I have a clean break and gives me a sling to wear home but there’s something about his recommendation that I get an independent orthopedic consultation that rings a bell in my somewhat battered mind. The next day I ask Lynn to drive me down to the clinic because I don’t like to use the telephone and I wanted to talk to the office staff before I started looking for an orthopedic doctor.

The triage nurse took one look at me in line, asked what I’d done and if there were any x-ray photographs. I told her what I’d done and that there had been 3 x-rays taken at The Eliot. I found out later that she hit the telephones like a tiger on my behalf and didn’t stop until she had an appointment scheduled for me with an orthopedic surgeon who would take the clinic’s payment plan.

I ended up at the Eliot under the care of Eliot Orthopedic’s Dr. Parisian. He did this to me:

The surgical entry wound for my hemi-arthroplasty

Eighteen surgical staples form a neat arc on my right shoulder.

This is the first time in my life I’ve needed surgery and the only major scar on my body. Dr. Parisian only does trauma surgery, and only on shoulders and this focus really shows in the finished product. I have pretty much full range of motion. I am slowly building up my strength entering my third year of life with steel. I knew going in that medical practice is an art but I also know that I play a major part in my recovery and quality of life. I can over-use my right arm and make it sore, I can over-exercise my right arm and end up with a weak shoulder that feels like mush.
This is an x-ray image showing the steel implant that takes the place of my original equipment humerus.

This is the steel replacement for the broken head on my upper arm bone. It is a stem style replacement and the stem reaches nearly to my elbow.

Posted in Elliot Hospital | 1 Comment