As some of you may recall, I had a freak accident back in April and broke both of my arms. My left arm healed fine, but my right was badly damaged and had to be rebuilt with titanium (which you can see in the x-ray to the left and click on for a larger image). Sadly, I have very limited range of motion in my right arm and will soon be undergoing surgery, most likely in early November, to remove the implants and some scar tissue. 
While I am in the hospital and recuperating, I’ve been thinking of handing over my blog for a week or so to a "guest blogger," like my brother Tod or my writing partner Bill Rabkin, or perhaps both of them.
My question to you… would you prefer I "go dark" during that period, or would you prefer the guest bloggers?
If I were writing your blog, would that be fanfic?
Yeah, I need my daily fix of Fan Fic bashing. Tod? Tod who? Oh, that guy? Yeah, he would be fine too. Tod, will you ever answer my emails? Ever?
What I want to know is how you got ahold of x-rays. Do you not know that hospitals and ANY medical person that I could name do NOT want e-rays anywhere but their hands?
This is for confidentiallity, it does not matter that you would not mind that people looking at your x-ray. But the medical practitioners do.
So, please remove the x-ray.
Leto (one time file cleark at a hospital)
I was given copies of ALL my x-rays by my surgeons… as well as the other surgeons I’ve gone to for second opinions (or would those be considered third and fourth opinions?). And since it’s my arm and my privacy at issue here, I don’t see the problem. But thank you for your concern!
Guest bloggers sounds like a great idea Lee….and it would be nice to hear from the quiet half of the writing team.
Plus I’m sure Tod and Bill would keep us updated on
how well your doing as a patient.
Or better still….your stay in the hospital sold to reality TV. You should still have time to pitch the
idea….”Newlyweds” is on hiatus, I need something
else to watch.
Krys…
Sorry to hear that your ordeal isn’t over, Lee. Yet you’re still worried about your blog. What a trooper. Personally, I think guest bloggers would be a great idea. Maybe you can lay the groundwork for one to succeed you officially in 2009, just like Leno did.
I find that is being given x-rays is highly unusual. I had to fight just to see my results in the film version for a while before I could see them, and I could only see them for a very breif time. I hope that you still do not have the scans because those are official hospital documents and need to stay at the hospidal for future access. Not in your basement in a box where it has the chance to be distroyed. (This is especially true if you have children.)
They made me copies, Leto. The originals are still in my medical files.
A guest-blogger would be fine as long as the blogs include frequent updates on Mr. Lee Goldberg’s condition.
Hang in there, Guy.
Victor
p.s. Any chance they’ll stick some bionics in there?
Either way, so long as we’re told — if you’re going to be away — when to expect your return. Nothing more pathetic than clicking on a dead link, hoping against hope that something would turn up.
I’d say take care of yourself, but it’s obvious you do that quite well already. See if you can con them out of getting a flu shot.
Tod’s a funny guy, and I’d love to see what Bill does with it.
Bill, for the record, no one’s found a way to do fanfic off of a blog yet. However, I have this great idea of a TMFTML/The Elegant Variation crossover story…
I’m with the earlier poster. Go for bionics, Lee. Just think what you could do at signings and conventions. And if people ask you to carry their luggage, charge ’em $75 a pop. Either you make money or they leave you alone. (Kinda like Pete Rose.)
Well, Jim, when I’m the guest blogger at TEV in two weeks, I just might do that. Though I’m thinking more of a Fleshbot/SJ Rozan thing.
I am sorry for you still have problems with your arm and I hope that everything will be fine after this next surgery!
I’d love to read from Tod or Bill as guest-bloggers and I hope they keep us up to date how you are doing.
In behalf of all your fans in Europe I am sending you our best wishes
Ute
I am sorry for you still have problems with your arm and I hope that everything will be fine after this next surgery!
I’d love to read from Tod or Bill as guest-bloggers and I hope they keep us up to date how you are doing.
In behalf of all your fans in Europe I am sending you our best wishes
Ute
Sorry to hear about the continuing troubles with your arm, Lee. I hope this will be the last imte you’ll ever need surgery — for anything.
Bill Crider
Tod and Jim, hate to say it but that’s already been done:
http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2004/07/namechecked.html
(scroll to Ed’s comment in the backblogs)
Love the x-ray, Lee. And the hysterical response from the former “file cleark” makes it even better. Sounds like you’ve posted a rare document filled with mysterious secrets that the medical community (read: Illuminati) doesn’t want us to know anything about. I think you should give Dan Brown a run for his money and write “The Goldberg X-Ray Code”.
Anyone who has to “fight just to see” their x-rays either needs a new doctor or has been under the machine too long.
Good luck with the next round of surgery. And whatever you do, don’t let the kids play with your x-rays!
The other Lee
Nice amount of hardware there. Yikes.
Wishing you all the best for the surgery!
Well you do call it “A Writer’s Life,” not “Lee Goldberg’s Life,” so I don’t think if would be inapropreate to have other writers talk about their lives.
Lee,
sorry to hear about that you still have to go through this ‘ordeal.. hope everything will be fine after the surgery, and that it will be the last time you need a surgery..
all the best,
Irene
Doesn’t the doctor usually look at the x-rays in front of you? And discuss them with you?
I had a chest x-ray a couple of years back after a suspicious tb result and my doctor and I spent 5 minutes poring over the film together looking for the mythical mass. Never did find it.
If a doc won’t show you the x-rays, I’d get a new doc!
By the way, am I the only one who’s a little disconcerted that Lee has an f’ing bionic arm?!
Based on the response, I think when I go under the knife (and drill and screwdriver and saw), I’ll ask Bill and Tod to fill in for me. Thanks so much for all your feedback…and your kind thoughts.
There’s a theory going around that Goldberg had the bionic arm put in deliberately so that he could write books and television shows more quickly. (It would explain his recent spike in output.)
My guess is that the preposterous “McDonald’s Cover Story” was cooked up down at MWA Headquarters. And everyone knows that the MWA is a rogue arm of the CIA which has been using the membership for research for decades. It’s one thing to study our paperwork for ideas on how to take out foreign Nationals, but when they start monkeying with our physical beings in an attempt to create a race of “Uber-Writers,” well, the government has just gone too far for my tastes. That’s not MY America.
The experimentation on our mystery writers must stop here and now!
For those of you who might think Lee 2.0 is kidding…he’s not.
I had dinner with him the last time I was in L.A. and the man has theories. It is because of him that I now wrap my computer keyboard in tinfoil.
Remember, David, SHINY side out!
Lee (2.0)
THe answers are out there!
Don’t let him kid you, folks. I walked by his hotel room in Toronto and heard bionic sound effects eminating (sp?) from behind the door, along with the clacking of laptop keys.