Monday, December 03, 2007

Blogger Down, But Not Out

Triticale, our blogger friend, is in the hospital with acute leukemia.  Patrick of Badger Blogger received this email from his wife.

Tom is in St. Joe’s ICU with acute leukemia. Wed AM he appeared fine, he picked me up after work & ran several errands. 7:30 PM Wed night his legs collapsed. We thought he had a stroke. He was admitted to St. Joe’’s with a white blood cell count of 300,000 (normal is 8,000). Thursday AM he couldn’t talk, he is currently heavily, heavily sedated (only being able to move his right thumb every now & then just to let me know he’s in there somewhere). We have had some good news, but the bad news is they can’t stabilize his red blood cells & he’s bleeding in his stomach.

I tell folks that except for the leukemia he’s healthy as a horse – which is to say, that if they can get him stabilized his strong constitution will kick in & pull him through.

Triticale was the first other Wisconsin blogger that I met in person.  Our prayers go out to Triticale and his family.

(5) Comments
Posted by Owen at 2124 hrs
Off-Duty + The Blog

  1. Oh no.  I met Tom at a couple of the Fox6 blogger gatherings.  He’s a real genius, one of those guys that you love to talk to because he retains so much knowledge about so many things.  Dear Lord, protect that marvelous mind and bless that wonderful man with a return to good health.  For your glory, Lord!

    Posted by Jim the Fireman on December 04, 2007 at 0940 hrs


  2. I hope he gets better soon!

    Posted by Shana on December 04, 2007 at 1143 hrs


  3. Tom is my brother. Thank you all for your concern and support.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 05, 2007 at 0619 hrs


  4. Tom’s wife here—

    Just wanted to let people know that Tom passed away on 12-13.  After his chemo the doctors discovered that he had lung cancer that had spread to his brain.  It was very aggressive.  They couldn’t do anything for the lung cancer that wouldn’t kill him.  When they took him off the resperator he couldn’t breathe on his own & passed away.

    Both myself & my son were able to say goodbye.  Tom’s 57th birthday would have been 12-17 & our 35th anniversary would have been 12-21.

    Obits were placed in the Chicago Sun Times & Tribune.  He still had a number of friends in Chicago.  However; I did not place an obit in the Milwaukee newspaper.  Let’s just say it’s probably not good policy to tick off a grieving widow.

    Tom has been cremated & a memorial service will be held in Milwaukee sometime in Spring or Summer—basically I don’t want to see snow.  For more information on the service please call me at 414-342-1767 or at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) (I prefer the phone because my email is rather cluttered & I’m afraid I might accidently delete an important message.

    http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/permalink/blogger_down_but_not_out/

    Just wanted to let everyone know I am so grateful to the support the blogging community has given me.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 19, 2007 at 1144 hrs


  5. Ooops!  Sorry, this is the link to Tom’s obit.

    http://www.legacy.com/chicagosuntimes/DeathNotices.asp?Page=Lifestory&PersonId;=99811757

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 19, 2007 at 1146 hrs


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