Thanks everyone for your care and concern. Thanks especially for those who took the time to visit or call. It's nice to see or talk to friends when you're stuck in the hospital.

Here's what happened:

Woke up with severe diarrhea on Saturday, probably brought on my food poisoning. The diarrhea irritated several pre-existing but undiscovered ulcerations in the upper colon. The ulcers continued to bleed as long as the diarrhea kept going, which was about 18 hours. I tried some warmups, but it was clear that I was getting dizzy, clammy, and more blood was coming out. When I finally crapped myself, it was all blood. So I made the smart choice and dropped out to head home. Had I tried to take even a token lift, the intra-abdominal pressure most likely have blown open the ulcerations and I may have bled to death in a matter of minutes.

I was getting dizzier at home, so I called a friend to give me a ride to Carle. Moments later, though, I had a very bad spell which included dizziness and unusual pressure in my chest. At that point I got myself outside and called 911.

I was in bad shape in the emergency room and at one point they brought in a crash cart as they thought they were going to have to revive me during one very bad seizure. My pulse dropped from 110 to 50, and I stopped breathing.  I honestly though I was dying at this point. 

At Carle, they said that the dehydration had become so severe that I was going into renal failure. The got me upstairs and worked on stabilizing my kidney function and then tried to find the source of the bleeding. My kidneys were almost back to normal within 24 hours, but it took three endoscopic exams to find the ulcerations which caused the bleeding. This was a relief to me as my family has an awful history of colon cancer. 

I have some follow-ups coming, including discussions as to when it would be safe for me to lift heavy again since I clearly don't want to blow an ulcer open. I'll probably take two weeks to one month off from anything heavy and just focus on coaching and preparing others for Worlds.

If my doctors feel that I need a rest period that will preclude adequate preparation for Worlds, so be it. I'll use the time to lose weight and get healthier and come back stronger at a healthier weight.

Again, thanks for the messages, calls, and visits. Even though I don't have family in Illinois, you guys make me feel like I'm part of your lifting family.

A special thanks to Harry Tsang for taking care of some things at my apartment. Thanks, too, to Harry Chung. Harry was at my bedside most of the time and was my eyes and ears with the doctors when I was too drugged-up to listen and ask questions.

Again, thanks for the thoughts, prayers, messages, and support. It's much appreciated.

They let me come home this evening as they felt I'm out of danger now. I just need to get alot of rest. If you want to visit at my place, just give me a call.