Update from.....Izzy

[lighter]

Well, Izzy.....

if this trip is JUST A PLOY to spy on you and disprove your injuriess
I fear mightily for the IC employees, with respect to Karma.

You sound good and up to this challenge, however.

Perhaps documenting this journey yourself would be prudent......

Karla could roll film at all times outside the bathroom, etc. 

The insurance company wouldn't be able to cobble together 40 seconds of film where you look confident, competent and able bodied out of a 24 hour period, kwim?

Lighter

[Izzy_*now*]

hi lighter,

Yes. I've said it before, but maybe not on here.

"Why are they wanting their own Examination after 3½ years? Why now?"

Yes. This is not just a broken leg; it's become a nightmare on wheels!

I cannot help but be suspicious (paranoid, even) so I have to do things as though I am on my own, but I know I cannot take a day trip to the Coast, alone.....so if they want to see clumsy they will see clumsy, if they are watching!

Karla and I will be talking about vegetarian recipes while on the plane......and I am interested to know who all knows our exact plans.

I have an appointment with my orthopaedic surgeon for an X-ray and talk. I asked ol' Yarrow (GP) for the referral and go next week. I want to see inside my leg, and mention a few things to be ready to take on their Godzilla!

A document of the journey is a good idea. Fodder for my lawyer to add to everything else.

Izzy

(just to add a quote from the Internet from a personal injury lawyer in Vancouver:)

On examination for discovery she agreed that it caused her to waddle most of the time. She said that it was a particular problem when she walked after driving.
 
[18] The January and February 2008 videotape evidence is of little assistance – the recordings are brief and do not show the plaintiff walking to any extent. The May 2009 videotape evidence is much more extensive. On May 19, 2009 the plaintiff was at a gas station purchasing flowers. To my eye, her gait appeared normal. On June 14, 2009 the plaintiff was videotaped while at a garden centre, and again her gait appeared normal. A year later, on June 15, 2010, there is videotape of her walking. There is no apparent limp but she does appear stiff and careful in the way she moves. On June 17, 2010 Ms. Wilkinson was videotaped walking to her car with a grocery cart full of groceries. She was captured loading the groceries into the hatchback of her vehicle. She did all of that without apparent limitation. On June 19 of that year she purchased a three or four foot tall house plant which she loaded and unloaded from her car, again without apparent limitation. Finally, there is a lengthy videotape of her on June 19, 2010 at a garden centre with Mr. Bains and her daughter. She is captured squatting down, standing up, and walking about the store without noticeable limitation. In summary, the videotape reveals some minor stiffness or limitation on some occasions. There are also occasions when she appeared to have little or no visible limitation.

[lighter]

Izzy,

Thinks go consider;

What about contacting a nearby University Journalist Department, and discussing your case...... perhaps a senior journalist student would be a good pick to actually document your journey?  I suppose the Professor or Teacher in charge of that department would have some good insights, if nothing else.

What about contacting a local left leaning newspaper and asking for the names of jounalists who would typically be interested in a case like yours?  Discussing and picking brains doesn't cost yo anything, and you might end up with information you find very helpful, even if you don't choose to deal with a reporter in the end.

What about contacting a victim's advocacy group and picking their brains?

On the whole, I think you're spot on about the IC treating you like someone with a simple broken leg.  That's egregious, considering the circumstances.  If it were me, I'd document in a "just in case" manner, which is apparenlty something I do compulsively, which turned out to be very helpful in my last legal case.  Did I have a bunch of stuff that wasn't useful in the end?  At this time, that's how it looks, but those things could turn out to be necessary in the next case, kwim?  Hard to say, but being OCD in the documentation department has on the whole been a life saver for me.   

I'd also talk to a few attorneys about this..... pick their brains for free if they allow it.  If you have folkes refer you, you can get some free advice typically, which is what I've been doing a lot of lately, and the referrals weren't people I actually know either.  Attorneys are intrigued by unusual cases that tease their brains..... they enjoy rolling questions around and sounding informed and wise.  Some of them actually want to tackle the case, bc they can't believe what's happening.... they want to be the ones to turn things around, which is what happened at this last trial.  My attorney wanted to do what all the male attorneys "failed to get done," and she certainly did that.   

