The Wild World of TB!

Something that you just couldn't shake? Had a feeling in your gut (or your heart) that someone, someone important to you was in trouble?

I had that feeling today. I had it about my very good friend Ken 'Ninja' Prejean.

Now, I've been getting some LSU text messages from him (even though Florida and Tebow did beat our beloved Tigers on a Saturday night in Death Valley) and some bulk political humor mail that he sends out to just about everyone in his email addy book, but I'd not talked to him in a few weeks.

Which is strange for Ken and I.

But, I've been busy with work and helping my daughter plan her upcoming wedding and Ken has been busy healing and geting back into the swing of his own life. Last time we did talk, he was feeling good, back at work and looking foward to playing some paintball in November. I'd been reading his posts on Viper's forums, so I knew he was doing pretty good anyway.

So why couldn't I get him off my mind?

I decided I'd send him a text (as I was right in the middle of working on some stained glass)...a simple one that said, "Haven't heard from you in a while..how are things going?"

His answer blew me away.

"In hospital now. Passed out today at work. Heart rate 170. In Atrial Fib. Better now, but waiting on the cardiologist."

They're going to admit him overnight for observation, since they're not sure what is causing it yet. He started his latest round of chemo on Monday, so that could be the culprit. He's not happy they're admitting him, but I told him to let them check him out (like his wife was gonna let him go home...lol).

Like I said in earlier posts about him: He's been diagnosed with cancer, had two surgeries, one that put in him ICU for nearly a week. He'd lost weight with his first round of chemo, and will have go through it all over with his post-op chemo. He has thousand of dollars in medical bills looming over his head, with no health insurance and no short term disability at work.

Keep Ninja in your prayers and please send all the healing/good vibes you can his way.

~update, as of 9 pm, Ken's heart rate and rhythm is back to normal!

Ken has been extubated, he is awake and wondering what happened...lol...all good news!

Now for the not so good news...

Ken has asked us to send up some extra prayers for his colostomy bag to be a temporary thing as initally hoped.

The doctors came in this morning and said that after the tumor invaded his bladder and the trouble they had reattaching his colon, they couldn't make any guarantees on it being temporary. They did set it up as a temporary, so we can help it along with prayer, for Ken and his family and for the doctors and nurses taking care of him.

Christine said he talked with them a bit during visiting hours, and cut up a bit, but he is very tired.

All our thoughts, prayers, hopes and love are with you, Ken!

Just got off the phone with Ken's wife. And got some text messages from his daughter, Christine.

As of the time of this post, Ken is still in surgery. Went in around 9:30...doctors removed the tumor and the part of his colon that is scarred from said tumor and/or radiation therapy and are currently working on the temporary colostomy Ken will have for the next few months. This part of the surgery is kinda detailed, so it takes a bit more time than just the removal of the tumor itself.

He will be in ICU after surgery, and possibly for the next few days. From there he will go to a post-surgical floor until he is well enough to go home and he and/or his family is able to take take care of his colostomy without medical assistance.

An ICU stay means more medical bills as they charge more for intensive care than 'regular' hospital care. So, please keep Ken in your prayers and if you can help in any way (be it sending money via paypal, his paypal account is kprejean@cebridge.net or buying armbands or decals) please do.

Ken is very special to me. I've known him as long as I've been in scenario paintball...matter of fact, he was one of the first people I met! I love him dearly...

More to come as I know it!

Back to the cookies...it was about fortune cookies! Warren and I went out to eat chinese food and this was my fortune....

Hello, WOTB'ers!

This post might be long, and it might not make sense at times, but I'm posting it anyway.

I am a tired little puppy! I spent the last two weeks getting ready for Viper's Twilight Zone. What all does that involve for Nudi of Thunderstruck? The usual...(not necessarily in order)

· Cleaning house, of course (not that I ever got finished)

· Buying groceries for the fourteen (yes, you read that right....14) teammates and friends/guests that were coming from all over this great state and numerous others

· Making sure I had enough mattresses, sheets, pillows and towels, for the above mentioned (and highly adored) teammates and friends/guests

· Finishing the sealing of my daughter's hearts since I'd 'ear-marked' them for Sean (charity) and putting them on little cards.

· Going to the package store (20 miles, one way) to buy the alcohol (after a trip to Walmart for strawberries and sugar... I hate that place) to make my Nudiberries which, as I posted on V's website, were going to be used as another fundraiser for Sean

· Arranging rides from the airport for my teamies Kevin and Joe (thank you so much Dave Mendes from TAMU paintball club, for saving me those five hours, since I'm normally the one who picks them up in Dallas).

