Portugal

Hello everybody,

We arrived yesterday to the hospital around 2:00pm local time. The trip over was rather uneventful, there was a lot of waiting to get off of both flights, but no unexpected mishaps. Riding in business class was definitely a treat. It’s almost absurd how much more comfortable and spacious the seats are. The co-pilot on our way to Amsterdam was a dead-on match for Cliff Claven from Cheers.

My surgery will be Friday at 4:00pm local (10am eastern). We met with Dr. Lima today and I will be #51 to undergo this procedure. I will most likely be laid up for about three days after the operation and according to Dr. Lima the first day will be the worst in terms of pain and discomfort. Towards the end of the trip I may get a chance to do more extensive sight-seeing, but being as Lisbon is old and situated among several hills, getting around by wheelchair won’t be the easiest thing.

Later, Dan

Pre-Portugal Update

Here's an update on everything that's gone on or is going on to date. The combined fundraising efforts of family, friends, friends or friends, coworkers, and complete strangers helped me raise over $69,000 in the last 6.5 months. $46,200 of that money is funding my upcoming surgery in Portugal. The remainder and all other future fundraising will go towards my rehabilitation when I return.

I have 395 contacts in my address book of people, couples, and families that sent donations through checks, that I have been able to return thank you notes. That figure doesn't include all of the countless others who gave cash donations at the various fundraising dinners, soup luncheons, coin drives, and the pasty sale. And that figure also doesn't include everyone who helped organize & run those various fundraisers. The efforts that everyone has put forth, on my behalf, are truly phenomenal. I’m extremely thankful.

My mother, father, and I will be leaving tomorrow (Tues, March 29th) afternoon on our way to Portugal. I can thank friends who have friends in high places for financing my flight and getting me an upgraded, first-class ticket. This will be my first flight experience separated from the huddled masses back in steerage, so I’m definitely looking forward to taking advantage of all the accoutrements and services in front of the curtain. But, it will also be my first flight since my accident so it remains to be seen how wheelchair-using air travel differs from my previous ambulatory air travel experiences. The airline industry does not have a sterling reputation when it comes to accommodating wheelchair users.

We will arrive in Lisbon around 1:00pm local time on Wednesday and my surgery is scheduled for sometime on Friday. I don’t know how much sight-seeing I will get to do while we are there, but I guess that will depend on how much needs to be done at the hospital before Friday and how long I’m laid up at the hospital after. We will fly home on Sunday, April 10th.

A couple weeks after I get back, I will start at Rehab Institute of Michigan in Detroit with their physical therapy program.

Depending on the availability of computer access, I’m hoping to get a chance to post an update or two while we’re in Portugal.

Coming At You With 50,000 Watts

Good news on the fundraising front. We've raised enough money to get me to Portugal for the operation, so now the money that we're raising is going to the on-going therapy fund. In other news I'm expanding my media barrage out beyond the printed page. The rest of this post is a description of my first venture in radio publicity. 

Tuesdays with Morrie, a.k.a. My Two Minutes with Mitch Albom 

I received a phone call this morning on my answering machine from a producer at WJR 760 AM radio asking me to do an interview with Mitch Albom on this afternoon’s show. When I first checked the message I thought the producer said “WJLB,” which is Detroit’s hip-hop station. Before I called back, I contemplated the hilarity of having to bring a little bit of soul to my voice in order to not sound out of place on the air on WJLB. I was also trying to decide who would and would not make my list of shout-outs. Fortunately for me, when I called back I found out this was not the case, and instead I spent the afternoon getting ready to be interviewed on WJR afternoon talk radio. The only thing I knew before going on air was that I was going on at 5:30. I emailed everyone who I thought might be within WJR's 50,000 watt broadcast range to tune in, and to those people, if you tuned in and missed the interview, don’t worry because I wasn’t on very long. 

Here's a recap: The producer, who refers to himself as “Rosie,” called at 5:30 and notified me that the radio station would be calling me back in a few minutes. So as I waited for them to call me back, I found myself trying to clear my throat and repeating, “hello," over and over. When the station called back, it wasn’t my boy Rosie at the other end of the line, but a woman named Julie, one of the studio engineers. She told me that she was going to put me on hold, and that the next voice I would hear would be Mitch’s. While on hold I heard the commercial that was leading into the next segment and then I heard Mitch Albom introducing my story. At this point I still have no idea how long the interview is going to be or specifically what he's going to ask me. 

From what Rosie told me when I spoke to him this morning, they picked up my story and the information about a fundraiser my school is doing for me from an article in yesterday's Oakland Press. That became apparent as I listened to the intro because Mitch Albom basically paraphrased the article on air as he was interviewing me. It’s kind of funny, but I felt like the only answers I could give to the questions he asked, aside from “yes, Mitch that’s what happened,” was to summarize what he had already just summarized. 

Now I don’t think I’ve ever heard more than five minutes of Mitch Albom's show, so I don’t know how long most of the interviews are or how he normally conducts them, but I got the feeling that he was trying to move as quickly through the interview as possible. I don’t think that’s because he didn’t care about interviewing me, but I think it's just be a byproduct of trying to get as much information out as possible in the time allotted. So, I was trying to be conscious of keeping my answers short and concise, but then he dropped a little bomb on me about whether or not the reason I was going to Portugal for the surgery was because of the debate over the ethics of performing stem cell research here in the United States. 

Woah, what happened to the human-interest puff piece, Man? A worthwhile answer to that question requires some thought and nuance that is definitely going to exceed the 15 seconds you are going to give me to respond. I mean, we can discuss that if you want to, but I'm going to need time to talk about where the cells come from, what the FDA looks for when conducting clinical trials, and why people with spinal cord injury are choos… What? Next question? Okay, moving on. 

So, at that point I was a little flustered, and I think I heard myself pull an Austin Powers and repeat…myself. But, all things considered, it went pretty well and Mitch Albom plugged the fundraiser my school is having for me this Thursday night. That in itself was also kind of funny because according to him the fundraiser is going to be held at Papa Romano's restaurant, which if that is correct, means I didn't know the location has been changed. I'll have to get clarification on that one. 

After Mitch Albom signed off with me, Rosie came back on the line and said they’d probably like to do a follow-up. Based on today’s interview, I can only imagine the follow-up will go something like this: 

Mitch Albom: A few months back we spoke to Daniel Young, who, if you remember was planning to go to Portugal to undergo a stem cell transplant surgery. Well, the surgery was a success and he’s back here doing therapy in Detroit. So Daniel how was your trip to Portugal and what are your plans now? 

Me: Well Mitch Albom, like you said it was a very successful trip and now I’m doing therapy several days a week at Rehab Institute. 

Mitch Albom: Great news. Good talking to you. We’ll be back.