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..... If any forum members have any interest in potentially acquiring her beloved XK8, PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you the details. .....
Jon,
If you are serious about selling, please post in PRIVATE For Sale / Trade or Buy Classifieds forum.
It does work. I put a dummy For Sale post there with my 2005 XK8 Coupe to make screen shots for the Guidance thread and apart from Jim's spoof reply, still got two serious offers to buy it!
Thanks Graham. If my wife indeed decides to sell her car, I plan to list it in the forum classifieds (if a certain forum member who has always been interested in her car does not opt to purchase it first)….
She has her eye on a striking 2013 Mercedes-Benz E350 Cabriolet. Originally a California car, very well-maintained, I have tracked down all service history, and only 32,000 miles. Much more interior room, much easier for her to get in and out of, more comfortable seating for her, 302 horsepower, and still a convertible but with a much better ragtop system operational design than the XK8. Not nearly as gorgeous as her XK8 though, and she admits it. This will be a tough decision for her either way....
Update:
Never thought it would happen but my wife is actually considering selling her beloved 2006 XK8 Victory Edition convertible and moving to something larger and easier to get in and out of. For the first time since mid-March, she drove her car a couple of days ago and struggled mightily while doing so. Her various surgeries have certainly taken a heavy toll on her body and she realizes that her flexibility and stamina, while still improving in tiny increments, may never return to previous levels. So the search is underway for potential replacement vehicles that are comfortable enough and attractive enough to merit her attention. If any forum members have any interest in potentially acquiring her beloved XK8, PM me with your e-mail address and I will send you the details. I would prefer her car to stay in our forum family rather than being sold to someone who may not truly appreciate it for its uniqueness....
Jon, I understand your situation is tough. I'm happy to hear that she is now recovering. As someone who is studying a healthcare profession, I suggest that you and your wife not be rash regarding the decision to pull the plug on the Jag. Yes, it seems like her recovery is slow, but you would be surprised at how much she will heal. For now, I think it she should be at bed rest until the sutures fall out and the surgery wounds are healed. After that, I think it would be wise to seek help from a physical therapist to help her get back to her previous flexibility and stamina. Erring on the safe side, it may be less than a year for a full recovery.
Something to consider: people that are hospitalized for extended periods are under a controlled, somewhat calorie and nutrient restricted diet. They are also often confined to a bed without much exposure to sunlight. This is specially when they have undergone surgeries. The result is that they are both not using their muscles, and they are not giving their muscles the appropriate nutrients. So what happens next is that muscle slowly begins to atrophy due to lack of use. It's the same principle behind when someone has had a cast on their arm or leg after a fracture. When the fracture has healed and the cast comes off, anyone can immediately notice that that limb is noticeably thinner than the other.
Muscle isn't the only thing affected. The lack of movement does not stimulate the piezoelectric properties of the hydroxyapatite mineral that bones are made of, and thus could lead to calcium release from bones. This effect is compounded if she was not receiving enough sunlight, which would cause a Vit D. deficiency and would promote bone loss. More so if she is in menopause and has osteoporosis.
In summary, after the surgery wounds are healed, the best way for your wife to regain her strength and flexibility back is through exercise. A physical therapist is specialized to aid in this process while preventing any injuries. She may even end up more fit than she was in her younger years.
So, because the Victory Edition XK8 you own is an appreciating asset, it may be best to just keep it stored until she has returned to her former self. If, after a year her condition has not improved, then I would consider selling the XK8, and by then it may even be worth more than it does now.
^^ While I appreciate your medical advice, you are somewhat behind the curve. The hysterectomy staples were removed 17 days ago and she has been cleared for moderate physical activity as her lung function allows. She is walking a couple of laps around the neighborhood cul-de-sac every evening, and last night she prepared and baked a homemade chicken pot pie for our supper (the first real meal she has prepared in more than two months). The latest X-rays of her lungs (taken three days ago) show the fluid in her right lung continues to dissipate on its own, so her thoracic surgeon is comfortable with not seeing her again for 30 days. If her right lung continues to show more fluid drainage progress at that time, no further lung-drainage surgery will be necessary and he will probably release her from his care. Per her OB/GYN surgeon, she has another three weeks to go with no lifting anything more than five pounds to avoid any chance of an abdominal hernia. All of her surgical sites have long since closed and are healing quite well. It is now a matter of regaining flexibility, strength, and endurance. That will come through stepping up her walking as her lungs allow it, gradually resuming normal activities, and the passage of time....
