Jacuzzi

2009 Post Script

This 2009 revision especially honors all the wonderful souls who have touched my life ...always
full of surprises.

On September 19, 2008, at Barrows Neurological, St. Joes Hospital, Phoenix, I had brain surgery, or microvascular decompression. Two neurosurgeons, Drs. Andrew Shetter and Joseph Zabramski performed this high risk procedure. These guys were brilliant and the surgery 100% successful. But a couple of days post op I developed multiple complications, including pneumonia.

On my third trip back into intensive care I felt... spent. I told the attending nurse that I didnt want
to be re-intubated. The nurse called my wife and told her what I wanted.... After four weeks of
hospitalization and five more weeks of intense therapy and recovery at home, I returned to my
job with the State of Arizona....

Barack Obama had just been elected President of the United States.... An ever worsening
economic crisis was gripping this country.... The historically predictable causes for this crisis
had been forewarned by renowned scholars.... For now, consider the health of a US economy
thats been moving away from... producing real products... to one which exchanges paper
-- buying and selling... corporate and consumer debt... making financial bets, i.e., hedging.
Contemporaneously... erode this economys
middle class while concentrating... its wealth into
fewer hands. Thats whats been happening in
the US over the last 40+ years. Its an historical
flashing red light for the end of an empire. Guess
which empire.

On May 18, 2009, I was advised that
due to budgetary constraints, the Arizona
Office for Americans with Disabilities was to
be permanently closed.... My job as Executive
Director... would terminate.... Like many of you
who read this, Im looking for another job. Thats
life. The rest is inside.

Jacuzzis creative memoir of growing up disabled in a family of Italian inventors is filled with
history, romance, and globe-trekking adventure.
Business coach, manager, and ADA advocate,
Ken has lived an incredible life!