Gary & Charlotte - Bar Harbor, Maine, 2004

Gary pased away this morning at 10:58 with Charlotte and the family at his side. Everyone is so thankful for the thoughts, prayers, and concern by everyone who was keeping him in their hearts.

The funeral will be at 12:30 on Sunday, March 19th at Kesher Israel, 2500 N. 3rd Street. Burial procession to follow immediately to Kesher Isreal Cemetary.

I have it on good authority that Charlotte has been eating in case anyone is worried.

Saturday morning -
Gary had a rough night last night with fitfull bouts of sleep throughout. By the time Paula had gotten in to him this morning, he was just wiped out. The nurses bumped him with some morphine so when we got there this morning, he had been asleep for a solid two hours. We chose not to wake him, instead letting him get the rest he needs. We also got him some anti-anxiety meds to help dull the edges of his days a bit. He seems to breathe better when he's dozing but fights and labors when he's awake.

There is a lot of hand-holding and Charlotte has been reading everyone's comments, letters, and cards to him. Even the sports section recounting Zack's championship game win from last night made it on Gary's reading list today. Anyone who knows the Spitz's knows where there is one, there are ten more following. Gary's doctors have finally asked to stem the flow of family down to just two at a time and only for a few minutes each to give him a chance to rest and not get aggitated. The housekeeper walked into the ICU waiting room this morning, looked at all of us, thought it looked like we were getting ready for a big poker game and wanted to know what the buy-in was. We all laughed because we knew that Gary would love the idea of a hot card game going on while we all keep vigil.

Thursday morning update -
Gary was taken off the ventilator as planned this morning and seems to be breathing well on his own. He's still mildly sedated and rather agitated from the tubes so there is a lot of hand-holding going on. It's a delicate balance between making him comfortable and giving him too much medication to keep him relaxed because of the impact on his breathing.

Nothing new to report on his prognosis other than we're waiting for the pathology results from the biopsies done from his pleurectomy on Tuesday. Everyone is in a wait-and-see pattern with Gary, taking it day by day, hoping for him to bounce back to his pre-chest tube status so we can start to force feed him greasy burgers and fries again.

I spoke with Charlotte this morning who is getting ready to head to the hospital. Gary remains on the ventilator, sedated, giving him a chance to rest and recouperate and in the ICU. We assume he'll remain sedated throughout today and maybe tomorrow and stay hospitalized for the foreseable future. Charlotte feels this rest is about first Gary has gotten in the last three weeks and is feeling positive about his current care.

As always, Charlotte and the family are blown away but the love and support everyone has shown. She's overwhelmed each day to come home and find the cards, letters, and comments left on this site, wishing Gary well and sending thoughts and prayers. It is definitely these kinds of things that move the days forward for everyone.

Monday Morning -
I spoke with Gary on the phone this morning just to check in. He sounds good but said he'd had a rough night with lots of interuptions and not too much sleep. The doctors all rounded this morning and didn't report anything new so it seems like Gary is still on track to have the chest tube removed tomorrow, the lung sealed, then the tube reinserted for another five days. This will move him closer to getting the rest of his scans so there is a better determination of exactly the extent of the disease, paving the way for his treatment options and care.
Gary's been encouraged to eat anything and everything he can. I get the impression there is a constant stream of really good, mouth-watering fast-food being brought in so anyone who is stopping in for a visit, if you want to give Charlotte a call and see if they can bring in a greasy burger, please do so.