Rest gently, dearest love of my life.
Warning: This is just for the people who cared for Dan or wanted to know him more. If you aren't one of these people, please get lost.
I want to thank everyone who was sad, upset, and angry for Dan's death. Dan was, is, and will always be the love of my life. Thank you to the people who prayed for his family and friends.
I am sufficiently drunk enough to try and write this, so here goes.
Dan officially died from "heart and liver failure", although I find that his heart and liver both crapping out at the same time very hard to believe. There was probably sufficient enough damage to these organs to show up in an autopsy, but not show the actual cause. He was treating his severe and constant migraines (not to mention anxiety and insomnia from being so fucking brilliant) with various medications, one of them being Trazadone, which is very, very sedative. My belief is he took Phenergan, Trazadone, and possibly (but not very fucking likely) an opiate to help him just get some sleep for once. I tend to think that he simply stopped breathing from these sedative meds.
Dan was BRILLIANT. He knew more than the doctors he was seeing. His whole life was chemical, in many ways. He loved finding out about them to helping those less knowledgable with them.
I say all this because I want sputnic's memory preserved. He was a hero; he saved someone from ODing this time last year. He took the heat for that guy in the ER when the doctors interrogated people about what the guy took. He comforted people there who didn't know what to do.
All he ever wanted was to be happy and live his life. I KNOW he'd want people to know that he didn't mean to do this. He died with his laptop on his stomach, in bed. I can tell you right now how pissed off he'd be at people for thinking he just wanted to nod out a little harder than normal. He'd be tearing up Bluelight right now, if he were in the flesh, yelling about how he didn't expect to fucking die on Trazadone and Phenergan.
He loved this place, i just want to say. Mostly ODU, but here, too. I hope his advice and humor still reach out to people, as I know they do.
Please remember the good and funny things he said; here are so many. Dan loved bungee jumping, kareoke, Tom Petty, and the Eagles among many, many other things. He showed me he loved me in so many great ways.
P.S. Any subsequent emails should not be speculation as to exactly how he died. It really doesn't matter anymore. It was the migraine that ultimately was the culprit.
This is the time to celebrate his life. Anyone have any great, funny sputnic memories they want to share?
I personally recall crawling on the floor of a university laboratory on ether during Christmas. :D