Margaret Ardussi and Cynthia Yockey in December 1984 -- celebrating our first Christmas together at my parents' home.

… the thrill of them all, then I will tell them I remember you”: the most beautiful woman in heaven to me — Margaret Rose Ardussi, born June 1, 1941; died Dec. 7, 2004.

Margaret Rose Ardussi, born June 1, 1941; died Dec. 7, 2004.

Margaret Ardussi at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., with the Washington monument and blossoming cherry trees behind her.

Margaret Ardussi, a highly regarded teacher of the Transcendental Meditation program and a genius artist with water-based paints, was my life partner for over 20 years from Sept. 25, 1984, until her death due to complications of multiple sclerosis on Dec. 7, 2004, in our home under hospice care with me at her side. Margaret would be 69 today.

Somehow this interview reminds me of the times I would be transferring Margaret from her wheelchair to something else depending on the place — a lift chair at our yogic flying program, a lift chair at the pool — where my attention would be totally focused on her until I had her settled and often when I looked up I would see someone staring at us who would look away and dab at a tear. People respect love and devotion. (And love and devotion deserve equality. What? Like I would let that go.)

You gotta LOVE this woman! Ruth Flowers attended a disco party and saw that it was filled with “energy and joy,” as she puts it. So she decided to become a DJ and NOW is rocking the discos in PARIS FREAKING FRANCE! And don’t you go there about her being 69 — she was a teen when ELVIS was DIRTY! Kids these days are living in settled and safe territory, shock-wise. She was a pioneer! (Also, if Margaret were still alive, she would turn 69 on June 1, so it really doesn’t seem old to me and I can look at Ruth and see the joyful young woman still thriving inside her.)

So, rock on, Ruth, rock on!

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I found this clip via Instapundit, who linked the blog of an old friend of the man being profiled, Mark Stephan.

Stephan is a successful businessman who also ran marathons and participated in triathlons. He became quadriplegic due to injuries from a bicycling accident on Aug. 11, 2007. NBC is playing the “inspiration” angle.

Actually, what Stephan’s success in overcoming quadriplegia reveals is the scandalous way paralyzed people are abandoned in our healthcare system and what we can do to ensure better outcomes and even regained abilities by using his successful rehabilitation program as a model.

(Background for any new gentle readers: my late life partner of over 20 years had multiple sclerosis and we met when she could still limp two blocks. She was quadriplegic due to the MS the last 10 years of her life and paralyzed from the chest down for two more years before that. So I participated in the full range of rehab care for people with mobility impairments and I know what it is like to live with quadriplegia since I was the one providing her care and lifting and transferring her. We were lucky enough for her to receive care at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington, D.C., and the therapists there trained me, so I do know what passes for top care in the U.S.)

The biggest scandal and most heinous atrocity about paralyzing injuries or illnesses in the United States is that the patients are so neglected during their acute care hospitalizations that their muscles and tendons contract and harden irreversibly. It only takes a few days of failure to provide proper range-of-motion exercises for their hands to look like they were wax and got too close to a flame and their fingers are melting and for their feet to be pulled into a permanent point. This means that when they are transferred to a rehabilitation hospital, the neglect during acute care is actually responsible for a significant percentage of their disability AND IT DID NOT HAVE TO HAPPEN!!!!!

I did range-of-motion exercises for Margaret at least once a day, and usually more, for about 16 years. It did help that after she became paralyzed, she was prescribed Baclofen, which reduces contractures. I worked so hard on this because it made Margaret more comfortable, it kept her ankles and calves flexible — so her feet would rest flat on the floor instead of rigidly pointing down — so I could transfer her (from bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to car, car to wheelchair) by pulling her into a standing position and pivoting. Range-0f-motion exercises also ensured her knees and hip joints stayed flexible enough so she could continue to receive gynecological exams.

So, what Mark Stephan has done is not inspirational, IT IS FREAKING MEDICAL HISTORY because he has shown what works to rehabilitate some paralyzing injuries. AND HE HAS SHOWN WHAT CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED WHEN REHAB STARTS IMMEDIATELY and acute care neglect is not allowed to create new, irreversible injuries due to contractures.

Update, 12/11/09, Sat.: Welcome, Instapundit readers, and thank you, Prof. Reynolds, for the link. I just want to emphasize there are two important points to this story. First, we could save a LOT more abilities for people with paralyzing injuries or illnesses with the knowledge that physiatrists, physical therapists and occupational therapists have RIGHT NOW but the current system has too great a division between acute care and rehab care, including the fact that they are applied sequentially instead of simultaneously because often they are at different physical locations.

