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Dear Family and Friends
I will try each night to send out an email with Richie's information. Tonight will be from the beginning. My apologies for omitting some and not calling others. My brain is Swiss cheese right now. Richie has not been himself for awhile. He has complained about a pain on his right side. The doctor felt it was just some healing still from his gallbladder surgery back in October. The last few weeks he hasn't been eating and getting very tired. Of course I kept telling him he had to eat and drink more water. Boy was I right on the water. Well Wednesday night (x-apple-data-detectors://1) he felt really bad and decided he was going to go to the doctor after his flag day ceremony for Honor Guard. Thursday morning (x-apple-data-detectors://2) we were up early for my doctors appointment. He was looking very tired. So I went to my appointment tried calling him when I was done and was home within an hour. Come to find out our house phone doesn't work and Richie was laying in bed freezing and shaking and his lips were alittle blue. His doctor appointment was for 12:30pm (x-apple-data-detectors://3). Called and was able to bring him in ASAP. He had rapid heart rate, very low temp, and a very bad pain near the gall bladder area if he had one. We were told to go the a new ER facility. As the morning went on the pain moved to his lower right side, breathing got worse, kidney count was out of whack, dehydrated., very low blood pressure. We were told he needed to be transported to the hospital. The Villages had no room for us. So we went to Ocala. I'm so glad the staff is great. This is where I really start to drive Chris crazy. Was told it could be the appendix, need to do a cat scan. He went for the scan. Dr. Garcia the surgeon which we have seen about 4 times since we arrived at the hospital just on Thursday. Ruled out the appendix. He is very very dehydrated and we must get his fluids up and stable his heart rate and bring up his blood pressure. As the day went on he was getting weaker and weaker that I needed to pull him out of the bed to use the bathroom. I was sure I was going to lose him that night. Friday middle of night the pain was a stabbing pain. Dr Garcia was in asking if he ever had heart failure. They were so concerned out the heart. He was going to need a cath done after the side pain was done or before. In the morning show Dr Garcia again he would need to have a drain in to see what the fluid was, what kind on infection so he could get the right meds. He went done around 4pm (x-apple-data-detectors://6) for the drain and should be back within the hour. I stayed in his room and waited. Found out from the nurse after she came back from dinner that was was still done stairs and was going to need surgery. He had bile in his body and they need to find out where it was coming from, could be the pancreas, which didn't look great. He also has loose staples and stuff that looked like fibers. The doc was not even sure if he could close the incision. Not sure what this means so the surgery could last 1 - 4 hours. And he will be on a ventilator for a week. Hospital could be a month. I'm telling this to Chris and all we here is "Chris doesn't need to come down." Yes I've spoken, so guess who got over ruled? Yes the big guy. Rich goes into surgery at 8:45 (x-apple-data-detectors://7). I have to go to his old room and get all his stuff because ICU here we come. I called James per Richie's instruction. James will take care of everything for you. And James has. For those that don't know nephew. Found my way to the waiting room. There was a little bit of a problem going on between family members, friends, etc. so when I checked in it got lost. Security had to come down. Was very entertaining. Surgery was over at 12:30am (x-apple-data-detectors://8), I needed to wait about an hour before I could see him. So I did what anyone would do sleep on one of the little sofas or extra wide chair. Yes, I am short enough. Woke up and still no word from inside the locked door. I was told it could take more time. After another nap and a phone call I was told I could see him, which was 2:30 am (x-apple-data-detectors://9). Is on a ventilator, heavily medicated, but looks good. Was told by the nurse he will have good days and bad before he starts to get better and the ins and outs of the surgery. Will be a very long road. Left the hospital at 7am Saturday morning (x-apple-data-detectors://10). The ICU is closed to visitors from 6am - 8am (x-apple-data-detectors://11) and 6pm - 8pm (x-apple-data-detectors://12) every day. Got home did laundry and waited for Chris to arrive. Which meant a nap. Dick and Debbie Winters picked him up at the airport. Thank you. Chris and I went back up to the hospital. Richie did move his eye brows when we would talk to him. Spoke to Dr Watson, part of the surgical team very please with how he is doing. Left the hospital went to dinner and I crashed. Yes I know I need to take care of myself. That is why I was in bed asleep and no messages went out. Chris was not far behind me. Sunday, spoke to a nurse. Nothing has changed. We did some things around the house had lunch and visited Rich. I was told by his nurse Saturday not to over taxi Richie, he needs down time also. Well were we surprised when we saw Richie. He is still on the vent and has all his drains tubes etc. He looked wonderful. His color is back, he does breath over the vent and is breathing more on his own. His body has finally relaxed. As Chris stated he has finally made a lot of pee, blood pressure is rising that med has been decreased. They started lowering the coma meds. He opened his eyes a few times, wiggled his toes. We enjoyed the Yankee game even tho they lost. Tomorrow they will lower the coma meds some more. He will still be one the vent until he can obey instructions and do somethings on his own. That is our story. Thank you for your prayers and thoughts. Right now Chris and I are doing well. We don't need anything and Richie can't have visitors. I have to look into our house phone issue, seems the number might have been changed. Not giving the number out until I find out why. So you can email me or call my cell at 631-327-0579 (tel:631-327-0579). Once Richie comes home and I want to run away I will be asking for help. You can bet on it. I hope this helps and clears up a lot of questions. We are not sure when Chris is going back. When Richie's does come home we might turn the phone off when he is sleeping. Please pass this along. Thank you, Love to all Laurie, Richie and Chris
