Columns

With his new lease on life, he tends to hers

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published July 17, 2007

When surgeons prepared to remove the left side of Jim Rinker's brain, they feared he would never again be able to recognize simple words and phrases. But when he awoke, he turned to his wife, Audrey, and whispered, "I love you, babe."

It sounds like a perfect ending to their story, but over the past seven years much of their experience could have been lifted from Michael Moore's movie Sicko. Still, they've met their setbacks with determination instead of despair, serenity rather than anger.

The large tumor at the base of Jim's brain was benign, so there was no need for chemotherapy. But two months after the surgery, he was back on the operating table, this time for a blood clot just outside his brain.

Audrey nursed him back whole. Jim, 62, had to relearn math, geometry and calculus. He held on to all his geography knowledge.

"His brain was like a GPS," said Audrey, 59.

Jim, who with his wife once owned and operated Pasco Blueprint & Supply Co., remembered pi the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, or 3.14159265, but he didn't know yogurt.

Most people would have been frustrated having to relearn everything, but not Jim. For him, learning was easier the second time around. He didn't complain.

Mechanical engineers like Jim are trained to find and solve problems. That's the only way he knew how to respond when Audrey, the person who helped nurse him back to health, began to fall apart two years ago.

In sickness and in health was the promise they made to each other in a small Louisiana town 22 years ago.

Audrey's worsening condition required a neurologist, but she couldn't get an appointment because she had no health insurance. In 1999, when an HMO balked at paying for Jim's tumor surgery, their local legislator, Mike Fasano, shamed the insurance company into action.

It took another timely letter from Fasano, now a state senator, to open the doors to a doctor's office for Audrey.

The Tampa neurologist at first glance diagnosed Audrey's eye and facial spasms as Meige's syndrome. Next month, Jim will drive Audrey to Shands hospital in Gainesville for further tests.

She doesn't fret. She prays. It worked for Jim, she figures.

Despite all the ups and downs, she feels blessed.

After Jim recovered, the couple earned insurance adjuster licenses and are now qualified to work in hurricane and other disaster zones. (Only her illness prevented them from going to New Orleans to work in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.) And Jim's mechanical engineer background may yet pay off.

"We have his comeback, his knowledge. He has invented something; he's got a patent," she said with pride.

Patent No. 7172513 - Jim rattled off the numbers. He invented a putter that can be adjusted to suit the golfer.

Jim doesn't golf. But after he saw a friend being fitted for a putter in Louisiana, he set out to invent and design something that would be easier.

His invention looks like a conventional putter with adjustable nuts and bolts on the aluminium club head - one putter to fit different size golfers.

Jim and his longtime friend, John Victor, a salesman, are looking for a manufacturer and a distributor for Jim's invention. Then he can start on the other ideas in his head.

Even with half a brain, the inspiration never stops.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at (813) 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com

[Last modified July 16, 2007, 22:06:17]