Beer and AVM's

General
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I’m sorry, I can’t help it. I don’t like very many beers and one of the few types I do enjoy is the Corona. The last one I had was at the best restaurant in all of Haiti. 10 years ago, the hotel was pancaked flat and 300 people lost their lives and many more lost their family.

Seriously, I have a question I need your help with. I don’t know how many of you know my story, so I will attempt to retell the high-lights but be brief. Diagnosed in 1978 when very few people knew what an AVM was. Surgery at Mayo. Treatment and surgery on and off from then moving forward. 2018 was the year from, well let’s say the embolization went right but the side effects were bad.

Now we move to 2020, i am on disability because there is no way I could work given the headaches, vision issues, speech issues… One of the things that has gotten systemically worse is my lungs. My left diagphragm is paralyzed because the phrenic nerve was cut/damaged in one or more of my treatments. My feeling is that 2009 made it an issue and 2018 made it a significant problem. Because of that, my doctors have warned me, rather bluntly, that I am at no greater risk of getting Covid19 but I am at significantly greater risk of having a really bad potentially fatal case of it.

Of the four other family members that I live with (2 daughters are all growed up) my wife and one daughter are in the ‘second row’ of exposure to Covid because of their jobs at the hospital (RN in the NICU and pharmacy tech in the ER. My son works in the Amazon fulfillment center - touching lots of boxes and working with a substantial number of people. All three are higher risk of getting the virus, but not higher risk of getting it badly.

We’re trying to figure out a way to keep us all healthy. It’s basically looking like the best way to accomplish that goal is to essentially split locations. Probably my wife and the kids who might be at risk of bringing it home would stay at home and i’m the one who would find something else.

6 months ago, i would be opposed to that - but frankly, my 18 and 19 year old are both getting cocky enough and causing my head to hurt enough that the idea of being ‘kind of separate’ from them and having time to pursue the writing that i can’t seem to get done at home sounds pretty good right now.

But that brings up a question - where? We have looked at buying a relatively small decent priced travel trailer and put that in the back yard for me to hang out in. But the township won’t allow occupied trailers for more than 5 days and then they have to leave for at least two. i guess i could go live in the WalMart parking lot for two days and go back and forth but…

i spent from mid march to early May at my in-laws condo while they went to their place in Florida. That will work from December to April, but that doesn’t help now.

Any ideas? The rental market is such that a short term rental of an apartment would be probably $1000 a month. That’s a lot.

Any creative ideas?

Thanks in advance,

TJ

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TJ

Can you talk to the township about a temporary exception to the rules, or a licence to have an exception at your address at least until you might re-occupy the condo? I’m sure you wouldn’t want to spend much time in the trailer through winter!! The rule makes sense but it would also make sense to be flexible on the rules at times like this. If you set a specific end date on any exception, that usually makes people more ok with creating an exception because it is time-limited.

It would certainly be helpful if you didn’t have to migrate round the town each week.

The only other idea I’ve got is whether there are any hotels or guest houses nearby that have zero guests at the moment and you can negotiate a really low rate with them. I know here in the UK, some places have offered even free accommodation to those on the front line of the coronavirus fight.

My policeman brother-in-law has been offered a work-from-home desk job during coronavirus so that, once he starts that position, he could live with his own family properly again. It’s a really good thing to see an organisation thinking a little outside the box and going “how could we ensure X is living sustainably?” I know the police are in the news headlines “somewhat”(!) at the moment but all is not bad and I would not have expected them to think as constructively as that. (N.B. we are in the UK and there are definite differences in the UK from the US).

Hope these thought help.

Very best wishes

Richard