Great news about Norm
I'm beyond pleased to report that I spoke with Norm today, after two months of not being able to contact him, and he's in great shape. He agreed to let me fill everyone in here.
Some of you may know that Norm suffers from diabetic neuropathy, which is a degenerative disease that attacks the nervous system. As a result, he's been largely confined to a wheelchair for the past several years (which is why he's no longer a pro baker). Nearly a year ago, his situation worsened and he was hospitalized. He was subsequently released, but fell and broke his hip, and so went back to the hospital.
In the interim, his condition was misdiagnosed and as a result, he developed a severe bone infection (osteomyelitis), which threatened to spread to the rest of his system. Long story short, he underwent surgery to amputate the affected foot and was on intravenous antibiotics for a couple of months. At one point, around New Year's, I worried that he wasn't going to make it.
Well, he's in great shape. He's lost a lot of weight (I'm jealous!), has been discharged from the hospital and is now in a rehab facility. His amputation is healing nicely and he'll be getting a prosthesis as soon as the healing is completed. For the first time in years, he'll be able to spend most of his waking hours on his feet.
I know a lot of you have been concerned, and I thought it best not to share details until we knew what the outcome would be. Now that he's out of the woods, he felt it would be OK to let all his friends here know where he's been for the last nine or 10 months.
He also told me to let you all know that he'll be back here online in the very near future.
Stan