I've been avoiding posting things on MySpace  for a while now, because this is the blog where I post my deepest thoughts and most personal things.  Within the past 2 months month 5 very significant things have happened to me.

#1 I have been "passing out" and losing consciousness more than my fair share of times, and scaring the shit outta Peg and Rick.  I don't remember anything about these episodes except waking up, usually on a floor, but one time at the bottom of the stairwell.  That incident landed me in the E.R. to check and see if I had any broken bones or vertebrae.  

#2. I was told that my mental problems could have a physiological trigger, and the psychiatrist consulted with the neurologist and want to do an MRI of my brain to see if I have my most dreaded fear Multiple Sclerosis.  This is the disease that killed my father.  The biggest problem is that almost to a tee the symptoms are the SAME as symptoms from my diabetes.  That test will have to wait for now

#3 I was to have surgery on a fistular tract in my groin area.  The surgeons wanted to open me up and "explore" to find out where this tract actually starts, which is usually an organ.   Before they would do the surgery, they wanted to do a complete cardiac work-up since I'd been passing out.  So a cardiac echo and a stress test were done.  The day I was to go to the cardiologist office and receive the results of the test, I couldn't even get out of bed.  I had a gigantic (came up from pea-sized) cyst or boil, that had no head just redness, heat, and incredible size right directly below my scrotum. This part is gross, but everything between my anus and my scrotum was swollen to the size of a baseball.  I went to the E.R. at Centennial Hills hospital, where they did a test to see if I had a possibly deadly affliction called "Fornier's Gangrene".  Thank God they didn't find any gangrenous symptoms in the CT scan, so I was shipped to University Medical Center, because they are one of only two hospitals that have urology departments, and nobody at Centennial Hills would go into that area of the anatomy with a scalpel.  Luckily one of the surgeons working the E.R. at UMC that night was one of TWO Collorectal (sp?) surgeons in the entire Vegas Valley, and diagnosed it immediately as hidradenitis superlativa which is a severe skin infection with no known cause, but one and only one outcome if it's not taken care of... "Forniers Gangrene".  She immediately took a scalpel in the E.R. numbed me up and cut a humongous gash in it and found a lot of basically "dead blood" that was pooled there under pressure, and the pressure was relieved immediately after she did it.  I was told I'd be going into surgery the next morning to have ALL of that skin, and about 20% of my Ass skin removed and left open to regrow and heal on its own, at least an 8 week process.

The very next morning I was wheeled into the Cardiac Cath lab instead of the O.R. and I was NOT happy, I was prepared to get knocked out and wake up with about 4 lbs of skin missing from my body, but instead these guys are gonna poke a hole in the largest artery in my body and shove a camera and dye delivery system into my heart, yep, an angiogram.

#4  The angiogram blew me away, and changed my life forever.  I have 3 vessel disease, which means that I either have to have stents put in 3 of my arteries or have an open-heart surgery.  I had had "mini" heart attacks in the past, but thank God again, there is no permanent damage to my heart muscle (yet), however they consulted with the surgeons and decided that since the surgery to strip me of my ass and perennial skin was only going to last about an hour, they would clear me for that, so that surgery was done. They would have started the stenting process right then and there, had I not already been sliced open as a precursor to my surgery.  I'm two weeks out from that at this point, and I guess the massive amounts of blood coming from where the skin used to be is a GREAT sign that I won't need to have a skin graft or closure, they are just going to let the skin grow back on its own.  Peggy has been changing my dressings every day at least 2 times, sometimes more and is my primary caregiver at home, although they did have me go to UMC's Lions Club Burn and Wound Care center every day for the first week after the surgery, to train Peggy in caring for these wounds, and she has done a fantastic job.

#5 YESTERDAY. (Monday)
My wife is truly the love of my life, I could not do anything without her at this point in my life and I appreciate her so much, even after 24.5 years of marriage.  Peggy has one major flaw, she is the worlds GREATEST PROCRASTINATOR and has been known to be a bit of an AIRHEAD, which is usually the butt of many non mean-spirited jabs.  As you all know we've been basically flat broke for 3 years now, so when she got a ticket for not having registered our car in Nevada after living here for 2 years (duh) she finally got pulled over for it almost a year ago, and it happened to be (according to Peg and I believe her) the ONLY time she'd ever not had Charlie buckled into his car seat.  She was given a ticket for both, and then again within a week she was pulled over again for the registration.  She went to court and they gave her "community service" instead of fines, but Peg the procrastinator didn't do her service in time to go to the Judge, so she went in and instead set up a payment plan.  We're only talking about $50/month, that's right $50/month.  Over the past 8 months Peg had been late going in to pay the fine (when she had the money, but just "forgot" or "procrastinated") and all three times there was a bench warrant issued for her.  She would go into the Court, the warrant would be quashed but then another FINE for the warrant would be added to the total fine.

THIS TIME WAS THE LAST TIME

Peg's fine was due on a Saturday this month, so they expect you to go in on Friday or before.  I gave her a $100 bill and said "Make sure you take care of your fine".  The following Saturday she all of the sudden blurts out "OH SHIT, I FORGOT TO PAY MY FINE".  WHAT?!  Yep, sure enough, when the mail was checked that day, yet another bench warrant was in the stack of mail in the mailbox.  She decided she would go in on Monday, expected them to just quash another warrant and add the fine to the end again, but NO SUCH LUCK.  This time the Judge Threw the book at her

MRS BREUNINGER, I'M SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR HUSBAND AND HIS MEDICAL PROBLEMS BUT THIS IS THE FOURTH TIME YOU'VE NOT SHOWED UP IN MY COURTROOM ON TIME AND WE USUALLY ARREST PEOPLE AFTER THE THIRD WARRANT.  YOU ARE REMANDED TO CUSTODY AND HEREBY SENTENCED TO $3000 or 40 DAYS IN LAS VEGAS CITY JAIL"

We called a bondsman, as we don't have $3000 lying around anymore, and haven't for 3 years +.  The bond would be 15% ($450) plus $40 filing fee, $490.  Ok, this we could swing, even with the $54 cab ride Rick had to take to get the car out of the Four Hour lot near the courthouse.  Rick arrives downtown to get the car, and Peg had parked in the handicapped parking but forgot to hang the placard in the window...D'OH... I told you, AIRHEAD.  Thank God (again) because we actually HAVE the placard, the $250 fine is dropped down to $25 for "failure to display" the placard.

So Peg is about to spend her third night in jail and there is nothing I can do about it at this time. I have friends who know lawyers and Judges and they're working their networks, but so far to no avail. I want to get her out , God knows she doesn't deserve JAIL TIME for what she has (or hasn't) done, but I'm still about $2500 short. We just called in for her, which gives us until Sunday to have her out of the cage and back to work, before she has to apply for a leave of absence, which I'm not even sure they will grant for being in jail, although she had already spoken to her supervising manager and he offered to let her take a leave of absence and we actually have a PRESCRIPTION written by my surgeons to allow Peg to take off 6 weeks to be home and care for me while I'm "skinless".

After having at least 50 "Med Students, Nurses, Doctors, etc." looking at my cut off ass I have no shame left.  If anyone is able to help in any way, I need CASH, and need it fast.

Every time I've seen a light at the end of a tunnel for 5 years, it's been a train, this time Peg got run over, and it just sucks! If you can spare anything from $5 to $3000 and are able to help me get Peg out before she has to be at work on Sunday, please email me or send the money to my paypal account voiceofpoker@cox.net.  I would never openly beg if this wasn't a true emergency.

You can email me at my personal email address which is my real name charles.breuninger@cox.net