Posted on 12/04/2002 9:21:28 AM PST by far sider
A PERSONAL NOTE FROM LARRY:
“We’ve been receiving emails from people who wondered why I haven’t been doing concerts anymore. Some didn’t know I have had health problems. So Kristin suggested I write it down in this newsletter. A year ago I felt very unwell so I took myself down to the hospital. I was shocked when they told me I only had two or three days to live and that I should call my family members and say goodbye. No surgeon at Salem would operate on me because they said my heart was too weak to survive the procedure. An ambulance took me to Portland and the cardiologists at OHSU told me the same thing. So my family flew in from everywhere and we all said goodbye. While I was waiting to die I had two more heart attacks.
“In God’s good timing a certain surgeon had just returned from vacation, looked at all three of my angiograms and volunteered to do the surgery. With a name like “Storm Flotin” I had confidence in him immediately. And like the Lone Ranger, since the surgery I have never seen him again. I’ve been recuperating for a year now. My son has been very helpful to me, bravely trying to do too much for a boy of seventeen. (That’s his voice on the phone machine at the office.) He’s become a writer, proof–reader, executive producer and the first one to start praying whenever I’ve had problems.
“I’ve tried to rehabilitate myself. I tried to play the guitar but couldn’t feel the strings or make chords because my left arm and hand was damaged during the heart surgery. I’ve been told I need a neurologist to help me, and possibly do surgery on my arm. It occurred to me that maybe I could just sing and have someone else play the guitar. I agreed to sing on Randy’s new “Edge Of The World” album and it took over two hours to sing six lines. Randy even had to replace two of my lines with his own voice. I was exhausted and felt sick. I just don’t have the strength to sing.
“In the last ten days I’ve been in and out of the hospital three times. My defibrillator shocked me ten times and Salem Hospital sent me to OHSU. Three days later my defibrillator fired five more times. When they thought I was stabilized and sent me home but three days ago I was back in the hospital.
“To try and explain my problem: when I had my heart attack, three of my four chambers “died”. Everyone has six main vessels working full time. I have only one vessel. And when my heart is starting to have a heart attack, the defibrillator shocks me to re–start my heart. (On television they use big paddles, yell “Clear” and try to shock the patient back to life. My “paddles” are inside of me.)
“I haven’t been able to work for over a year now but because of the money you sent to me I was finally able to go to one of the specialists which my insurance would not pay for. For almost a year I had to sleep sitting up in a chair because whenever I lay down I would stop breathing. The doctor was able to treat this unusual problem which also a very life–threatening one from which people often die.
I need to go to several more specialists because my health is still declining. My usual weight is 190 but when it fell to 140 my doctor told me, “We used to treat people by making them comfortable in a sanatorium and they kept losing weight until they died.” So I need a specialist who can reverse this decline. And I need cardio-therapy which my insurance won’t pay for. I don’t know of any way to say it delicately. Just simply that without the special treatments I am going to die.
I’ve been in the hospital many times now since the surgery. And my three year battery is almost drained because I’ve been shocked so many times. So I also need another surgery for that. I am only able to pray that God will open a door for me.
“In the meantime, the few of you who buy CDS from Solid Rock have really been a blessing. And the few who have sent donations have sent them in at exactly the right time for emergency situations which have come up. So thank you. Literally, you have been life savers for me.
“I’m sorry for the delay in receiving your CDs. I have sent out some of the orders myself. But there was some duplication on my part. So if I sent you two orders of the same thing, please keep the duplicate CD and give it away to someone you feel really could benefit spiritually from the music.
“Rather than send the CDs back, which some of you have been doing, I would like for you to “spread the seeds” onto the good ground around you in your daily life at work, with friends, neighbors and the strangers you meet unexpectedly. That would make me so happy.
“Special thanks to Matthew James who has been transferring tapes from analog to digital and also driving Mike to school every morning. It’s been kind of lonely around here since my father’s death. I try to see mother everyday but sometimes I am in the hospital and don’t see anyone. And now with my brother gone my sister comes over for a few days each week. A new friend named Steve Pettis has been very kind to us and has often been visiting me at the hospital, driving me to appointments, helping my mother, Margaret.
“And because of the kindness of some of you who have donated money to the medical trust fund, I was able to get very specific treatment from one of the specialists I needed to see. The doctor was able to solve a very crucial problem. I had been sitting up in a chair for almost a year, sleeping that way because when I tried to lay down I stopped breathing. The doctor was able to treat this unusual problem which also a very life–threatening one from which people often die.
“The family feels uncomfortable with “begging” for money so we are trying to raise money by offering special things, like an unprecedented album release at the end of page three. We want to “give something back” to you besides just my thanks. You have been far more than fans to me over the years and I have always been open to you as a friend, going out with people to restaurants, talking for hours after a concert and enjoying your company. Operating within a corrupt gospel music industry you have made my life a very beautiful experience. So thank you.”
Love in Jesus, Larry
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