If you can effect some change, or help some other people in your position, all the better.  Ahh yes, the familiar smell of pie in the sky.... I just can't help myself.

Ok, how about this?  The Insurance Company ends up taking a public relations hit, and knows your case will cost them more if it goes to trial, so they settle right away to get you out of their hair. 

More realistic, and........

::whispering::

Squirrrrrel jusssssstice.
 
::shrug::

I just love that commercial.
Lighter
 

[Izzy_*now*]

hi lighter,

Thanks for the input and now I know where to come for more info if needed.

My input to my case is private, unless the Insurance Co, can hack into my computer and read forum postings and emails, in which case they have evidence that is to be released when my lawyer says so.

Anything I have said to Karla is fair game if they put her on the stand.

Everything I have said here is the truth.

OK. So I have told only the truth, but what if I 'joked' to Karla about something, and I have, but forget what, as it wasn't the truth, but if she were asked under oath would have to repeat it and I am "up the creek".

OK. I need an example!! "Listen I can fake this soft tissue pain as long as it takes to nail those bastards!" THEN where am I? Up shit creek!

I know my lawyer would not appreciate my calling in the re-enforcements at this time. I must be as patient as I can be, as I have been all along and determine what is the best tact, without calling my lawyer ever day. Karla is a good sound board, in translating some of his verbiage! (Once was sneaky wording to account for his forgetting something about my case when writing to Defence Council.)

Quote from: Skits on November 07, 2012, 10:00:19 AM

So, you just stay calm, and all will work its way out, in my favour.

This week I see my surgeon for 2nd and 3rd surgeries, for an x-ray and talk about what we see inside my leg. Then I have more knowledge about this when I see the Defence's surgeon next month. He can also explain to me what another surgeon, filling in for him one day in 2009, means in her report, which I have Screen Captured, printed and it's in my purse already yet so soon!

But, believe me, when this is all over, signed sealed and delivered, I won't know what to do with myself!

Love
Izzy

[lighter]

Eeeek, Izz.

It would be terrible if Karla represented every joke you ever made as fact during a deposition or trial.

Lighter

[Twoapenny]

Izzy I hope it's over soon so that you can do some nice things and enjoy yourself.  What a situation.  So complex and so difficult for you. ((((((Izzy))))))

[Izzy_*now*]

Ya folks.

Defendants admit guilt then want to get away with as little as possible, while the specialists I have for my case make recommendations (i.e. $$ for me to spend to best approach the damage done.)

-- Therapy for leg, now in a pool and learn to do it on my own--- (whine! I don't want to!...but I have to!!)
---Medications
---Choices to take will arrive when dentist submits his assessment and report--- might choose to have them pulled and be gumming it in Court! heh heh heh
---Have had to change most of my life style, even to wearing skirts instead of slacks. (pulling my butt across velour seats of car pull my slacks down and I cannot get them back up but thank heavens the chair hides the fact that I have returned sitting on my waist band....skirts are better, therefore, more wardrobe expenses. (Don't You Laugh! At Me!) i was out the other day in slacks and came back in good shape for the first time---
--- will try my left snow boot for the first time this week. I need my hip to shove in my foot when I pull it up with both hands--- no Hip now to shove back---HMMMM!! It's my right hip that run the accelerator.

I hardly remember my others lives!

Reincarnated under my very own eyes!

xxoo
Izzy

PS.  2 years this week, 17th, since I stopped smoking after 54 years of "being cool".....

[lighter]

I'm picturing 1950's Izzy, red lipstick, and beehive updoo, with her ciggy....

you do look cool.

::nodding::

Lighter

[Izzy_*now*]

You want I should attach a black and white of me back then, and you cannot see the RED lipstick I never wore?

I saw my orthopaedic surgeon yesterday for a look at a new x-ray of my "hip/thigh" and it was quite interesting in comparison to the one taken 3 years ago, November 12, 2009. The latter was messy, the new one is all clean and it appears that the femoral shaft might have attached a corner of itself to the acetabulum (hip socket) (but wouldn't that be a fixed leg?) as well as it shows all the scar tissue attached and that is what is allowing me to put weight (not full weight) on my left leg while swinging my right one in the air and hold onto the kitchen cabinet. ...... Never without Karla though!