Whether or not to sell her XK8 carries more factors than just her currently-diminished physical condition. She likes the larger interior, easier access, far lower mileage (32,000 on the E350 vs. 115,000 on her XK8), and general "newness" of the 2013 E350 Cabriolet she is considering. She likes the ravishing beauty and twisties road performance of her XK8. As I stated earlier, this will be a tough decision for her regardless of the eventual outcome....
My wife has decided not to make an offer on this 2013 E350 Cabriolet. By far the primary reason is the January 2016 Takata front passenger seat airbag recall on this particular vehicle. I spoke with Mercedes-Benz USA yesterday. They have no current resolution for this issue, nor do they have any idea when a resolution will be available. My wife is not willing to roll the dice and put any passenger at greater risk in this vehicle. She will keep her 2006 XK8 for the time being. Now she just needs to get well enough to be able to drive it regularly again....
The lining of her right lung began filling with fluid in mid-March. Surgery was performed to drain the lung and look for signs of cancer (she has never smoked). No cancer was found, but the lung began filling with fluid again shortly after surgery, so another surgery was performed to drain it again. The initial diagnosis was some form of viral pneumonia that had cleared on its own. Wrong - the lung once again began filling with fluid, so medical talc was injected into the lining of the lung in an effort to stop the fluid from reoccurring. Her thoracic surgeon was convinced the talc would stop the fluid from coming back. But it did not. There had to be another reason for the cause....
Complete body CT scans were performed in an effort to find out what else may be going on inside her. A large mass was discovered growing outside her uterus, so OB/GYN specialists were called in. Their research pointed to an extremely rare condition called Meigs Syndrome. In a nutshell, the general markers for Meigs Syndrome are a large benign tumor growing on the ovaries or uterus and also causing the lining of the right lung (always the right lung) to fill with fluid. The cure is to surgically remove the tumor....
But first, she had to recover enough from her multiple lung surgeries in order to be able to pull through the anesthesia and removal of that tumor. 20 days after her last lung surgery, she went under the knife again so her OB/GYN surgeon could remove what turned out to be a grapefruit-sized mass as well as her uterus, ovaries, and tubes. The good news is that with Meigs Syndrome, the tumor by definition MUST be benign. It indeed was, and there were no signs of cancer in any of the other tissues that were removed....
Now her challenge is to recover from five different surgeries over a two-month period, and being bedridden either in the hospital or at home for the vast majority of that timeframe. Last night, she slowly walked about 250 yards around our property. We will try that again each night, gradually increasing the distance and pace as her endurance slowly returns. By autumn, we hope she will be back to normal. Time will tell....
While I appreciate the skills of the various members of her medical team, I wish the cause of her condition had been identified and addressed six weeks sooner than it actually was. Her thoracic surgeon was focused solely on her right lung because he had never heard of Meigs Syndrome. Not until the OB/GYN surgeon (a cancer specialist) got involved was the actual cause of her condition identified and confirmed. As a result, the time required to finally resolve her issue was extremely taxing on my wife's overall health, and it also ran up her total medical bills to more than $125,000 thus far (with multiple follow-ups and potentially one more lung-draining surgery to go)....
While Meigs Syndrome is extremely rare, all post-menopausal women should be aware of it. If they are, a tremendous amount of time and money can be saved in diagnosing and resolving the problem....
Thanks for the kind words. She is indeed continuing to recover, albeit very slowly. She is driving solo for short distances in her XK8 every few days now, and she managed to walk a full mile on her treadmill yesterday morning. Her OB/GYN surgeon was satisfied enough with her hysterectomy / tumor removal surgery recovery progress at her follow-up appointment last Friday to release her from from any more follow-up OB/GYN surgery visits. She sees her thoracic surgeon for a follow-up visit on July 11th. If the fluid trapped in her right lung is continuing to dissipate on its own at that time, we hope he will also release her without recommending yet another lung-drainage surgery. She still has a long way to go, though....
06-08-2018, 10:53 AM
