August 26, 2008~The Last Time Charlie Saw Us!

August 26, 2008-a Tuesday was the last time that Charlie saw me & his daughter. I spoke with him on Sunday night (8/24) when he made his nightly call to talk to our child. From his voice, I could tell he was in a lot of pain. He sounded as if he was crying. I asked him what was wrong and he just explained that he couldn't get comfortable. He said it hurt to stand up, he felt like he couldn't breathe when he sat down or laid down. He was waiting for the doctor to call him back. The doctor called and told him he was probably constipated (Charlie stated to me that he hadn't gone to the bathroom in a couple days...and that was not normal for him) The doctor told him to get suppositories. When I spoke to him later, he said that seemed to work...a little. I told Charlie, that if he felt he needed to go to the hospital, to call me and I would take him (he was living with his mother, who doesn't drive). The next day, Monday, August 25th and my mom's birthday, I got a call from him. He had taken himself to the hospital that day and was admitted. I don't remember if he called late, or we had plans but we didn't go see him that day. On Tuesday, August 26th, K. (our daughter) and I headed to the hospital to see Charlie. K. hates hospitals. He was in the hospital when we still lived in Ga, for almost three weeks in July 2007, and then again, while he was living in NJ, in June 2008. For some reason, both K. and I wanted to get him balloons. At this point in my life, he hadn't been paying any child support and my work at home was sporadic at best, so I really had NO money...but decided to take K. to the dollar store before we went to the hospital. There we decided to get a gift bag and pack it with stuff..so we got him a toothbrush and toothpaste, crossword puzzle books and pens, I had brought some of my dad's old Sports Illustrated, and there may have been some other small stuff...ALSO, Charlie was a big Jets fan and at another store I had seen a book on the Jets, which I promised K. we could get for our next visit to him (the store was in the opposite direction of where we were headed). When we got to his hospital room, he was asleep. I gently shook his arm to wake him up. He was very happy to see K. but he looked awful. What really shocked me was he tried to sit up in the bed and had to pull on his legs to move them. I asked him if his legs were working ok...and he said not really. We didn't stay long that day. He was very tired and K. hates hospitals, but we promised to come back in a day or so. On our way out, K. wanted to stop by the gift shop. I told her we could stop in, but I can't buy anything (I think I just had enough money to pay for parking). While we were in there, K. struck up a conversation with an older woman. K. is a very talkative child. She told the lady she had just visited her daddy who was sick. K. had been holding a little stuffed bunny from the gift shop. The lady looked at her and at the bunny and told K. she wanted to buy her the bunny so she can take it when she goes to see her dad again. K. thanked the lady and told her she was going to name it Charles, for her dad. She still has that bunny! K. spoke to Charlie that night. The next morning, he called and left a message on my cell phone voicemail that says "Call me later if you can, or I'll call you, I have another test." I still have it on my voicemail...I just never let 21 days go without renewing the "save" button or it will automatically erase. I called him back and briefly spoke to him. He told me they found a mass on his spine and were going to do surgery either later that afternoon or the next day. Apparently, he was taken to surgery shortly after I spoke with him. He never came out of the coma after his surgery........