I needed to know what it looked like just for the fact that we are approaching the "end", whatever way it goes, and I wouldn't be talking in a 'guessing style" which I would have been re the appearance and placement of the bone shaft.

I have been having "odd" email answers from my one sister who emails, plus a friend, who was once the D's sitter, had her 70th birthday yesterday and I telephoned as always, every year, as she does for me, but this call was different.

This was a little hard to decipher, but I had to "defend" myself 4-5 times with C. once was when I described about how I got into the bathtub (i.e oh God I wouldn't bother bathing) another the car (why not use taxis), another the psychogenic tremors, another about the length of my hair, another about the trip via plane for the examination.

I was becoming very upset, as she was saying if the tremors were in my head then just reverse the thought and they would be gone....that if an orthopaedic surgeon came here it would cost so much more so I might as well just go there (omg!), that the picture I sent of my long hair made a quibble over the words, "cut" and "trim".

This is what this sister does to me. When I scalded my leg with hot soup, Sis says 'I know how much it hurt, so watch out for infections, yada yada'..... and the next email, after I said I knew what to do, that I wasn't a virgin at this, she said she never had a scalding burn --- so what the hell is with everyone telling me what to do?

I suppose the best way to say it is to not criticize if you haven't experienced the exact same! Oh I know a good saying.. I made it up myself,

"Don't not walk in my shoes since I cannot walk in them either."  HUH?????

I sent as gracious as possible emails to each of them, tonight, and asked why each felt that she had to tell me how to handle things????????

They don't disike me, I know. Is this sloppy way their way to help, but I am not 10 years old, and each has not been disabled for 43 years. They couldn't be jealous! WTF????

Pardon my ending!!

Love
Izzy

See? no red lipstick! I grew up in black and white,
1.) I was 15
3.) I was 19
2.) I was elderly like in the past few years---still no red lipstick but "big hair"?
4.)  My 60th birthday and big hair

[Twoapenny]

Izzy you are beautiful   Then and now

Re the 'advice' - I often get this regarding my son, a sort of disbelief that his problems are as difficult and severe as they are, suggestions about where I'm going wrong, although never an offer to help or taken it upon themselves to do what they suggest personally (ie you get your sweet arse over here and get him to eat carrots if it's as easy as you claim).

I've come to the conclusion that it stems from people who are unable to just be supportive - to offer sympathy, understanding, to simply offer their condolences or good wishes for better things in the future.  People who aren't comfortable with feelings and emotions and who blame others for the problems that they experience - perhaps so they don't have to offer support in any way if they can tell themselves it's the fault of the person experiencing the problem and if they changed themselves the problem would disappear.

I've had good advice from people in the past, usually from those who have been through a similar experience or know someone who has.  I find people with no personal experience of what you are going through (bizarrely often the doctors and specialists who tell you what to do) often have little to offer in terms of good advice or sound information, particularly with conditions like yours that don't seem to fit a basic identify, medicate, cure pattern.  Someone I know had this little gem at the ready when offered unwelcome or unhelpful 'advice' regarding her son's disability:  "I've read dozens of books on this subject.  I've scoured hundreds of pages of information on the internet, spoken to dozens of parents, attended numerous medical assessments, not to mention spending thousands of hours with my son and knowing him back to front and inside out.  Why then, having spent ten minutes with him, do you presume to know more than me?"

I've always really identified with what she said and it rang so true for me as I was constantly questioned and presumed to be lying about my little boy.  She really hit the nail on the head.

I'd like to add that I don't include the advice I get on here in the 'useless' category, quite the opposite, it's always been a real help and given me things to think about and new things to try out.

[Hopalong]

Wow. Tupp. Your 2nd paragraph.

You are a wise wise observant woman.

Izz, I'm so sorry they are so...unable. To be supportive.

It all makes me think about how important it is to be a good listener. To be able to just "be present" with another person's distress. It's a quality I can haul out now and then but often fail at. I'm usually the flailing distressed one.

But I want to be like THAT. Centered. Compassionate. Able to hear and reflect without "fixing."

