Monday night – 6/7

Our thoughts today are on Billy and his family. He continues to make great progress, I’ll give more details on that later.

With that I do still remember that Today is my birthday.. My 67th birthday actually .. and though our future selves wont remember this at all.. last year there was a major mem out there called 6/7.. where you said 6/7 and pumped your open hands up and down. .. Seems as good a way as any to mark an important birthday..

it was a “brisk” morning.. 15 below zero Fahrenheit when I woke up which is more than 30 below celcius (I think) .. and there was a brisk wind..

A perfect day to climb a mountain and sled down !

we bundled up, gathered our stuff nd strapped our butt sleds to our packs and headed to Huntington to hike camels hump. This is our second attempt to sled it since Gabe’s been home.. and we’re hoping its more packed down so we don’t post hole in the many feet of snow up there.

what a beautiful bluebird day !

then it was time to hit the summit !.. ew really had to bundle up.. it was probably 15 below still and a 25 mph wind.. it was friggign freezing.. and sooooo sooo beautiful

I didn’t get any pictures of us sledding down..since I to keep my hands warm.. but it was super fun. The conditions were amazing.. and we basically got to slide down the whole mountain. It was crazy fast and crazy fun..

we got down to the bottom as the sun was beginning to set.. and headed home to warm up

Diane made homade pierogies using some of the mashed potatoes left oer from tgabe]s german party. They were so grea.t.

then came my favorite part.. diane had backed me an apple cake.. its my favorite cake.. it like half. Oil which makes it so rich and tasty

Gabe played me happy birthday

and max and becky called to wish em a happy birthday.. so great to talk to them !

they helped me blow out the candles.. which were pretty cool, they were all connected by flash paper.. on match and they instantly all lit !

note the cozy penguin pants !

Great birthday.. I appreciate all the love..

send love to Billy and family today too

nite all, nite sam
_me

Sunday night – Billy

I’m writing this about a month after the events here happened.. so I know things came out all right. but I’m writing them as they occurred that night to the best my memory of this strange time allows >> I’ll also say I’ve been reluctant to write ince that day as Billy and his family are keeping to themselves .. I’m not sure when I’ll publish this.. only when they say its ok >>

anyway.. here’s what happened:

Last night as we were falling asleep.. we got a call. It was 1 am.. and that’s never a good thing

it was our sister in law Shaun calling. My brother Billy was driving to a gig last night when he felt a ripping pain through his chest.. He’s a cardiothoracic surgeon so he knew what was happening.. At the time he figured it was an aortic dissection, its when the three layers that make up the walls of his aorta had separated and were restricting the flow of blood to all of his body. … Your aorta is your bodies largest and most important blood vessel and Billy knew he didn’t have much time to act. He called 911, called Shaun and called his Friend Joe Caselli, the best vascular surgeon he new.

Luckily.. if one can use a word like that in a situation like this. Billy was very near Texas Heart Institute where he worked. The ambulance came and Billy was able to tell them what was happening. They rushed him to the hospital and he was in surgery in lass than 30 minutes.. if he was anywhere else.. this would be a very different sort of story. ..

We were all in shock.. All through the night we got updates from Shaun.. and from our nephew Ben who’s also a doctor (neurologist..).

It was super serious. We found out later in the evening that Billy had had an aortic dissection , his Aorta had completely ruptured. .. His left carotid artery had been blocked, his right carotid has been spared.. which was super luckily.. as his brain still had blood flow. His entire aurtic arch was replaced with a Dacron prosthesis.. a surgery that had been invented in the Methodist hospital just next store by another famous heart surgeon Dr Michael DeBakey . .. His left carotid was also pathed with a Dacron graft and his descending aorta was patched with a TEVAR (???) stent. Unfortunately, Billy’s
HSMA (the artery that supplies blood to your intestines, and stomach) had also been badly damaged. That caused some ischemia in Billys intestines that also requited surgery to remove part of his intestines..

All in all it took a team of 10 surgeons 18 hours (!) to repair the damage and save Billys life. We learned later that the survival rate for an n event like this is only about 25% .. which are very scary odds.

