ROB LEWIS
My brothers,
I apologize for not sending out an update sooner. Every task
has taken a great amount of energy. This will be very brief
for the same reason.
I went into the hospital on July 11, 2022 for a partial bowel
resection and gallbladder removal, with the expectation of
being home in three days. During the surgery, my liver was
torn and I lost a lot of blood and 20% of my liver. The first
week of my 16 day hospital stay was horrific. My pain was
almost constant and often an 8/10 or greater. I spent the
first few days hallucinating from the general anesthesia and
constant morphine, once so bad I didn't sleep for 30 hours.
Another source of intense discomfort was not being able to
have bowel movement until 7 days after the surgery. That
was the first good day post-op.
The second week was better but I was still dealing with lots of pain and edema (swelling) of my lower extremities,
most notably and painfully my scrotum. I kid you not, it was the size of a cantaloupe. One week after I left the
hospital I saw my surgeon who was very concerned at how jaundiced I was, so they took a CT scan of my abdomen
and found a cyst had developed outside my liver that contained a massive amount of fluid. They immediately sent
me to have it drained and they pulled out 3 liters of bile! That was this past Tuesday. I now have a drain for the
syst and have collected another 2 liters since then. There is a leak and they don't yet know where or why. This is
the new main focus. I've been told it could either be the dead liver cells leaking, which will likely heal over time, or
the bile duct from the live needs repair, which will mean another surgery. Wah.
Will Scott and Terry McMahon drove up today. I can't describe how good it was to see them, and to be sharing this
weekend with them.
And of course, thank you to everyone who has donated via Meal Train. I was laid from the hospital in May, so this
support is even more vital.
I love you men and am grateful to feel you from my home in Bend
Love,
Rob 8/5/2022
For those who missed it on EBCOM essentials (because I know not everyone reads those emails):
At Rob’s request I set up an app for him called Meal Train. Somewhat like Go Fund Me, but specifically tailored
to people in Rob’s circumstances. It has a calendar feature where he can easily request local help: meal
preparation, grocery delivery, rides to medical appointments, house cleaning, etc.
Rob has local friends who will be able to help him out to a certain extent, but as you can see from the above,
he is going to need a lot of help for a while. So for those of us who do not have the pleasure of living in Bend,
Oregon, Meal Train provides a way to donate money to a fund which Rob can draw on when local help is not
available.
When I set up the Meal Train page on July 15, I set an arbitrary goal of $3,000. We have met and passed that
goal. But things have gotten more complicated, as you can see. For one thing, Rob is not going to be able to
return to work for some time. And he’s going to need care for longer than originally anticipated.
So the request is, if you have funds available and you have not donated yet, please do so.
As most of you know, Rob was a big player in EBNOM/EBCOM for many years. He did some great stuff. For
example, he was one of the early architects of the initiation process. And he also caused some interesting
trouble for the organization. It’s all good!
Here’s your Meal Train link: https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/5mrq17 . Go for it!
—JT