That is, the paralyzed person gets treated for their injury/illness in the acute care hospital, but little or nothing is done to preserve range-of-motion and the flexibility of muscles and tendons. Contractures can become irreversible in just a few days, or require surgery that could have been avoided with proper and immediate range-of-motion therapy (and sometimes splinting). So when the patient is transferred to the rehab hospital with permanent contractures from neglect in the acute care hospital, there may be little or nothing the physical therapist and occupational therapists can do to help them  recover the abilities that were lost DURING THEIR ACUTE CARE.

Second, the program that Mark Stephan put together to recover his independence and walking was successful and should be used as a model and studied to find out why it worked.

Determined people ARE able to make breakthroughs like this. It was not doctors who created the field of physical therapy and physiatry (rehab medicine) — it was a nurse in the outback of Australia using her own common sense to fight epidemics of polio and restore the ability of polio survivors to walk again. Her name was Sister Elizabeth Kinney (the British call nurses “Sister” — there is a wonderful biopic called “Sister Kenny,” with Rosalind Russell playing the title role). And what was it do you suppose that resulted in permanent loss of the ability to walk, which she learned how to prevent or even reverse so that many of HER patients regained the ability to walk?

Contractures.

P.S.

In cases of brain injury or atrophy, talk to the doctors about heterotopic ossification. Range-of-motion exercises do not prevent this condition.

In memory of Margaret Ardussi (June 1, 1941 to Dec. 7, 2004), my late life partner of over 20 years.

Blogging is going to be light for a few days.

Margaret Ardussi (left) and Cynthia Yockey, our first Christmas, 1984. Margaret had multiple sclerosis and this is one of the last photos taken of her standing.

Margaret and me with a cake my father brought for our twentieth anniversary on Sept. 25, 2004, when Margaret was dying and at home with me under hospice care.

Frank Ifield, “I Remember You”

Slim Whitman, introduced by Andy Kaufman (who was a TM teacher like Margaret):

Left to right: Kia, Naomi and Alan Scherr.

Today is my debut at Newsreal, the blog magazine founded by David Horowitz to expose bias in the media and fight totalitarianism in all its forms. My first post there begins as follows:

A year ago, on November 26, my friend, Alan Scherr, 58, and his daughter Naomi, 13, were murdered in the restaurant of the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai by one of the 10 Islamic terrorists conducting attacks at several carefully selected locations. Over 200 persons were murdered and more than 308 wounded in the attacks, which lasted from Nov. 26 to Nov. 29.

Two television documentaries recently commemorated the attacks: HBO’s “Terror in Mumbai,” narrated by Fareed Zakaria; and PBS’s “Mumbai Massacre,” which is an episode of the series, “Secrets of the Dead.” I have to admit, I could not bear to watch them.

But, as a writer in the political opinion niche, I know that one of the reasons you seek to be the one who tells a story is to assemble the evidence and craft a narrative that provides the conclusions you reach with the emotional and logical foundation for their acceptance — and to defeat or crowd out alternatives.

Read the rest here — I conclude my piece by introducing the Maharishi Effect to the marketplace of ideas of how to fight terrorism. I do not know of any other writer who is explaining the use of this technology, which is unique because it has been demonstrated scientifically to work to reduce acts of war and indicators of social negativity such as crime, sickness and accidents; it does not require any belief or faith to work; and it works with as few as one percent, or even as few as the square root of one percent, of a population applying the technology regularly.

In the late spring of 2004 I was driving and listening to the radio when the most amazing music came on. I got to my destination and just stayed in the car for at least 20 more minutes to hear it all the way through and get the name. It was “‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Cafe” by the late Simon Jeffes.

My favorite part starts at about 3:55 when the chimpanzee in the gold top hat starts to dance. I never saw the ballet until tonight, so I had to imagine my own scenes for the music. That part sounded so filled with joy and personality and humor that it always seemed like the essence of a Gay Pride march to me. After Margaret was diagnosed as dying in September 2004 and came home to be with me under hospice care, I started almost every day by dancing and clowning to this music for her, which she loved. (Margaret is the only person who ever saw me clown around for laughs. She made my heart feel so light and happy that it was easy to do for her.)

Blogging will be light this weekend. I am working on a project that will require several days of focused attention. But let me know if you enjoy the music — other parts of the ballet seems dark to me, so I’m glad I only knew this until now as music:

Margaret and I loved watching “Absolutely Fabulous” over and over. We saw its American debut, which included this music video of the Pet Shop Boys. I hoped it would be shown again in the reruns, but it never was, so this is the first time I’ve seen it, except from my own VHS recording, since it first aired. I happened to think of it today, and lo! it was on YouTube. Enjoy!

Lyrics: