A month ago, I wrote to tell you that I was going to the hospital for open-heart surgery. I lined up guest bloggers who filled in for me in my absence, and I thank them all for keeping the conversation going.
I checked into the hospital in NYC on April 7. Surgery was early the next morning. I had an ascending aortic aneurysm and a leaky heart valve that had to be replaced. The surgeon explained that he would cut upon my breast bone to gain access to my heart.
Needless to say, I have no recollection of the surgery or its aftermath. I was sedated for five days. One member of my family was allowed to visit each day. When I was finally allowed to regain consciousness, I had no voice (due to intubation), a bad cough, and could not walk. I spent two weeks in the Intensive Care Unit, two days in regular care, then moved to the Rehabilitation Unit, where I am relearning how to walk.
I’m going home on May 7 and bringing a walker with me until I have fully regained the use of my legs and can walk without fear of falling.
I want to express gratitude to the many friends who sent good wishes my way.
I want to thank the great doctors and nurses who made sure I pulled through an arduous procedure.
I thank Medicare, an incredible federal program that assures that everyone enrolled gets the same quality care. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone could enroll in Medicare?
And of course I thank my sons Joe and Michael and my partner Mary, who were always there for visiting hours and always brought a CARE package of a favorite food.
Yippee! Welcome back. We’ve missed you. Ellen
Same from the other Ellen in California (Lubic) and I look forward to your recovery so you can join in on helping us choose a new Supt. for LAUSD….Much love directed your way….
So glad you’re feeling better, Diane. Your voice is indispensable. Regards to Michael from an old friend.
I am very happy to hear your news and look forward to continue mending and return to an even better state of health. Getting stronger is a big and important job. Keep at it as I know you will. It is a blessing when family is able to be there for you so devotedly.
I’m so glad you received excellent care and that you are healing with the help of a top notch support system! Wishing you the very best!
One step at a time – you’re a bionic woman!! Just as the days are getting longer and more flowers are in bloom you are getting stronger and blooming ….
So glad to hear that you are receiving great care and making progress! It’s great to “hear” your voice again!
Very happy and relieved for you and your family.
So glad that you are recovering well and surrounded by family!
I also want to thank the great doctors and nurses who worked to mend the heart of public education.
I am thrilled that you are on the other side of your complex surgery! Having loved ones around you will aid in your recovery. Healing will take time as you regain your strength.
I’m so grateful to hear that your recovery is going well! May you continue to improve and get your legs back. Your voice is strong and much needed..
All of my husbands medical care and home hospice care was paid for by Medicare However retirees just found out that the City is negotiating to have our Medicare changed over to Medicare advantage. These negotiations are going on behind closed doors. And we’re hearing there will be a July 1 start date. Last night retirees heard from a prominent doctor about how these plans work and how Medicare advantage defeats the purpose of the universal Medicare plan. Needless to say people are upset. A few unions have already asked for a moratorium until this move can be truthfully explained to members, and they can have time to understand what is being negotiated as well as search out alternatives should this be passed. This us not how so called progressive unions and a progressive City should be operating
Patricia Dobosz
Medicare Advantage is a way to send public dollars into private pockets. They lure people in with perks of dental coverage, gym memberships, etc. Your health coverage is in the hands of a private contractor that has the ability to deny your claims. People that get really sick generally return to Medicare. These plans are another way to undermine the fiscal viability of Medicare as Medicare will take in less money from younger, healthier seniors. The long game is to dismantle Medicare. This is very likely a Wall St. scheme, very much like the privatization of public education.
The commercials for Medicare Advantage plans are sickening. They are preying on the old and/or infirm and that’s just awful. I can’t believe this is allowed in our country.
Medicare Advantage is the plan that the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System provides (at a cost) to its members. Working teachers were not given the option of payments into the Social Security/Medicare system.
GREAT news! Yes, we love Medicare!
So happy to hear that you are on the mend. Here’s to a walk in the woods in the near future.
Something wierd is happening with my blogposts
At any rate, I posted a welcome back message, but don’t see it now. In my experience, we should walk whenever we can and a great big YES! to Medicare for all. CBK
Wonderful news. Rehab is daunting and necessary. Also grateful for Medicare.
So glad to hear that you did so well! I hope you didn’t have too difficult a time with eating and speech after the intubation. Sending thoughts for continued healing your way. You are a treasure and we are so fortunate to have a spot in your loving room. Rest up!
Hopefully like you, we can all breathe a little easier now. Great news!
sending blessings and sincere wishes for your recovery … you are one of my sheroes!
–Shar Leahey
25 year public school employee / NJEA rep
We are grateful for the good medical care you received and your family’s loving care that has been sustaining you during your recovery. Your continued strength and commitment to making this country live up to its promise in education is remarkable. Thank you.
Terrific news, Diane!
Yay.
Take care…always!
I am so glad you are doing well and have a strong support system.
Diane, you have been through SO much. I can’t imagine being sedated for 5 days and then going to intensive care for two weeks.
You are a fighter and it is great to hear that every time you update us, your health is improving.
Please keep resting and doing what is best for you at this time. We all are waiting to hear that you now are completely back to normal.
How wonderful that you have two good sons and a fantastic partner who are caring for you.
I’m sending my best wishes and love for a continuing speedy recovery.
A month of hardship! Great to hear your voice! We pray for your continued improvement.
You are a brave, strong, and wise woman. Wishing you a smooth path to good health.
Thanks Diane for the update. I am so happy to hear that you are on the mend; you are obviously up and running when it comes to speaking your mind and advocating for the real public schools and public education in America. If not for Medicare, you would have been hit with an astronomical medical bill in the hundreds of thousands or maybe even over a million dollars. Why is the US the only wealthy democracy without universal healthcare? It’s an absolute disgrace and disgusts me no end. I certainly am thankful to LBJ for Medicare; a few years ago I had a hospital stay that would have cost me over $60,000 but with Medicare my out of pocket cost was less than $200.
My bill for a similar procedure was $200K, but I was in the hospital for 3 days only; no ICU, nothing special. Your estimate of millions of dollars for Diane’s ordeal is not an exaggeration, but accurate.
In Canada all that stuff is free.
Doug Little: You are SO fortunate.
Fortunately for me, I had insurance through the Teachers’ Retirement System of Illinois when I returned to the States after having worked in Malaysia. I was 62 and needed a cyberknife treatment for a brain tumor that was treated at Stanford, where cyberknife was invented. It was a huge ordeal involving many letters going back and forth between Dr. John Adler at Stanford, Dr. David Martin in Kuala Lumpur, my primary care doctor and doctors at a hospital in Oak Lawn, IL. Finally, my HMO accepted my being treated at Stanford in Feb. 2008.
If I had not had any insurance, the treatment would have cost me $70,000 out of pocket. I was told that the full treatment which I had cost $300,000.
Almost every devt nation has some form of this Medicare for all and it is not a tax burden. Canadians pay about 60% of what USA pays as a % of GDP for healthcare. The reason is 2 things, the efficiency of single payer and the fact that there is no profit motive in the system.
The US still has the Wild Wild Westcare instead of proper healthcare.
You’re VERY lucky. The valve was the least concern. The “TAA” could’ve blown wide open any moment. They’re like earthquakes – unpredictable – and ruptures are almost always fatal (97-100%). It’s the aorta – THE major blood vessel in the body. Following rupture, a bleed-out and death is only a matter of seconds. You’re EXCEEDINGLY lucky. Glad you’re still vertical. 😉 Keep up the good work! M4A!
Glad you are doing well. Yes, everyone should have good healthcare coverage. From a physician caring for the uninsured in our community, Greensboro, NC.
A state with a general assembly that refuses to expand Medicaid.
Thanks for highlighting the benefit of coverage and care in your progress report.
Great to have you back.
And thanks to all your fill in bloggers who kept the ball rolling up hill.
Glad to hear you are recovering and coming home. Hope it is a full speedy recovery.
glad to hear you’re getting home. wishing you a quick and easy recovery
So glad you are heading home. Just familiar, cozy surroundings should speed your rehab efforts.
i’ve been reading you for years. you’re a great combination of heart and mind working together. my wife has just undergone three months of chemotherapy and a month of radiation for breast cancer. we’re as grateful to medicare as you are. and not to put stress on your newly invigorated heart, but the comments above about the still mostly secret deal between the city and the unions to save the city 700 million a year by moving all city employee retirees into medicare disadvantage plans is true. my wife is an ex cuny teacher and i’m an ex public school teacher. both our unions have sold us out to save the city money. i don’t even know if it’s legal to remove people from medicare without their permission or knowledge. also, the city pays 20% of medicare but they’re taking away 100%. if you have the ear of bernie or elizabeth warren or any other champtions of medicare for all, please help spread the word about this giant backward step. 250,000 seniors in nyc alone (i hear it’s planned for mother large urban areas too). thanks so much.
” i don’t even know if it’s legal to remove people from medicare without their permission or knowledge.”
That is a good question, and I think you should be asking the union that question. I have to wonder if the politicians and unions are working with Wall St. They are not equivalent healthcare coverage plans. Anyone seriously ill needs Medicare.
Wait what about those great Union healthcare plans I heard about during the election. The ones Union workers fought so hard for.
No! I am not picking on Unions or you . I have one of the best Union Health plans in the country. We have great Healthcare if we can keep it. That goes for the Public and the Private sector. Sadly as Unions lose market share and come under economic pressure in the Private and Public sector; more and more of their members lose or see their health insurance diminished. Yet on the State and National Levels our Unions have allowed them selves or even chosen to be on the wrong side of the Medicare For all debate.
As a Public sector Union member you are crying about the City and the Union placing you on a plan with more out of pocket costs and fewer options . What percentage of the Country has a Union picking up Medigap . And something I don’t have with my Unions Cadillac plan the Social Security deduction for part B.
Time for our Unions at 11%of the workforce and shrinking to stop standing in the way of M4All. Before we join the masses needing it.
Get well, Diane.
So happy you are recovering.. God bless you always… You are a HERO in public education
Sent from my iPhone
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SMOOTH HEALIN!!!! KNOW WE ARE ALL THINKING OF YOU WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE FOR ALL YOU DO!!!
Thanks for the update, Diane. There is no substitute for a caring and supportive family.
Rehab is both demanding and necessary. Please follow closely what it asks of you. Its last request is as important as its first.
Wonderful news! As a 76 year old myself. I know how my own triple bypass surgery and healing period went.You are on your way to a healthier life than you can now imagine.
I share your feelings about Medicare for All. Since so many politicians say they believe that healthcare is a human right, they can choose to lie or actually provide universal healthcare. Ten year olds and fifty year olds deserve our lifesaving procedures as much as we do. The rest of the major countries have some form of Medicare for All. We are in the wealthiest and most militarily powerful country in the history of the world. If the two of us can receive this medical care and coverage, all of us should be able to have the same.
By the way, eye, hearing and dental care needs to be included in Medicare. Other countries do it, and we can certainly afford it.
Heal well and soon.
Good luck.
This country has too many billionaires and profiteers pulling the strings of government. Medicare Advantage is a privatized system that will destabilize Medicare. It is a privatization scam in much the same way charter expansion undermines public education.
Another thing to thank Bill Clinton for.
https://www.change.org/p/mayor-de-blasio-preserve-medicare-part-b-for-nyc-retirees?signed=true
Hi Robert. A good friend of mine who was our chapter leader for years is still working for the union since retiring. He’s on a committee that’s trying to stop or at least contain this maneuver. I’m not happy with Mulgrew’s “best thing since sliced bread” take on it, at all.
Greetings Gitapik,
The UFT shockingly but not surprisingly had all sorts of position statements released officially to the public around 5 years ago about how staunchly it was against ANY type of privatization of of Medicare.
Now Mulgrew turns around and does the opposite in a backroom deal. The union has far too much overreach – as does NYC – in channelling people off of traditional Medicare and onto a privatized version of fit. It is a federal program being transformed by local entities. Of course, the feds are at fault too for getting local entities to do their dirty work.
This is a death knell for the program, and its conversion success starting in NYC will metastasize to all other parts of the state and country (maybe with the exception of our increasingly militarized police) to the point where the original will one day soon enough – in our lifetime – be unrecognizable and exist in a state opposite to that since its inception back in the 60s.
This is a local and national disgrace. Mulgrew deserves to croak over this. But the fight is appropriately far from over . . .
Most teachers here in NYC don’t know that there are other caucuses. When the tile comes to vote it’s like someone offered them a trip to Mars.
“Of course I’ll vote Unity. Who wants to go to Mars”.
I’m not a fan of Mulgrew and, yes; this is very bad news.
Great comments, Diane is a hero for public education. Actually eye care is included in Medicare but not eyeglasses. My visits to the ophthalmologist and cataract surgery were covered by Medicare. My visit to the ENT doctor to have the wax sucked out of my ears and the audio test were covered by Medicare but not hearing aids which I thankfully don’t need. Indeed dental care is not covered by Medicare and the dental insurance I have only covers up to $1,500 per year.
You are strong in many ways. Very glad to read this.
Thank you for the welcome progress report. You’ve been through so much, but you will be better than ever (and that’s saying something) once you’ve completed your therapy and recovery. Hang in there. All your hard work will be worth it.
Wow. What an ordeal! Grateful you are coming through this. We all know you are intrepid and rise to meet daunting challenges. But please promise you will give up your hopes of skydiving again anytime soon.
I am grateful to hear that you are recovering and will soon get to go home. The last paragraph brought fresh tears to moisten my usually dry eyes.
Brava! So glad to get your email. Healing is day to day, every day a little better, a little stronger in voice and walk. We all miss you and are rooting for you…best, ira
Best wishes for a speedy recovery!
Fantastic!!
All this has been terribly frightening. Much love and strength and good spirits to you and yours, Diane. And gratitude to your caregivers, nurses, and doctors.
And thanks to the universe for the gift of you.
–Bob S.
