I'm not dead yet! But, I came pretty close when the attending physician at the hospital decided my blood pressure was a bit low and reduced my beta blocker dosage by 80 percent, then canceled the other med entirely. My blood pressure shot up to 210/100, my pulse hit 110 and no one even blinked. Thank goodness I had the intelligence to call Carol and have her smuggle my meds from home to me, which immediately brought things under control. After six days in the hospital from Hell, I escaped, but I was anything but cured.

Since then, my C.Diff continues to plague me, sleep amounts to a couple hours a night at best, and nausea has been horrendous since I returned home. Today, I underwent an EGA, the doctor said the inside of your stomach looks horrible, but there is no sign of cancer or ulcers. However, it seems as if the medications you've been taking have eroded away the lining of your stomach and there is some minor bleeding, but not significant at this point.

He put me on what is known as the BRAT diet (bananas, rice, apples, toast) and said I can no longer drink booze of any kind, (yetch), not even light beer, bland diet, no fats including light margarine, and he wants me to see him again in two weeks. Additionally, as soon as the C.Diff is resolved, he wants me to have a colonoscopy, which I'm not really looking forward to.

Since I was hospitalized, I've lost 24 pounds, I no longer have any muscle tone, my arms and legs are very thin, and I'm down to 198 pounds. I try to exercise a bit every day, but it's quite difficult. I just picked up my keyboard in it's case ( about 32 pounds) and it felt like it weighed a ton.

In the ensuing weeks I will inventory my gear, which is quite diverse, including my entertainer garments, silk vests, satin shirts and matching ties, guyabera shirts, all the really fancy stuff. Almost forgot, all the garments are XL and in good to excellent condition. I intend to keep one complete music rig so I can play at home and for private parties, and one performance clothing outfit (gotta look good for the ladies). I'll list all this on the for sale section of the site and what does not sell in two weeks will go on Ebay.

I wish to thank everyone for their well wishes, and I sincerely hoped I would have better news at this point, but the docs told me this may be a long, slow road to recovery.

All the best,

Gary