January 16, 2008
7:08 A.M.
The situation with my eye is far worse than I thought. They couldn’t get it done with the laser. Rushing to be at more complicated surgery in half hour…
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14 Responses
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Argh!
We’re pullin’ for yer eyeball!! 
January 16th, 2008 at 8:21 amWe are all behind you and want only the best for you.
January 16th, 2008 at 8:24 amPat
You are in my prayers. Thanks for all your efforts with the series, but PLEASE take care of yourself first and foremost.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:13 amYou’re in our prayers brother. God willing your eye will heal or you will find a greater strength beyond what one eye can give.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:42 amMy prayers to you.
January 16th, 2008 at 10:14 amHey, Sugar Ray Leonard made it through this and he isn’t nearly tough as Pat!
January 16th, 2008 at 10:47 amPat, follow your doctor’s orders to the letter. You’ve got a lot of friends praying for you and some even sacrificing chickens in horrible ways for your healing. Don’t let Henrietta die for nothing man!!!
Pat
January 16th, 2008 at 11:15 amThe strength of the man will shine through.
Prayers for you and yours.
Hope we get an update soon Pat. You’re the man and we’re all pulling for ya buddy. Im praying for you too
January 16th, 2008 at 11:27 amHi dude, get better soon, you are a strong guy.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:26 pmTake care, everything will be awrite
If you didn’t have bad luck, you’d have no luck at all. I’m praying all went well with your surgery. Please keep us posted. We all care.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:31 pmSorry Pat that the news was bad.. We are praying for you.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:44 pmI’m re-posting my comment that showed up at “Deep thoughts” yesterday, the 15th, correcting typos and adding some update.
PLEASE!!!!!!!
Any one who is in close and personall contact with Pat, being Bashman, RightHandedGirl or whoever, and reading all Dollardian-support-comments and mine? Read it to Pat, by phone or personally. All these comments here filled with prayers, get well soon-messages, advise, uplifting words and all the other support he’ll be needing deerly right now. All our heart-felled words and wishes are the best medicine he needs, human-wise I mean. Letting him know how imporant he is to us as a human and as the man he is, Pat Dollard. (No further explanations nescesery.)
Comment, posted at tuesday the 15’th of January:
Okay, I feel I need to appologize AND set the record straight.
My reactions yesterday probably were rather emotional. So be it, I’m human and female.
Beside that, I’m a daugter of an eye-condition sufferer. (The results of over 60 years Diabetes.) And since 6 years in close contact with people I love to refere to as “my guys”. Not Marines but the Dutch equivelant of them.
The latter changed my life completely. (In more than one way I can tell you.)
I came across Pat over a year ago and since then followed him, his story and this site. I just can’t stay away from here in spite of my trouble-some life.
Not knowing Pat “in the flesh” it feels like I’m having a brother I care about a lot.
I agree completely with Sandy (yesterday) about the man-military guy-marine-thing. And, I feel the female need and responsability to jump in now and then as I do considering “my guys”. (Poor Pat, he already had to receive 2 very long e-mails from me, “jumping in” :roll:.)
No doubt about it, guys just won’t listen, military guys just laugh a bit and a Marine will look at you for a second, only to continue what he’s supposed to do, HIS DUTY!
I love guys like Pat. They never complain, they work extremely hard, they’re trustworthy and they’ll never break there word or a promise. Untill…….
At my volunteer-job, that’s where I come in.
But now, I’m confronted with the harsh reality that I live across the ocean, being completely unable to actually DO something. (I’m not much of a talker, more a DO-er, I take ACTION.) This is so darn frustrating to me, I could tear my hair out of my skull.
The whole situation with Pat’s eye-condition is “up close and personal” to me because of the experiences with my dad. Kind of “been there, done that, got the t-shirt etc.”.
E.g. Doctors who work clumsy, make stupid decisions/mistakes, the results of this kind of stupidity etc. (What makes me even more frightened, Pat is experiencing the same scenario my dad had to go trough a few years ago, including a S.O.B-Dr. that seems to have other things on his mind except doing his job.)
Anyway, my dad had me.
I learned quickly that “staying friendly and accept” didn’t do the trick. I had to “play up” more then one time, keeping the doctors focused, speak up when my 6th sense told me to, demanding to consult with certain doctors and surgeons about what was going on etc. Otherwise the situation with my dad would have turned into a real-life nightmare. And, I informed myself with the speed of lightning to avoid being “parked at a side-track” by some doctors.
THAT’s exactly what I’m so concerned about right now. Pat is under treatment. But, he’s alone, already worked his but of in an extreme way for “his baby” (extreme long hours of work, a stolen hour of sleep now and then, eating a bite here and there and an enormous pressure = stress, stress and more stress), Young Americans, for the last months and especially the last weeks. We all know that there’s also a scan on the way because of the hidden damage after his confrontation with two IED-hits.
