ScottDCP

A friend I hold dear has been gravely ill for his entire life, and acutely so for the past three weeks. This afternoon he was taken off a ventilator. There is no expectation of recovery.

He is 32. The bulk of his medical difficulties have been present since he started out, but he wore himself down producing a play this summer. Given his starting point of poor health, bionical heart parts, and history of infection in said parts it became clear about halfway through this hospital stay that he wasn't walking out.

We probably made things worse by not leaving him alone. He had at least 50 visitors in one week.

It leads me to these assertions:

1. If you have a chronic health problem, pick five people whose duty it is to tell you when to stop toughing it out. Then when the time comes do not make them fight you on it. If Kelly says you should stop pushing and rest, sit the **** down.
2. If someone you love is hospitalized with sepsis or similar, do not drag out your visits. Everyone gather at 11, 20 people rotate in, say hi, and leave them be. Another group can come in at 4 and another at 7. Let them rest.
3. If you even like someone a little, you don't have to tell them, but prove it the next time you see them, and do it with your time.



My friend Carl is probably more important to me than I am to him, and that is OK. I love him. My wife and kids love him. I hate today. I want to go back in time and do a few things better, for his sake.

On the plus side, his parents know without doubt how well their shortest son with the world's best hair impacted the world.

He has generally performed on a small stage, but he has always been !magnificent. I will miss him.

Also, do not work hard to be the first ******* son of a ***** to announce on social media that someone had died. ESPECIALLY when you aren't next to him, hearing him snore. He ain't dead yet and there are at least four tickets out there who need an lesson in emotional maturity and social responsibility.