Prayers for Joh

So I put in a call the other evening to my good friend Joh Padgett, figured I'd welcome him to his new residence and see how things were going. His roommate answers the phone and proceeds to tell me that Joh isn't here, and that he is likely to be gone for several days, as he's in the hospital.

Now, Joh and I have been friends for a long time, we figured about eight years (which is a friggin' record for me, especially considering how often I've moved in my life). We've been in the trenches together and fought some wars for some noble, yet hopeless causes. We've been business partners, and just overall good friends.

Joh is by far the coolest, most caring and loyal guy I've ever known, and loyalty is likely the biggest factor in a friendship to me. I love the man like a brother, and am thankful that he's chosen to forgive me for not being a very good friend at times in the past, most notably during the time period when Joh's beloved mother died of cancer in September of 2006.

He's also suffered from a myriad of health issues over the years, and he's certainly made the rounds of various medical institutions for diagnosis and treatment of a variety of disorders.

As he posts here, he's currently dealing with what is likely the most serious of all:

Yesterday was a rather enlightening day as I finally was told the exact diagnosis of What Exactly Is Wrong with me. I've previously mentioned before on this blog that I have a disease known as Protein C Deficiency, a genetic blood disorder that causes my blood to clot due to a lack of a blood protein that regulates the clotting factors in my blood. My father had this disease and I lost the genetic crap shoot and inherited this disease from him.

The current health crisis I find myself in is a rather serious situation because after having a CT scan and ultrasounds of my legs done yesterday my doctor informed me that I have a complete and total blockage of the Inferior Vena Cava (IVC Thrombosis). This is a rather serious and life threatening disorder that has caused my body to reroute blood flow to my heart from my lower body using little used veins which are not designed to be used for this essential task.

In the current crisis what has happened is that the venous system in my abdominal cavity has begun to coagulate due to the protein c deficiency and have formed numerous micro clots, any of which that could come loose and travel to my heart or lungs, potentially causing a heart attack, stroke or pulmonary embolism. In other words, I'm basically hanging on by a thread here and I am lucky to be alive, and have a ways to go before I get out of the weeds and in the clear.

I am going to be in the hospital for at least a week and possibly longer if there are further complications. I will attempt to keep this blog updated with my prognosis, but should something bad happen I will make sure somebody posts here with updates and info.

On a personal note here I really could use positive thoughts, prayers, good energy and whatnot as I deal with this situation. I am a believer in the power of prayer/good energy in these situations and could use as much support from as many folks as possible. I am very concerned about the current situation as it has been made clear to me the life threatening nature of what I am dealing with.

It is obvious to me that this episode is going to have wider consequences for me beyond the current crisis. I cannot begin to conceive what this all means for my future but I am certain now that I will be spending quality time with medical professionals for some time to come as a result of this. This is going to be a rough time for me so if posting updates here becomes even more infrequent than it has been in recent months you will all know the cause of this. This is obviously also going to have rather serious financial consequences for me as well as I will not be able to pursue normal business activity due to this. We'll just have to wait and see what happens, but obviously 2008 is going to be a difficult year.

Please join me in saying a prayer for Joh, he's one of the good ones. You can drop him a message by clicking here.

He's hinted at having some sort of a candlelight vigil, but I assured him he was way too special for that sort of thing.

Update: My special and heartfelt thanks to Gary Welsh, Bil Browning, Mark Rutherford, "lambert", and Ruth Holladay for their kind thoughts and well wishes. Please join me in thanking them.

Update: I spoke to Joh earlier this evening (Friday Dec. 14th at around 7 p.m.) and he was in very good spirits and absolutely delighted with the outpouring of good wishes, but still expecting to stay at Community North for several more days at least.

Since he posted it on his blog, feel free to give him a call directly at 317-621-2718. Just don't do what I did the other day and wake him from a sound slumber.