FRTM - About Ray

Greetings friends...

Today I spent a couple of hours with Ray at North Suburban Hospital.  He asked me to send a message to the club about his situation.

Last Wednesday night, Ray started vomiting about 7:00 PM.  He said that he threw up hourly all night.  This whole onset occurred suddenly and without him feeling poorly in any way.  He went to the Emergency Care facility at 128th and Holly early Thursday morning and stayed there all day while they tried to figure out what was wrong with him.  About 3:00 PM that afternoon he was released to go home while they were doing lab work on his blood.  The Emergency facility felt that he had some sort of stomach virus.

About 12:30 AM Friday morning, he received a phone call that knocked him out of his sleep and said "You need to come to North Suburban Hospital IMMEDIATELY - not when you get up... right now."   He was at the hospital at 1:00 AM and they immediately hooked him up to IV antibiotics.  This is where he is today.

It turns out that he suffered a "urinary tract infection" -- except that he has no "urinary tract" with his bladder removed due to his cancer treatment.  He therefore has no symptoms noticeable symptoms, whereas the rest of us would.  The bacteria then proliferated unabated and with no warning to him.  It then entered his bloodstream.  It turns out that he has one of the antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains of strep (cousin) in his blood.  The bacteria is currently responding well to the antibiotic drip that he is receiving.  The hospital is currently trying to determine how serious this situation is.  In fact, tonight he is going through a nasty test to help determine the severity of the situation that looks at his heart from the inside. 

The options are: In the best case he will be going home later this week and be up and around again in a week or two.  In the middle case he will be in the hospital for up to four months and recover fully.  In the worst case... this could do him in. My friends, Ray is in a bad way.

As I saw him, Ray is in reasonably good spirits.  I stayed with him for about two hours catching him up and providing him some camaraderie.  If you'd like to send him an email, send it to repezolt@xxxxxxxxx.  He has poor cell phone service and no computer at this point.  Thus he may or may not get your communication in a timely manner... this is unknown to me.

I'm planning on visiting him later this week and will provide an update when I know more.

Luke, he's scheduled to be the Grammarian this week.  I'd be happy to be the Greeter then fill his spot if you wish -- your call.

Please... everyone send good vibes to Ray.  He needs all he can get.

Sincerely, Ray's buddy,

Dirk