(So kindly everybody forgive the floods of advice...which will probably continue. Or at least let me know if I don't HEAR you, first. I think it's okay to advise, sometimes...but to stop, listen and first hear and reflect how it must be feeling for that person. Before rushing in with a big bucket full of suggestions.)

Oh but I like filling my buckets, hanging them on doorknobs, sneaking them into yards, passing them out on the street...sheesh.

xxoo
Hops

[Twoapenny]

Wow. Tupp. Your 2nd paragraph.

You are a wise wise observant woman.

Izz, I'm so sorry they are so...unable. To be supportive.

It all makes me think about how important it is to be a good listener. To be able to just "be present" with another person's distress. It's a quality I can haul out now and then but often fail at. I'm usually the flailing distressed one.

But I want to be like THAT. Centered. Compassionate. Able to hear and reflect without "fixing."

(So kindly everybody forgive the floods of advice...which will probably continue. Or at least let me know if I don't HEAR you, first. I think it's okay to advise, sometimes...but to stop, listen and first hear and reflect how it must be feeling for that person. Before rushing in with a big bucket full of suggestions.)

Oh but I like filling my buckets, hanging them on doorknobs, sneaking them into yards, passing them out on the street...sheesh.

xxoo
Hops

Hopsie your advice has always been spot on where I'm concerned so keep it coming xxx

[Izzy_*now*]

Ya Tupp,

Thanks loads.

I've come to the conclusion that it stems from people who are unable to just be supportive - to offer sympathy, understanding, to simply offer their condolences or good wishes for better things in the future.  People who aren't comfortable with feelings and emotions and who blame others for the problems that they experience - perhaps so they don't have to offer support in any way if they can tell themselves it's the fault of the person experiencing the problem and if they changed themselves the problem would disappear.

I agree. I felt that all along, but never put it into words. Now I think you ought to win a prize for saying that so concisely!! and, Hops, you love it too! Great! And, I'll be watching for a bucket lady on my street.

Tupp, I can imagine you, with your son, and then someone telling you what to do.

I like the saying that in a true friendship it is wonderful to understand and to be understood.

Thanks you two!

Izzy♥♥♥♥♥

[Izzy_*now*]

Edit--this is old news as they are back to the drawing board, because I'm not having a nap on a bench in Vancouver Airport!

Can you believe that the latest is that I leave here about 6:00 am., taxi to airport one hour in advance, first on, last off, fly to Vancouver, then Taxi to New Westminster for an all day Examination, taxi back to Vancouver, fly back, first on, last off and take a taxi from the airport to home, arriving about 8:00 pm. 14 hours?
That is just a guess at this point but the Insurance Company rep, the Defence council, is doing battle with me and my mind! NO ONE tells me what to do, but in this case, I suppose I must comply, and I will definitely Journal the trip.

I hate this, but I need a better word/phrase than 'hate' or 'driving me nuts', ..... | am guessing this is the only way to spy on me since I so seldom go out, yet I've had paranoid feelings since the overdrugging at the 1st surgery. I have to appear normal, which I am, but yet I am paranoid...OMG!... I AM nuts!

I will be away from my home, only one day allowed, from 6:00 a.m. until back at 8:00 p.m. (approximate times) 14 hours and I always think of that commercial with the handsome man on the bus, when the question is asked, "Where will YOU be when YOUR laxative works?"

I fear this will put me into panic situation when it all comes about, even with Karla near to me, while the both of us watch for spies.

I will journal and wet my Depends on purpose. After all, don't men put on Depends so they dont have to move during the final football game. I learned it from TV!!!

..just an interim note while the legal Eagles squabble, and while they do, I could likely drive there and back...HuuMPPHH!

Nothing definite! I expressed my feelings on a one day trip..................... flying, plus swollen feet and legs come hand in hand!

I WANT MY LIFE BACK!

Izzy

Disclaimer: The writer is not responsible for any of the nonsense just spewed. It was in the paroxysm of tremors that it was done.

[Izzy_*now*]

Forget previous gripe (for now, except for the memory.....fade.........)

Suddenly Defence has found a 2-hour slot for me with a Physiatrist for November 30, locally, ½ hour drive away!

Imagine!

Magic!

Iz