Here I sit - I'm in a better frame of mind than this morning. After an afternoon nap (and I will still go to bed early tonight) I can at least think a little more clearly than I could when I wrote earlier. It doesn't hurt that I have a Sam Adams Boston Lager sitting on the desk next to me as I write. And I may crack a second one open when I'm done with the first. I know it won't do anything positive for my ability to type as I know that the Fat Finger Syndrome will take hold soon. I'm actually surprised it hasn't already....
Okay - I lied. It has. But there is always the back space key. And I am under no illusion that I will be coherent within the next hour or so. I probably won't be, and near the end of this post the words may get somewhat jumbled. So please be patient with this one.
This morning's visit with the Orthopedic surgeon went well enough. He's pleased with the incision site, and I have good strength in my foot - I am "on schedule", in terms of healing. I have the green light to walk around the house in shoes/clogs/whatever I choose to wear. I still have the option of the brace when I get tired, which I have no doubt will happen. He also took a look at the wound, and while he is not a wound specialist, he doesn't see any sign of infection. No smelly discharge or purulence or anything like that. And the redness around the wound sight is actually reaction of tissue, which is really common. As for the dependent edema, I can expect to have that hanging around for a long time to come. He himself had the same injury I had with the same surgical repair, and his own dependent edema stayed with him for a little over a year. And even after he was good to go back to working, he still had to contend with localized muscle fatigue. With all of that said, I guess I can expect to have the actual recovery time be considerably longer than what I was initially told. Some of that time will include being back on the job and dealing with the inherent problems that are already listed here.
So, I suppose the best thing I can do for myself is what I'm already doing.
On a totally unrelated subject..... Michael Addison was given a death sentence by the jury today. The Briggs family was happy with that sentence, as was the overall rank-and-file of the Manchester Police Department. While it doesn't make me want to get up and dance or do back flips, in all honesty I believe it was appropriate. That said, the appeals process in New Hampshire is automatic; the New Hampshire Supreme Court will hear the appeal within 60 days, plus Addison will have multiple opportunities to appeal further. And New Hampshire doesn't have a death chamber or a gallows (both lethal injection and hanging are on the books in this state), so something would have to be constructed. Further, on the subject of lethal injection, New Hampshire has no protocol in place to carry it out, so that would also need to be developed if it became the manner of execution that was ultimately chosen.
Some realities need to be looked at in all of this. First things first: there will be a pitched battle by his attorneys to have the sentence overturned. Already the defense team is talking about the constitutionality of New Hampshire's execution statute, and they will use what information they have to try to sway the Supreme Court justices towards overturning the death sentence and making it a life sentence without parole instead.
I've written about this in past posts, and I predicted that something like this would happen. After all, the defense team will do everything in their power to keep Addison alive. One thing that will happen during the process is that he will be kept in maximum security. According to a high-level official at the Department of Corrections (I believe it was the Deputy Warden that was interviewed, but I can't be certain about that), he will not be moved into the General Population at any time. And since New Hampshire doesn't have a Death Row, this is where he will be spending his time awaiting the appeals process.
I would also predict here that at some point his sentence will be overturned and he will end up with life without parole. I don't say this because I necessarily want it to happen; I don't. As far as I'm concerned, his sentence should be carried out once the process has been completed. But I'm not convinced that it will get that far.
All we can do is wait and see.
Okay - I lied. It has. But there is always the back space key. And I am under no illusion that I will be coherent within the next hour or so. I probably won't be, and near the end of this post the words may get somewhat jumbled. So please be patient with this one.
This morning's visit with the Orthopedic surgeon went well enough. He's pleased with the incision site, and I have good strength in my foot - I am "on schedule", in terms of healing. I have the green light to walk around the house in shoes/clogs/whatever I choose to wear. I still have the option of the brace when I get tired, which I have no doubt will happen. He also took a look at the wound, and while he is not a wound specialist, he doesn't see any sign of infection. No smelly discharge or purulence or anything like that. And the redness around the wound sight is actually reaction of tissue, which is really common. As for the dependent edema, I can expect to have that hanging around for a long time to come. He himself had the same injury I had with the same surgical repair, and his own dependent edema stayed with him for a little over a year. And even after he was good to go back to working, he still had to contend with localized muscle fatigue. With all of that said, I guess I can expect to have the actual recovery time be considerably longer than what I was initially told. Some of that time will include being back on the job and dealing with the inherent problems that are already listed here.
So, I suppose the best thing I can do for myself is what I'm already doing.
On a totally unrelated subject..... Michael Addison was given a death sentence by the jury today. The Briggs family was happy with that sentence, as was the overall rank-and-file of the Manchester Police Department. While it doesn't make me want to get up and dance or do back flips, in all honesty I believe it was appropriate. That said, the appeals process in New Hampshire is automatic; the New Hampshire Supreme Court will hear the appeal within 60 days, plus Addison will have multiple opportunities to appeal further. And New Hampshire doesn't have a death chamber or a gallows (both lethal injection and hanging are on the books in this state), so something would have to be constructed. Further, on the subject of lethal injection, New Hampshire has no protocol in place to carry it out, so that would also need to be developed if it became the manner of execution that was ultimately chosen.
Some realities need to be looked at in all of this. First things first: there will be a pitched battle by his attorneys to have the sentence overturned. Already the defense team is talking about the constitutionality of New Hampshire's execution statute, and they will use what information they have to try to sway the Supreme Court justices towards overturning the death sentence and making it a life sentence without parole instead.
I've written about this in past posts, and I predicted that something like this would happen. After all, the defense team will do everything in their power to keep Addison alive. One thing that will happen during the process is that he will be kept in maximum security. According to a high-level official at the Department of Corrections (I believe it was the Deputy Warden that was interviewed, but I can't be certain about that), he will not be moved into the General Population at any time. And since New Hampshire doesn't have a Death Row, this is where he will be spending his time awaiting the appeals process.
I would also predict here that at some point his sentence will be overturned and he will end up with life without parole. I don't say this because I necessarily want it to happen; I don't. As far as I'm concerned, his sentence should be carried out once the process has been completed. But I'm not convinced that it will get that far.
All we can do is wait and see.
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