Classic City News on new schedule due to hospitalization of its owner/publisher

By Joe Johnson

I am sorry to say that Classic City News has had to set up a temporary newsroom at 1199 Prince Ave. for an undetermined length of time. A weekend emergency room visit has already turned into a three-day hospitalization, with no set plans for a discharge date.

After two days of IV transfusions of mostly steroids but also a saline solution and other stuff, the rheumatologist who is treating me for Myositis (a rare immunodeficiency deficiency disease) wants to do a series of infusions of a new medication that could help me walk again, but the problem is each transfusion would cost, even after insurance, $7,000 a pop!

The hospital stay is being prolonged by my care team trying to negotiate with Social Security about how necessary the transfusions are for their patient’s life!

On top of that, an MRI that was planned for today was canceled because the machine is being repaired, so add one more day to CCN trying to operate from the Talmadge Tower temp office.

The docs also mentioned in-patient rehab, that would keep me here another 3-4 days, but I quashed that by saying home therapist visits worked out quite well after my brain surgery six years ago, so that’s the route I’ve chosen for this go round as well.

So there you have a not so brief update on why CCN has not been posting news stories at the frequency to which you’d been accustomed.

If I can somehow get a break, I will soon be back working full time from my home office.

I'm not fishing for sympathy, but I truly feel as though I deserve a break, seeing how my immunodeficiency has led to four hospitalizations since May -- first for bronchitis , then influenza, Covid, Covid-pneumonia, and now this!

In the meantime I will post from my hospital bed any major news story that may come along, and I am quite(?) sure that you are getting all of the local news you need and want from the folks who formerly occupied The News Building on North Thomas Street.