That long-awaited update on my illness/move, and things. - Page 2

WinAce · 06-30-2005, 10:08 PM

Pretty much. Applied for transplant at Columbia Presbyterian last summer, got denied; looked into other options, got told "nope, sorry" or (in the case of Duke University) held up for a gratutiously long time before they replied in the negative, after leading me to think they'd do it (those bastards); settled on UNC in December, went to get evaluated in February (paid out of my own pocket, as I didn't have any health coverage they'd accept; they were very accomodating and charged just $600, getting the tests they needed back from my own docs in New York); got an "okay, we'll transplant you!" notice in March, while on the West Coast with Jessica; got an apartment in April; moved in May, after literally almost dying from one of the worst lung infections I ever had, and now the local Medicaid is trying to finish what illness started, apparently.

They haven't actually said it's because it would kill me, but that's what they mean with their quaint little euphemisms such as "unfavorable odds" and "unacceptable risks of transplantation."

My mom is moving to Florida in July with her hubby, and isn't even in NYC at the moment. My dad (they're divorced, obviously) is staying in NY, but he doesn't speak English well, at all, and largely limits himself to the Russian community there.

Will send that PM in a moment. Thanks so much!

davidm · 07-01-2005, 01:16 AM

Allan, I have your PM. I will be in touch with your early tomorrow (Friday, NYC time). I believe it's possible we can have something up by the Fourth of July.

:yup:

davidm · 07-01-2005, 01:25 AM

Also, admins, can you reset my name to my boring old davidm? Thanks! :yawn:

Gurdur · 07-01-2005, 01:28 AM

I can volunteer for
- hosting
- setting up and managing email lists
- setting up and managing a bulletin board

livius drusus · 07-01-2005, 01:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidm

Also, admins, can you reset my name to my boring old davidm? Thanks! :yawn:

Done. Welcome to FF, davidm. :welcome1:

viscousmemories · 07-01-2005, 01:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gurdur

I can volunteer for
- hosting
- setting up and managing email lists
- setting up and managing a bulletin board

We knew you would, so we had to act fast.

I should've posted something here, but we've already set up a site for him on our server and we've been talking about blog vs. forum software via PM. I'm thinking blog is probably sufficient for his needs but I'm not sure.

davidm · 07-01-2005, 01:38 AM

Woo hoo! Thank you!

livius drusus · 07-01-2005, 01:47 AM

No, thank you. The forum index is so much more compact now. :pleased:

Gurdur · 07-01-2005, 02:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by viscousmemories

We knew you would, so we had to act fast.

.

* grumble *
Competition, competition, grumble, grumble.

Ah well, let me know of anything I can do to help.

viscousmemories · 07-01-2005, 02:29 AM

I will, definitely. Thanks.

davidm · 07-01-2005, 03:06 PM

Allan, do you have text ready for this Web site? If so, can you pm it to me?

Also, I think it would be a good idea to use a photo of yourself. Let me know about that.

WinAce · 07-01-2005, 07:59 PM

I'll write something up later; gotta get going to pulmonary rehab, right now. And I have plenty of photos, although, amusingly, my scanner lacks a cable at the moment.

Thanks!

davidm · 07-02-2005, 05:16 PM

Allan, I'm working on a visual mockup now, which I hope to have ready to show by tomorrow (sunday). I've noticed that your current home page has a link to a blog and a forum. Are those the only two links you will be needing, or will you require more? Also please note I'm going to make some mockup text for the home page. Obviously feel free to correct or change what I write, but please note that it's extremely important to make a powerful statement about your situation right off the bat. It's that kind of statement that will attract the attention of any harried, get-to-the-point media types who will see it.

davidm · 07-02-2005, 05:18 PM

Hmm, I'm looking at the statement your wrote about your situation now. It says you're from North Carolina, but that is where you just moved to, correct? Actually, aren't you native New York City resident, who lived in NYC until just recnetly?

davidm · 07-02-2005, 06:06 PM

OK, I have a visual mockup of the home page ready for consideration. I have saved it as a Photoshop PDF file, and it looks to me like PM here takes PDF attachments, is that right? So I propose sending it as an attachment to liv of vm and then one of those placing it up on a page for people to look at. It's just a singe piece of art, compressed, so image quality may not be the best, but I will fix that when I actually convert it into a Web page. It is 785 by 560 pixels in size, which means it would fit exactly in monitors set to 800 by 600 resolution. For higher resolutions, it would be centered in the screen against some dark background color. Let me know how to proceed. thanx.

viscousmemories · 07-02-2005, 06:06 PM

I'm almost positive he's from NY and just transplanted (no pun intended) to NC for the operation. He mentions in his OP that he used to be covered by NY Medicaid. Btw, here's his first attempt at a short, straightforward explanation of his current situation which you probably haven't noticed. I reckon it could be a lot shorter and more to the point, though.

Oops, cross-posted. I'm almost positive you can upload pdf's as attachments here, if you want to get broader input from people here, or sure you can PM it to us. :1thumbup:

davidm · 07-02-2005, 06:22 PM

Wait, I'm going to have to rethink this. I see now that PMs don't take attachments; but you can make attachments with new posts. However, I don't think that will work out too well as the image is slightly wider than the FF page, and will cause some kind of havoc ... hmm, let me think.

viscousmemories · 07-02-2005, 06:25 PM

Attachments show up in posts as thumbnails, which you can click to see fullsize. That should work out okay.

davidm · 07-02-2005, 06:31 PM

OK, let's try it... remember, image quality might be degraded but it's only a test. I made it a bit tabloidy to attract attention. :whup:

davidm · 07-02-2005, 06:32 PM

OK, it looks like when you click on the thumbnail, Adobe Acrobat reader opens it and sizes it to the resolution of your screen. This means it is blowing the image up and distorting the pixels. To view it as it would actually look, make sure, in Adobe Reader, you select "actual pixels" to see how it would really look on your monitor.

davidm · 07-02-2005, 06:33 PM

That is to say, under Acrobat Reader "view" menu, select "Actual Size."

davidm · 07-02-2005, 06:41 PM

Hmm, now it doesn't work for me. When I click on the link a window opens telling me I'm not logged in; when I log in it tells me my user name or password is incorrect. ... :jawdrop2:

viscousmemories · 07-02-2005, 06:48 PM

Hmm... works fine for me*, and looks hot.

* Acrobat Reader 6.0 Firefox plug-in, "view actual size".

davidm · 07-02-2005, 06:50 PM

Hmm, I keep getting the message saying I'm not logged in or don't have permission to view the page. Is it possible some default setting isn't allowing me permission to view whatever page the thing is located on?

viscousmemories · 07-02-2005, 06:51 PM

That's really weird. I just logged out and could still view it, even as a guest. :chin: