Re: Peo Kindgren plays Weiss on 7-String Baritone Guitar

On Aug 15, 10:16 pm, Andrew Schulman <and...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Aug 15, 8:23 pm, "Alain Reiher" <rei...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:> Mysterious indeed Andrew ... I hope everything is fine.
Maybe one day you will let us know.
Nice to see you back.

Thank you Alain.

I have mixed feelings about telling any of this, based on past
experience here, but there are two things connected to it that have to
do with music, one specifically the guitar, and as I've told a few
RMCG friends privately, and I am basically out of the woods now, here
is a relatively short version of what happened that I will share with
you.

I posted in July that I was taking a month long vacation.  Not really
a vacation, but quite a trip.

Last summer a CT scan revealed 2 cysts on my pancreas.  A subsequent
biopsy was inconclusive as to whether it was cancer.  Another CT scan
was recommended and was done this past June.  It revealed a mass in
the tail of the pancreas with all the earmarks of cancer, concurred on
by 4 doctors.  It was considered to be 98% likelihood of being
pancreatic cancer.   Pancreatic cancer is deadly.  There is a 4%
survival rate.

The operation took place on July 16th - 6 hours.  At the halfway mark
the removed mass and cyst next to it were examined by the pathologist.

I got the 2% deal.  It wasn't cancer but rather a rare kind of
inflammation.  Indistinguishable from a malignant tumor via a CT
scan.  Still, a big operation to do, it had to be removed because the
likely complications later on from it can be fatal.

Fortunately we were lucky to have gotten a recommendation to one of
the best pancreatic surgeons in the country, at Beth Israel Medical
Center in downtown NY.  A great human being at that, Dr. Martin
Karpeh.  Pancreatic cancer is extremely difficult to do, there aren't
a lot of doctors in that specialty.

However, I didn't get off that easy.  There is a 1 in 25,000 chance in
surgery to go into severe anaphylactic shock, and just before the
surgery was over that's what happened.  Probably from a miniscule
impurity in a blood transfusion.  I was rushed into the ICU and
immediately put into a medically induced coma.  For the first 3 days I
was near death.  At one point early on my blood pressure was near
zero.

After I was brought out of the coma I spent 3 more days in the ICU,
but recovered so quickly that I was put into a regular room without
going into the intermediate "step down" ward.  I was only there 2 days
before being sent home.

Not a single doctor or nurse in the ICU thought I was going to
survive, many of them told me that before I left the ICU.  On the
second day after being woken up I took my first walk, using a walker,
like an old man.  A young resident walked by and was almost in shock
seeing me alive let alone walking.  Which led to the funniest line of
the 12 days when he said, "7 days ago my shoelaces were higher than
your blood pressure".  By the way, I never lost my own sense of
humor.  I had quite a few good one liners after I woke up.  Making
your doctors and nurses laugh is a great thing to do, for them and for
you.

So, how did I survive?  That is an unknown but there were a few
factors in my favor.

I had great doctors and nurses in a great teaching hospital.  Amazing
people from all over the world.

I've been going to a gym 4-5 days a week for years, and I walk 2 big
strong dogs every day and play rough with them.  I was physically very
strong.

My wife was with me most of every day, and whispered in my ear; love,
and explanations of what was happening.  And you do hear in a coma,
but it gets translated into a whole inner world.  I hesitate to call
them dreams, what you are in is much more vivid then dreams.  It is a
reality onto itself.  Some of it was delightful, some of it was quite
frightening.  And how it connected to what was actually happening
around me was amazing.  I remember a great deal of it, maybe all of
it.

I had brought my iPod and on the second day of the coma my wife put
the earphones in and turned it on at the piece I had in place.  That
piece was BWV 244, St. Matthews Passion, by J.S. Bach.  Listen to the
opening especially and you will hear what hope it will give someone in
that condition.  However, in it's entirety it is one of the greatest
pieces ever written and I'm sure it made a difference.

The guitar related aspect:  I got home almost 3 weeks ago, after 12
days in the hospital, walked through the front door, walked straight
across the living to the far end where I keep my guitar, picked it up,
sat down, and played Bach's Sarabande from BWV 997.  It took a huge
effort to do this, almost having to will each finger to move.  I felt
a deep satisfaction to play that music.  However, I was very weak and
very tired and put the guitar down.

I played ten minutes the second day.  A little more each day, real
practicing.  Today was the first day I felt back to what I can do
musically, and almost back technically.  It was like being a beginner
again, very hard to do, but it comes back quickly.  Today I smiled
when I played.

The hardest part of getting back is recovering from the anesthesia and
all the drugs.  It will take months to get it completely out of my
system.  It was essentially 7 days of anesthesia.

I was on morphine at one point after the coma and was delighted to
feel how much I didn't like it!  But the music that plays in your head
with that is quite amazing.  Didn't like all the Percocet either.

Haha, I wasn't going to say any of this here, but for better and for
worse this place called RMCG is a family, and if TG and Alain ask
about me, I guess I have to tell the story.

So, moral of the story - never give up hope.  And, Life is Beautiful.
That would probably make a good title for a movie.

Andrew

Wow, what can I say. what a story. I wish you well, Andrew. Life is
good.
.

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