Life with Pratts – Page 60 – Prattling before the Pratfall

Back in the running

Excellent news! Other than normal wear-and-tear for someone my age, the MRI of my spine shows a “slight protrusion” — no rupture — between the L3 and L4 vertebrae, resulting in L4 touching the right nerve root.

After some physical therapy and, to my chagrin, weight loss, I should be fine and able to run again. This whole episode — which left me crippled with blinding pain — was caused by playing fast and loose on a 6-ft. step ladder while working outside, leaning way over and wielding an electric hedge trimmer.

Back waiting with debated breath

Got back a while ago from my back’s MRI. Films won’t be read until Monday. I can’t keep up with everybody’s comments, other than to approve them, because I’m about to plop myself down in front of MSNBC and wait for the debate to start.

Backing in

I’m at work today for a few hours, giving my chair a trial. Seems to be OK, although I’m making a point of sitting a lot straighter than I used to.

I’m having a lumbar MRI done this evening. I’m told that if the condition isn’t serious it may not be conclusive about exactly what’s wrong, which I guess is sort of good.

I can now appreciate why some desperate souls might actually look at spam mail with subjects like “PAIN KILLERS.” Percocet really works. Without it, I wouldn’t be able to get out of bed in the morning.

Back in trouble for the first time

My running days are, I fear, behind me forever. For the first time I’m having back trouble, and it’s serious. It came on suddenly, with only a small warning sign a week prior. I was hoping the spasms were due to muscle strain, but the doctor says the most likely source is a pinched nerve in my spine.

This morning I was a cripple, but thanks to a pain med I’m now able to get around without crutches. I wish this were a stupid joke, but it’s all too real. I don’t want to get into all of the detail, but I wanted to tell you what’s going on.

The lure of grapes and ‘Peanuts’

A reporter for the L.A. Times went north of San Francisco to wine country, and stopped to visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa. I’ll get out there myself sometime with the family, but first Dennis and I will be making a return trip to NYC in November for the Big Apple Con aka: The National.

Murder, She Wrote

At last I can tell you about the secret project. It began with something I wrote a year and half ago, that you’ll find here at this link, about the unsolved murder of Dr. Linda Goudey.

Last February, a producer at CBS News, Nancy Kramer, contacted me. Her program is 48 Hours|Mystery, which is on Saturday nights at 10. Nancy asked if I could help her research the Goudey story. I can’t take much credit for what happened next, because the extent of my involvement was telling Carol about Nancy’s request, and exchanging some follow-up messages.

By coincidence, the day before Ms. Kramer contacted me, I’d received a message from a woman who had spotted the same post. She ran a bulletin board about the now-defunct Boston Regional Medical Center, formerly New England Memorial Hospital. I replied to the woman and I gave her address to Nancy. I have no idea if anything came out of their correspondence. Two things I realized very quickly about Nancy Kramer are that she is a true professional in every way, and she is always working.

Carol and Nancy exchanged messages and they talked on the phone. Then Carol contacted some friends and former colleagues who she felt would be able to help. She also gave Nancy the name of a psychiatrist from the hospital who knew Dr. Goudey. He’s now a novelist, and is something of a regular on daytime TV, but I won’t name him because I don’t know if CBS used him as a source.

I was sworn to secrecy, that I wouldn’t blog anything about CBS producing a show on the Goudey murder. I agreed, and in a very nice gesture of thanks Nancy sent a DVD of a program she had produced about Walter Cronkite. I used it as the source for this Beatles-related post.

For a time it wasn’t certain the show would go into production, but then a couple of months ago there was a break in the case, when the primary “person of interest,” Goudey’s boyfriend Dr. Timothy Stryker, was arrested — not for the murder, but for perjury. This video is from New England Cable News.

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There’s more NECN video, including a 1997 interview with Stryker, at this link.

Yesterday, we received a gift box of fancy foods from CBS, with this note:

Note from CBS News

We’re pleased the show is now real, and is going to be aired. Linda Goudey was a highly respected physician, who happened to be in the same specialty as my oldest sister, high-risk obstetrics. I hope the show brings the case closer to being solved, and Goudey’s murderer, whoever that may be, will be brought to justice. Being involved to the extent we have been has been very exciting, and without this blog it wouldn’t have happened.

48 Hours|Mystery, Saturday, October 25, 10 pm ET, on CBS. Don’t miss it! If there’s a change in the schedule I’ll let you know.