So glad to hear you are on the mend. Thank you so much for making the world a better place! Wishing you a very speedy recovery!
Rest well, and so glad to see you back.
Get well soon.
Wow Diane I had no idea it was this serious. Be well, you are a treasure to the progressive education movement. 😳👍
Fantastic news! You are one strong & resilient woman. Welcome back.
So relieved to hear you have made so much progress so quickly. Sending love.
So good to hear you made it through. Praying for a speedy recovery.
Along with everyone else, I am so glad to hear you are on the road to recovery. We all wish you well. Medicare is great! What an exhibit for the rest of the country to apply towards other social safety net needs. Take care.
I am so glad to read that you are on the road to recover. You are my hero and your strength to handle your current situation proves to everyone even more why you are a hero to o many.
Wishing you a full recovery.
Media reports that Bill Gates and Melinda are getting a divorce. I’ll hope he has one-half as much money to rule the world.
“Melinda Gates reveals the secret to 25 year marriage…patience and we can both laugh about more things” (2019)
NBC Evening News led off with this story yesterday evening. LED OFF!! Lots of flowery words about the “good” they have done, not one about their destruction of public education.
GregB Priviledge on steroids. CBK
Great news.
Enjoy the warm sun and your wonderful family and friends.
So glad you are on the road to recovery! I hope it is rapid.
Thank you for sharing the good news. I am thinking of you and hoping you feel a little stronger each day.
Glad you are better. Be well.
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Glad to hear your recovering as you should. Please take care, your health is most important but so is your voice and leadership
Huge sigh of relief. But it sounds very grueling and I’m so sorry you had to go through it all. Know that you have a huge fan club, we are all so very glad to have you back. You are so needed, loved, and appreciated!
Best wishes for a speedy and strong recovery!
Thinking of you!
Very best wishes for continued recovery!
Welcome back, Diane. Must feel good to be home.
It is great to have you back, Diane. Godspeed for a hasty recovery.
Apart from learning to walk, do you feel better than before the operation?
Be well. Stay safe.
So glad to hear. Wishing you a speedy recovery.
may your happier heart keep your voice strong
Oh – I wonder if many of your faithful followers like me had any idea we should be worried. So glad to hear that you pulled through the “arduous”, to say the least, event. It reminds me to express again how grateful I am for your existence on this planet and your hard hitting and faithful advocacy for great and just education!!
🥰 💓😎✌
Glad to hear you are recovering Diane. We miss your passion and commitment to educating America. We don’t always agree but we both have the same end game desire- a fair and educational opportunity for everyone.
Bob Whelan
It was the 9-year blog anniversary last week, by the way, April 26th. Happy Blogiversary! Nine years of saving public schools by connecting people to information and each other, for Diane, with like two weeks off, tops, in nine years. Amazing.
Please get well soon. You are important to our world. I am glad your surgery was successful and hope you heal quckly and painlessly. Best wishes for a happier summer!
Hi Flerp. How are you? 🙂
In the past, I commented on Covid-19 school closures as follows:
1) If a student caught covid-19 at an opened school, there could be lawsuits from “many” parents. Since Covid-19 is airborne, the student might have caught it enroute to school, a block away from school or across the street. The parents might still blame the school and no school district wants a lawsuit. ☹️
and
2) The Covid-19 2020 and 2021 students have access to books, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias, web, videos, television and radio. The Spanish Flu 1918 students only had access to books, magazines, newspapers and encyclopedias. 😐
Oops that was meant for the Charles Stiler post. 😐
Good to hear that you’re on the mend! hope you stay in good health–you’re a voice of sanity on education issues.
Diane, So good to hear that you are on the mend and that you have received the best of care. Great to hear also about your wonderful experience with Medicare.
Are you aware that more than 1/4 million NYC municipal retirees are being thrown off of Traditional Medicare (surely the plan that you have) and forced onto a lucrative for profit private Medicare Advantage Plan? Would you be willing to speak to Randi Weingarten about this?
Perhaps Randi could like to have a word with Michael Mulgrew, who has been largely secretive about this backdoor negotiation with the UFT retirees. The UFT has several resolutions on their website opposing the privatization of Medicare. Do you think you two fortunate women can get Mulgrew to revisit this change, along with the DC37 president. It appears that those two unions are the only ones supporting the change. Other union are directly opposing this in a move to protect their members.
This has far reaching and profound social and economic reverberations for traditional Medicare, now and in the future for union and non union workers across the nation.
Please everyone, take a look at:
https://www.change.org/p/mayor-de-blasio-preserve-medicare-part-b-for-nyc-retirees?signed=true
It is being reported that only two unions are supporting this egregious backroom kick the retirees under the bus move: The UFT and DC37. The two largest unions. Diane, what is Mulgrew getting out of this?