Broken Humerus Update: Surgical Repaired

So it is time.. and I am out for the count. I'm making Rye Tweet while I'm inthe hospital.. so updates will be availaible. Taking Social Media to the next level with Real Time Medical Updates

Broken Humerous: It will be Allright.

Alas, it seems I am worthy of medical care. Armed with the shiny plastic insurance card, I am treated like someone worth fixing and so...

My surgery to fix my broken arm has been set for August 18th.

I'm trying to remain calm and matter of fact about it, but I can tell you that I am not looking forward to it one bit. The surgeon, while very nice, made a point of telling me all the things that could go wrong. And of course, what they actually plan on doing to make it right is just as yucky.

My arm will not require to be re-broken as the humerus bone just never healed at all.

He explained that there were two ways bones heal all wrong: either they grow but in the wrong direction and get all lumpy like or they just decided to close themselves off and just be done with it. Mine called it quits quite a while back. They will cute the two end's off and make them all fresh. Then they go into my hip. It sounds like a small incision; less than two inches. They basically cut a door in my hip bone to get inside where they "scoop" out the younger spongy inner bone yuck. The hip bone wound, he warned, is often what people complain about years later. Great. The spongy stuff, they put in my need to grow damnit bone area, and then seal it all with a metal plate that is screwed in. Of course the plate is just there to protect the bones as they finally grow, so if they decided not to grow again, then the metal plate can break and we'll have to do this whole thing all over again. And then there is the nerve that I was already warned about by a similiar no insurance broke arm adoptee (believe it or not found me via broke armness, not adoption, but now I call friend) who just got it all done. Apparently, if you look at the radial nerve funny, it goes out of whack. That's suppose to be an orthopedics’ joke. Deb said it hurts like hell and who the heck knows when it might stop. Worse than the arm pain and it could last 9 months. And my doctor warned me that when they move the radial nerve, it might stretch out and then I would have a droopy wrist that I couldn't lift. Man, I am a bad enough typist as it is!

As I have been saying, he did a great job of talking me out of wanting to have surgery to repair the humerus.

I still have to do it. But at least I know what I am getting myself in for. My MIL just had hers done. I have been talking to the other adoption afflicted broke arm, I have been reading up and it and my doctor told me the risks involved. Imagine that. He had an ethical responsibility to tell me of all the possible hardships that might become me. Unlike some major life altering huge decisions. I'm still going to have to undergo the surgery. He knows that. I know that,. There really isn't any other recourse. Despite the risks, I must try. But at least I know the truth and I can make as real a decision as possible.

I bet you a million bucks that when I meet with the anesthetist that he will warn me that I could die.

He has to do that because he is ethically bound to as well. I think I might even have to sign a disclaimer. My doctor tried to tell me that they like to do it under a local, but I tell you I am having none of that. No way am I going to be awake while they cut and scoop and screw my bones. Is it a bigger risk, sure, and they will tell me that to. They will tell me that I am being stupid and that I am letting my fear control my thinking and another choice could have a better outcome. OK, so I can be predicible. I acknowedge that. Now mind you.. I am not a fan of broke arm and it is rather a pain mentally, physically, literally, figuratively, but it is what I know.

I am use to being lame, being broke, living almost two years with a completely broken left humerus.

I know my limitations and what I can and can not do. It is controled, it is stable, it is steady, it is secure. Going forward with surgery means that I am opening things up for a big change, a big unknown. Granted, I know he only told me these things because he must and we all do hope for the best and it doesn't always happen and we can believe in luck and a tab bit of "not me, I have suffered enough"; but still, I dread it. For even if it truly works out and everything goes smoothly and I can look back on these two years of living with a broken humerus, I don't want to have to go through the pain.

And that's normal. Pain freaking hurts! It SUCKS.

