Yesterday I almost lost my brother. I’m thankful he managed to call our sister and she had enough sense to tell him to call 911. The paramedics arrived as she pulled in. He was having breathing difficulties, skin was blue, hypothermic and severely dehydrated. He was rushed to the ER where the doctors there said to prepare for the worst. They ushered my sister into one of the family rooms with the chaplain. She called her son and myself to get there as quickly as possible. The doctors put him on life support and dumped 6 liters of fluid into his system. They ran him through CT scans, chest xrays and the works. Eventually they shifted him up to ICU where things were a bit calmer. The tests came back and he was experiencing severe pancreatitis. His internal organs (and whole body) had been deprived of oxygen. Amazingly his kidneys were still making urine, which was a very good sign. We don’t know how the rest of his body will do. We will take it day by day.
Next week we will have to move him out of his apartment. One of us will have to check on his business, answer messages, connect with clients waiting for product and just get it set for him not returning for months.
Oh, and he has no health care insurance. This is when I wish we lived in Canada or the UK. Anywhere but here in the land of extreme medical costs. Can’t worry about that now.
What a crazy life I live these days!
Sticks, Stones, and Paper Stew Blog 
How awful for you and your family. I hope things work out ok. Big virtual hugs as you work through all this. Karen
Thank you so much Karen. Hug has been received.
Oh my goodness, Gayle. This is so terrible. If it’s any consolation, I have a relative and a colleague who both survived pancreatitis and have resumed normal lives. It is recoverable. We all whinge about our health service over here but we don’t know how lucky we are. I hope things work out for him and you xxxx
It is something people normally recover from. In his case, he wasn’t discovered in the early stages. He’s now on dialysis as of last night. There is a blood infection they are working with. It’s a pretty shocking reality check right now.
xxx