As the night went on, we got sporadic updates from the doctors and nurses as relayed by Shaun and the family and kept in touch with my sister mary and her husband and my brother in law John who is also a CT surgeon..

By morning we knew that Billy had made it though the night.. the next day.. and the many days after when he was in that cardiac intensive care unit.. getting the best care anyone could have ever received. Doctors left Billy’s chest and abdomen open in order to monitor bleeding and and healing.. I’ve heard Billy talk about doing this with man of his patients.. it seemed surreal. He was intubated and breathing through a ventilator and his blood was being oxygenated by an ECMO device..

We all held our breaths for those first 4 or 5 days.. each day Billy got a little better. He was heavily sedated as is required by being intubated .. a few days in they lowered the drugs and brought Billy to light consciousness and he was able to move all of his legs and arms on command and give a thumbs up.. They had to bring the drugs back up because Billy was in deep discomfort form the ventilator and everything else..

so… that is Billy’s story so far,, it’s been a roller coaster for him and his family and for all of us.. but we are so grateful for the care he’s getting. Shaun and his 5 kids have been with Billy every hour.. there’s always someone there with him.. and the family is gving us updates everyy day. And we’re so grateful.. we’re holding off visiting until billys more stable and able to have guests.. in fact I’ on my way down there now to see him as I write this
.

I know I’m relling this story in kind of a clinical way, but its hard to talk about the emotional part. We nearly lost my brother.. my best friend, and one of the fnniest, most talented and without doubt smartest people I know. I ams so grateful to be abe to tell this story fromaa better place now..

We love you Billy !!!!!!!!!!!

nite all, nite sam
-me

Saturday night – Deutschefest

Tonight was a big night.. I mean that in two ways.. one that we didn’t know until late in the evening. .. That’s a story I will save until tomorrow

Gabe was determined to get as many days in the great sn

ow as he could so he met up with Devin and Nate (I think) up at Bolton for the whole day

while Gabe was out, Diane was super busy making food for tonight. Habre esnted one more gathering with his friends before heasing out to Germany. He[d asked us to have a German fest..

Diane takes challenges lsike that very seriously. .In the course of the day she made home made pretzles (!) .. or Bretzen.. as they are called I Bavaria. She made homemade German noodles (Spaetzle), Sauges and sauer kraut ( Bratwurst mit Kraut) , Bavarian cheese spread (Obazda) .. German red cabbage (Rot Krout) , muled wine (Glühwein) and Appel strudel (Apfelstrudel) Diane shows her love for all of us in many ways.. and one of the is in the kitchen

Diane a, Nova and I did get out for some sunshine and snow

People started showng up at 5:30 .
I dressed for the occasion by wearing my ederhosen from when I was `9 and my green white cheked (grunweiskariert) shirt and rd vest I got as a going away present from my team in Munich.. I’m justh happy I can fit into my 19 year old clothes

Gabe treates us to some of the Sausage sayings he’s picked up on his look-see visit to Würzburg.

and we played a rorally innapropriate word card game wirh Kasey, Brad and Char
it was a great gathering ., lots of friends we hadn’t seen whe Gabe was hoe. And many of them we had seen..

we went to bed so happy

and then.. …..

nite all. Nite sam
-me

This afternoon our good friend Sumner came over to see  gabe. And to go check out the snow in mad river. Sumner has been one of our good friends foreever. I used to run with his dad.. also Sumner .. who was an amazing runner. Sumner died in the early 2000’s .. We made a pinky prise ( I remember that expression) from Sumners mom and our good friend Susan .. to keep younger sumner in our lives.. Every time I see him I remember that promise. |. Sunner and Sam we’re good friends.. and when sam died, sumner made a huge effort to step in for Gabe. <br><br>hes such a great person..

Sumner and his GF G are getting married soon.. shes awesome too.. I’m very glad they are in our lives. Diane and I got in a late afternoon doggie walk by the Rivershore.. the huntington and the Winooski are completely frozen over.. it’s been several years since I remember seeing that

nite all, nite sam

-me