I spend all too much of the past few days having serious discussion with folks on good drugs that won't make me nauseous like Codeine and Morphine does! I know it is going to hurt allot. An maybe having surgery right after a break like this is good in another way ( besides being able to avoid feeling sub-par), you are in the middle of the first horrible pain and swelling.. and so more pain and cutting and scooping and screwing does not sound quite as awful..or if it is, you don't care because you just want to be ok somehow. So you just go with the flow and it all gets better at the same time and you are OK! Now, after being non swollen, not too much hurting, just achy, not cut, bleeding, oozing: I'm not feeling that into it. And that's normal too. People want to avoid negative things. Is it trully the lesser of two evils? I have no clue and that's the catch: I won't know if I am better off after, then now or if it as a bad decision until ater I go though with the experience. Once I trully know, I cannot go back to now. And by time I can regret it, it will be too late.

Can I say again; I am use to being like this, as much as it sucks, to be lame and broken.

I can't help but think of the mother who refuses to acknowledge the adoptee who has so carefully and painfully traced his or her way back to them. These mothers are so use to being lame and broken that they cannot even take that first step towards the possibility of healing. For in between the lameness and the possible healing is a vast river of molten pain that they must willfully and slowly wade through. Just the my surgery. She doesn't want to go there. She feels she cannot. I can't imagine what it would be like. And it is because she cannot see to the other side and she feels she has to do it alone. No one willingly goes into these kinds of situations; it's like a survival instinct. Unlike with this surgery, with my doctor and my husband, and my co-workers and my family and my friends all telling me that it will be alright and worth it to get to the other side, to heal, the rejecting birthmother often has no one to cheer her on. Still the secret, still alone. It's probably normal for her to fear the pain enough that she rejects the reunion and hence, rejects the adoptee again. It's the closest I can get to really understanding that fear. I never shared that one.. I made up my own. I can only hope, that at some point, no matter how much they have grown accustomed to being lame and broken that they can know that there is really no other choice. You got to face it and come out the other side. Even if you have to re-break and go through all the same pain again. It's just got to be done to get to any possible change and healing.

And healing is good.

So, if I can go under the knife.. and I really really really don't want to, then it would make me really happy to hear that somebody made that first step. I don't know who.. maybe this will reach out to someone who needs to hear it:

It will be alright.

****

I'm still not down with it, but expected Tweeting from the iphone and Twitpics. Let's hashtag #brokearm, shall we?

Peter Carucci Director of NYS Adoption Registry

Peter M. Carucci Bureau of Production Systems Management Vital Records Section New York State Department of Health P.O. Box 2602Albany, NY 12220-2602 (518) 474-5245FAX (518) 474-9168 E-mail: pmc02@health.state.ny.us Mr. Carucci, As you probably have realized you have made many an American and New York born adoptees angry today. I’m not an adoptee, but mother to one, so you can count me in, too. As Director of NYS Adoption Registry, I honestly would think that you would have a better understanding of the issues pertaining to adoption and most especially have some sensitivity to the trials of the adopted person. I find it hard to imagine, that you would stereotype people because they were, without any choice on their part, born into a situation that caused them to be adopted. Yet, it seems that someone along the way you have found that adoptees might be more likely to pose a threat to this nation’s security then other non adopted people? I am curious why adopted people cannot have two birth certificates when it’s OK for other people to have two different versions of their birth certificates. After all New York State will change both name and sex on a birth certificate, and will issue a new birth certificate in cases where a transgender person changes their sex and would like their legal identity to match their physical self. When they are issues a new birth certificate with their new name and new sex, do you make sure that all previous copies of their original birth certificates are hunted down and destroyed? Do we seal up their original birth certificates with the “wrong” sex on it so that no one will ever know the truth? Do we worry about the national security risk of these transgender folks (not that I have ANYTHING against them at all) running about with two birth certificates and two names? I didn’t think so. Adoptees in NY State are currently denied their civil rights to their birth certificates NOT because having two birth certificates is a National security risk, but because of an old, antiquated and corruption driven law signed by then Governor Herbert H. Lehman in 1936. If you are truly as knowledgeable about adoption in New York State, then you will also know that the Governors’ children were adopted though the infamous baby broker Georgia Tann and there is a very good chance that the records were sealed in NY at her bidding as part of a quid pro quo deal. You, of all people, should know how the current NYS passive adoption registry is failing terribly on matching up birthparents and adoptees that have both followed the instructions and signed up for the registry. In New York, more than 18,000 adoptees, birth parents and siblings have registered since December of 1983, but the “success” rate is fewer than four percent! In fact, down in Philadelphia, at the Adoptee Rights Demonstration, I was with a mother and daughter from NY who were both on the registry for over 10 years and had never been matched. While I understand the NY registry is underfunded and understaffed, even you, as the director, should be able to admit it is a complete and utter failure. It’s time New York legislation did something to redeem itself for the recent sad and utterly ridiculous inability to get anything done. Bill A8410 and S5269; The Bill of Adoptee Rights, which has a insane number of supports both in NY, of NY citizens and of legislative members needs to be passed already instead of sitting idle in the marbled halls of Albany while our NY adoptees are denied their medical information, insurance coverage for life saving genetic testing, and their original identity. THAT is why New York adoptees cannot have their original birth certificates. And if you honestly think that adoptees pose a bigger threat to national security than the rest of the NY population, then Sir, I beg you to step down as director of the registry. Our adoptees, who have been denied so much already and do not need to suffer further abuse. Sincerely, Claudia Corrigan D’Arcy www.musingsofthelame.com NY mother of an Adoptee AKA: Birthmother NEVER asked for nor was promised confidentiality http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/vr/vitalf1.shtml for comments!

