Hello my friends here. As many of you knew, Dave was diagnosed with liver cancer in March 2018. He managed his chemo treatment pretty well and stayed surprisingly strong and robust for three years. At the end of May this year, he had a second Y90 radiation treatment on his liver and this sent him into a sharp downward spiral. He handled all the complications with his usual good cheer, but on this past Saturday afternoon he became extremely weak and dizzy, enough so that he asked me to take him to the ER. (I had seen he didn't seem like himself the past couple days and actually asked him to let me take him to the ER on Saturday morning, but he insisted he was fine. So I knew, when he asked later that day, that he really must be feeling bad.)
At the ER they did what they could but all of his lab values were so bad, and his blood pressure so low, that they transferred him to the ICU that night. He was in the ICU on many medicines and machines (ventilator, dialysis, etc.) to try to help his body regain strength, but in the end his liver was just far too damaged. After they took him off the aggressive treatment, they kept him comfortable and he was never alone - I was with him, and his sisters Laurie and Linda were there for much of the afternoon and evening as well. We got to tell him everything we needed and share lovely memories and make sure he was surrounded by love and calm for his last hours.
My sweet Dave passed around 8:45 pm last night. He was such a fighter - that was a term he used to scoff at, really, but he seriously was so very strong. I know not everyone believes in soul mates but he truly was mine. He will be missed and loved and remembered forever.
