Wow...Sounds like a life changing event for everyone and in more ways than one for me. I was released from the hospital yesterday at noon and arrived home last night at 6:00 PM after the trip from St. Louis and collecting my rig from Carl's place.
Here is the long and short of what happened with me since Thursday. As Clint mentioned, I had a vertigo (inner ear balance issues) episode which led to nausea. The wretching caused a tear in my stomach which led to major internal bleeding. More nausea led to major blood loss which led to very low blood pressure which led to a couple minor heart attacks during the night. During those incidents, I collapsed outside the camper and didn't know if I was going to make it back to the bed. By 6:00 AM Friday, I knew I was in serious trouble and in spite of not wanting to be a pussy and ending my vacation early, I told Tony I needed to go to the hospital. I should have taken that step earlier. Ask me how I know. Tony was absolutely awesome and got right up, drove to where he could get a cell signal and called 911. They told him they couldn't get down to the campground and that he would have to take me up to meet them. I collapsed again trying to get into his vehicle. When I got to the ambulance, my blood pressure was like 75/40 and they had a hard time getting an IV. At the Salem hospital, they confirmed the heart attacks with a blood test and decided to send me to St. Louis. The 2 hour trip there in the ambulance was brutal. Once at the Missouri Baptist medical center, they immediately did a heart cath. and everything checked out OK on that account. No damage done thank God. While in the heart cath lab, I got sick again and deposited about a pint of blood all over their sterile environment. The techs freaked and called for reinforcements. I think at that point, they believed me that something serious was going on inside. Later, my two doctors got a good laugh out of it. Next up was an endoscopy which repaired the tear in the stomach and resulted in more blood loss. Received two units of blood on Friday and another two on Sat. Was in ICU from Friday until late Monday evening. Another endoscopy on Monday confirmed that all was well inside and the tear was fixed. My last blood count was 10.1 and was good enough to release me but they like to see a number around 13. So until my body builds up enough blood on its own, I am feeling pretty week and achy from being in bed for 5 days.
I am very thankful for the Hoosier Cruiser family. Many many thanks to Carl and Page for bringing my rig home. It was really nice not to have to worry about that. I didn't have my cell phone so didn't have anyone's' number to call. It was a relief when the nurse handed me Clint's phone number. Thanks Clint for checking up on me. Tony...you rock dude. Can't thank you enough for all that you did....especially for keeping my wife informed with your calls.
I am feeling very lucky to be alive. It is truly amazing how one minute everything is going great and then a few hours later, it all goes to s***. I would have never thought that nausea could cause so much trouble. I guess that is the moral of the story. Be very careful the next time you puke.

Let's go wheeling.