Birth Certificate Access? Roy Blunt is Unaware

I think my letter to Roy Blunt pretty much says it all: Dear Mr. Blunt, I have read recently that you have been getting allot of flack for your desire for President Obama to produce his birth certificate. One of your quotes in particular has caught my attention. You are quoted as saying:

“What I don’t know is why the president can’t produce a birth certificate. I don’t know anybody else that can’t produce one. And I think that’s a legitimate question.”

Maybe you do not know about any other groups of American’s who cannot produce their birth certificates, but I do. They are called Adoptees; adults, whom with no choice of their own have been relinquished and adopted and are now denied their civil rights to their legal documentation.

That’s 6 Million Americans who don't have their Birth Certificates either.

In fact, in your own home state of Missouri, you routinely deny your adult adoptees the rights to access their birth certificates. You should probably be concerned for them, too. According to the Missouri statute under Adoption and Foster Care, Section 453.121, in order for identifying information to be released to an adoptee either born or adopted in Missouri, the biological parent must submit an affidavit. But what if the searcher is unable to locate the birth parents? What if the birth parents are deceased and, therefore, unable to submit an affidavit? “As the statute is written and interpreted right now, there must be an affidavit on file for the identifying information to be released,” said state Rep. Connie LaJoyce Johnson, D-St. Louis. “If there isn’t one or if it was misplaced for whatever reason, the court will deny the release of the information to the adoptee.” And then, they can’t produce that birth certificate that you are so concerned about. Johnson sponsored House Bill No. 509, which, at the moment, sits dormant. The bill would modify sections 193.125 and 193.255 of Missouri’s adoption record policy, affording adoptees 18-and-older the right to obtain a certified copy of their original birth certificate, which, of course, would contain some identifying information of the birth parents including their names and birthplaces. Until then, no birth certificates can be produced.

Right now, in all but 8 states, adult adoptees are denied access to their original birth certificates under state law just because of the circumstances of their birth.

If you would really wanted to do this country a favor, you should would be concerned about them. In fact we all should care about the fight to open birth records. Just something for you to think about.. and maybe, watch what you say! Claudia Corrigan d'Arcy http://www.musingsofthelame.com/ **** I have notcied that this whole"Obama Birth Certifcate" conspiracy thing is geeting quite a bit of media play and attention. It's a great opportunity to go to all the online sites and tell them about the Birth certificate issue facing Adoptees. Check out this one Google Search on "RoyBlunt Obama Birth Certificates" . Take a few minutes.. click on the sites and make a profile. Then while they are hitting you main box for verification, write up a quick infomative response. Feel free to take any info from what I said above and then link if you can to the AdopteeRights.net. Then get to the articles, copy and past your response.. adn wala! Educational, infomational and a good use to time for this very important issue!

How Has Adoption Really Changed?