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Ronald’s Story

Site created on June 11, 2021

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. On Sunday May 15, I got a call from Ron telling me he was in the ER. I figured it was serious because he never tells me anything until it's over so I don't worry. about a month and a half before this he called and told me he had surgery the day before on his back. I was furious. I was crying and scolding him at the same time making him promise never to do that again. Since the age of about 18 he has had ankylosing spondylitis , a disease where your vertebrae fuses together. There is no cure. It eventually leads to total fusion of the spine. For instance , he cannot move his neck so at a visit to the dentist....the dentist once broke his neck. The surgery he had was to scrape off some calcification on his spine that was causing more pain than usual. I made him promise me he would let me know all his medical issues big or small. That's why I got the call that Sunday. I of course went straight to the hospital. Apparently he had blood in his urine for awhile, it then was total blood, then no urine at all. They catherized him three times trying to get urine. each time with a bigger tube. It hurt me to hear him in such agony each time they inserted a larger tube. They did some tests and admitted him. They found a mass on his bladder. The next day they did surgery to remove the mass. We were informed the mass was also on his kidney. They decided to put a stint in his kidney but that was unsuccessful. Too much mass was left on the kidney and they were unable to insert the stint. instead they inserted tube in his back with a bag to drain the kidney and try for a stint again in two weeks. When he left the hospital his left kidney was only working like 7%. Two weeks later, another unsuccessful attempt for a stint. At this point we still had no results on what the mass was. Last Monday which was the 7th of June we were told by his urologist the mass is cancer and it is advanced. I guess that's a matter of opinion because we have been told two different things. I choose to believe he will be cured. On the 8th they did a scan of his lungs. They found a mass on his lungs. He will have a biopsy this coming Friday on the 18th. On Wednesday the 9th we had a group meeting with a group of Dr's. to hear the plan for his treatment. After the lung biopsy he will start Chemo. 2x a week for 2 weeks the one week off. That is one cycle. He will have 4 cycles. They will then remove his bladder and kidney and reconstruct an artificial bladder and he will have a tube and bag. As far as his lung, we won't know for a couple weeks. I'll try to keep everyone updated .

Newest Update

Journal entry by vicki snider — May 8, 2022

Thursday May 5 Ron passed away. He went peacefully as i was by his side. I knew it was close but i still wasn’t prepared for it. I am broken-hearted. I couldn’t have asked for a better brother. Unless you knew him it’s so hard to explain what kind of person he was. He was special to everyone who knew him. Loved by everyone. He had no enemies. Selfless, kind, giving, loving are just a few of the words to describe Ron. He went through so much with his health. He still kept his sense of humor through it all. He spent over 10years taking care of my mother and actually moved in with her the last 2 years of her life and he took off work for her last year. I miss him terribly . I can’t see myself ever getting over this loss. This is so close to the loss of my daughter. I’m so darn sad. The last two months Ron and I had so many heartfelt conversations. I made him many promises which I’m trying to keep but darn it’s hard. We cried together more times than i can count. Please keep praying for Ron snd our family. We will be having a celebration of life in the near future to celebrate Ronnie’s life and i will post that when the plans are finalized. Thank you so much for everyone’s support during this last year. It has meant so, so much to us. Sending love to all of you

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