· Walking the field, taking pictures of bunkers for my teammate Jud (who was commanding) so he could have as much intel as he could prior to the game (2 1/2 hours to walk the field and nearly as long to format and crop the pics to email)

· Talking to V about what I found when I walked the field; which bunkers needed to be removed/replaced/repaired and address any safety issue I was concerned with

· Surfin' the net to pull in anything I can find about this damn Deadlands world and hoping that it might, just might prove to be useful in the actual game

· Looking for hours for our team banner, only to learn later that Liam has it

· Going out the field to set up our awning and campsite early enough so no one gets our 'spot'

· But arriving late enough to see that HellBent was already there...lol....so glad there was enough room for the both of us (thank you all for helping Paco and I set up)

· Driving to Pittsburg to pick up the trailer for Hope for Housing for the paintball 'trash' they recycle to feed kids in five counties around us

· Picking up the table and chairs that accidentally got taken back to the hospital after T-Rev and my hospitality tent so we'd have them for the game

· Driving by the Mardi Gras restaurant and begging more lids for the nudiberries, since I didn't have enough

· Loading 50 little cups with cherries and 90 cups with strawberries and boxing them all up to travel to the game

· Making sure I was at the house to sign for gear (since you can't fly with it anymore without offering up your firstborn or 10% of your first retirement check)

· Cooking breakfast for all my house guests as my Southern upbringing won't allow me to do any less (thank you for helping me, Warren)

· Packing up my gear and finding all the stuff I couldn't find the last time I packed

· Restocking my first aid kit and making sure it was ready to go

· Cleaning out coolers for water/drinks that haven't been cleaned since the last game

· Gathering things (candy, military ribbons, Bettie Page cards, fake pearls, etc) to bribe the sins with

· Smiling at my house (which looked like a refugee camp) filled with people wanting to share it all with me

And then there is the game itself.

You have a lot more to do when you have a teammate commanding. It's not just him/her on the line; it's the entire team. I was in control of the role playing aspect of this game for Jud and I spent quite a bit of time off field interacting with the 'reckoners' (the game director), Stone, the Indians, the Seven Deadly Sins (Total Insanity), Indy (who played 'Elijah,' but I enjoyed calling every biblical name I could think of: Ezekiel, Malachi, Isaiah...and so on) and any one from the other side. I had to solve puzzles and trade props and set up deals, but I'm sure you get the picture.

Had quite a bit of fun at night with a certain prop (maybe a blog on that later, who knows?) that made the number of welts I now carry highly disproportional to the number of balls I put through my paintball pistol.

Home for showers (more towels...lol), waiting my turn as my Southern upbringing won't allow me to shower until all my guests have. I'm tired, but I'm smiling and content, because we've played a hard game of paintball so far. I'm tired, but frowning in the morning, because I continued to play paintball all night in my dreams, so I didn't sleep well. No worries, I got over it and was ready to go right back at it!

Got to do my first duel (since I had a broken arm last year) and make it as absolutely as silly as I could...which made me happy. Lost the duel (to Razor: Wrath) but had so much fun I wanted to duel again.....never got the chance.

Tear down camp, tear down boxes, fight the bees off the aluminum cans (and tend a bee sting or three from those not as lucky) and pour things out of plastic bottles that made me gag. Jump in the dumpster to retrieve any things that should have made it into 'my' trash and smile at the fact that the bottom of the dumpster isn't even covered!

Dinner with almost as many of my friends as I played paintball with! Find out that Kiwi is buying my dinner and Dave Mendes is buying Warren's...for what? Sharing our home? How could we do anything less? And while it wasn't necessary, it is certainly most appreciated, so I thank you both for dinner! You are welcome at our house any time...and this goes for Lonegunman and Millslane from Team Wow (who was nice enough to bring us our beloved Paco).

Showers, (and more towels...lol) and a most enjoyable evening of paintball stories...my house rang with the laughter!

Falling into bed close to midnight, only to have to awaken at 4:30 to get Paco/Millslane on the road north and again at 6:00 when Warren went to work and again at 7:00 to cook breakfast one last time before driving to Dallas and back in the pouring rain.

Alone now. House still looks like a refugee camp. Warren wants to clean gear and put it away, safe and ready for the next game. I just want to sleep, but I'm too keyed up to do that....but I'd rather write here than clean my gear!

So what does that have to do with cookies? I don't even remember now....lol...here's hoping your Viper Twilight Zone experience was filled with friends, laughter and memories worth smiling at!

Congratulations to Jud on a job well-done. You commanded a beautiful game and made us all proud!