Handicapped in Hawai'i

Twelve

October, 1994

        Honolulu, Hawai'i

After several months of exhaustive searching that seemed to lead him absolutely nowhere, Richie was finally checked in for his first shoulder replacement surgery. He'd wanted to have it done over at Hilo Medical Center since that was the closest hospital to where he lived, so getting back home after the fact wouldn't take as long. That'd also make it easier for his fiancé to visit him, yet still be able to work at her shop since it was all of three or four miles from the hospital. But he'd quickly found out that that wasn't gonna happen, no matter how much he wanted it to, which'd somewhat pissed him off.

        The limited amount of orthopedic surgeons in Hilo that did total joint replacements only had experience with hips and knees. None of them'd ever done any other kinda joint replacement, and while they'd normally be willing to give such a thing a first attempt, they all refused to make that first attempt on him, in particular.

        It wasn't 'cuz they honestly didn't wanna help him–it was 'cuz none of them'd ever treated someone born with his disability, not even to treat the common cold. They weren't sure what all complications that Birth defect'd throw at them, and they didn't wanna bite off more than they could chew. More importantly to them, they didn't wanna give any of his family a reason to file a lawsuit against them, should an unexpected complication result in his untimely Death. All of them knew they could face some damn serious consequences, if the virtuoso were to die on their operating table while they were trying to replace his mangled right shoulder, and they didn't wanna deal with it.

        However, they'd suggested that he try contacting one of the orthopedic surgeons at the Queen's Medical Center up in Honolulu. One of them might actually have experience with the kinda replacement he needed, and even if they didn't, they might be a lil more willing to give it a shot. It'd require him to make a flight that was just under an hour to get there, as well as back home after the fact, but it wouldn't be nearly as rough as going back to the mainland for such a surgery.

        Luckily for him, taking their advice'd gotten him a consultation with Dr. Alexander C. Garber, who specialized in pretty much everything shoulder and arm, as far as orthopedics went. His most common treatment was of tendinitis and tenosynovitis in the shoulder, but he was one of the few who'd experience with total shoulder replacements. He openly admitted that he'd never performed one on someone born with sacral agenesis during their consultation, but unlike the doctors in Hilo, he was more than willing to give it a shot. If anything, the worst that could happen besides Death'd be that he needed to have a revision surgery sooner than any of them expected. Since that was something he'd face later in Life anywhore, he couldn't find any reason not to trust him since even Rob didn't get a bad feeling from him.

        "Good Morn, Mr. Kotzen."

        Looking up when he heard a voice in the doorway of the pre-op room he'd been put in, the virtuoso wasn't surprised to see his surgeon already outfitted in his scrubs. "Morn, Dr. Garber."

        "Ready to get this show on the road?" he queried, grabbing the clipboard from the foot of the gurney he was laying on.

        "As I'll ever be, I guess," Richie answered, nodding.

        "It's perfectly normal to be nervous before any surgery," the surgeon assured him, Returning the clipboard to where it'd been hanging after glancing over the paperwork on it.

        "Fuck, I damn sure was before both of mine," Rob laughed from where he sat on one side of his bed. "I'm not sure which Time was worse–the first since I didn't know what to expect, or the second since I'd a family to pull through for by then."