so unfortunate about your sponsor :-O
I'm 10 years older than you, 39 last month. You are indeed fortunate to have pulled things together for yourself those ten extra years earlier than I! That throwing-up blood might have been a similar prob. I also had 'flecks' of dark black things coming-out amidst the blood, like coffee grounds. that *is* pieces of your stomach lining, and the blood may have been coming from your pancreas (i had two er visits this year for acute pancreatitis). regardless, blood=bad ;-)

Did you ever get an endoscopy to check things out?