No doubt about it, Pat is strong in many ways and hardly a pathetic case that needs some one to guide and comfort him. He is a rock.
But in everybodys life their comes a moment where you need help, comfort and some back-up in the flesh/in person. The moment you just can’t deal with it all by yourselve, alone. Some TLC and soothing words that will guide you trough a painful night, trough yhay dark periode in your life. Some one you can yell at out of pure frustration, some one who won’t hold it against you but who will just take your hand, squeeze it and smile at you. And, people who will en dare to fight for you, your health, your sanity, your state of mind.
Why?
Because you think this person needs it, this persons deserves it, because this person is so important for you, as a human. Because this person, Pat, is fighting a fight that is so darn important it can hardly be explained in words.
And here I sit, in the Netherlands, being a DO-er, having the knowledge and experience, with nothing else but a keyboard and words. And Pat hardly seeing anything with his already “bad eye”, his “good eye” being inflicted by a retina-rupture that wasn’t treated the right way the first instance and YA in its most important development-state ever.
, 
and 
Once again, I appologise for my emotions. It’s not the MARINE way at all. But, like I said before, I’m only human, I’m a woman and…..I have a heart. (Most of the times, behind the strong Marine stands a strong woman or/and family. That wat makes him even stronger. You get my drift?)
UPDATE:
I told my dad about Pat’s eye-trouble this afternoon. (Not knowing it developed for the worse in the mean time.)
My dad is a rather quite and balanced man. But now he swore loud, remembering what had happened to him also due to a Dr. that thought “it would be OK”. (I had to rush my dad into the hospital within a few hours later, it was in the nick of time.)
Half an hour ago I read Pat’s most recent short updat here. I lit a few candles, I’m praying looking at the clock knowing he’s undergoing some nasty surgery right now.
Sure, it’s not his heart or something else threatning his life. But, for petesake, no one can live without his/her sight!!!!
Folks, Pat will have a tough and rough time ahead if the surgeon goes the whole nine yards. This might include putting a buble filled with air or an oily substance to keep the retina in place, helping the recovery by putting pressure on the retina so it stays in place.
BUT, in order to keep this buble fixed in place, Pat will have to maintain a body-posture wich will have him (kind of) tilting his head forwards, NOT lifting it up more than some 30 degrees from the horizontal level.
More clear, he will need to keep his chin down on his torso for some 2 to 3 weeks and might have to sleep in a very akward position.
Okay, Pat’s a rock and a honoree Marine. But he will freak out about this aftermath, his project-in-a-lifetime, Young Americans, in mind, being in harms way at the most important moment of the whole process.
We’ll all need to support him in any way we can. Losing the sight to one eye would be a disaster to everybody. For Pat it will be like sheer hell. (His now “good eye” was already not 100%.)He NEEDS his eye-sight, doing what he is doing, all the editing still ahead and the “big things just around the corner” considering YA and lots more of important stuf.
For now, it’s almost 23.45, January the 16′th here in the Netherlands, I’ll start my wake untill 01.45 AM the 17′th., (the hour my mum died 8 years ago), and pray for Pat.
And after that, I’ll go to bed, get some shut-eye and dream a beautiful dream.
A beautiful dream about waking up tommorow, finding out that Pat is recovering from this in the Marine-way. About the enormous effect the fully completed YA-documentary-series will have, shutting up the critics and changing the way a lot of things are being thought about and dealt with right now. About Pat jumping up the stage to receive his first Oscar for the category “Best documentary”.
For Pat;
A line from the best commander I ever had. He told me this at one of my darkest moments in my life:
“(Woman,) you don’t have a problem, you’re facing a challenge. Work it by the honor-code and you’ll succeed”.
(The honour-code is:”Nec temere, nec timide”. Not overdoing, nore holding back.) Live by this.
Listen to what the medical staff is urging you to do, so don’t overdo, pushing yourselve further then the recovery will let and allow you, temere, cause this will create a definate complete loss of your eye-sight, not able to be treated nor repaired ever again.
And when the time is ready, don’t hold back (timide). But, like I told ya in my last personal e-mail, in the most healthy way possible.
We can’t lose you concerning the important message of YA. We can’t do it without you, Pat. I just wouldn’t become exactly THAT what is needed so much right now. We might be able to help you in every way possible. I’m sure you can count on your Dollardian! So, ask again for help.
Along with all the prayers and motivating words for you here, I ‘ll follow in line. With the same thoughts and hope.
God bless you.
Jeanet
January 16th, 2008 at 3:23 pmMy thoughts and prayers are with you, Pat.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:17 pmJeanet—that was all lovely and wonderful and totally from the heart what you wrote.
How lovely for Pat to have wonderful people looking out for him.
What more can one ask for in this life…than others caring for you.
We are praying for you Pat.
January 16th, 2008 at 7:02 pm