Paul, I have been sitting here in anguish and embarrassment. Both Joan and I were overwhelmed at the response that came back to the message I sent to Allen about why I wasn't going to pursue the ST1300 sale. I had hesitated to tell Julie's story because it is hard to think about and recount and, I didn't want to use the motorcycle forum to do so. Others have had equally devastating personal tragedies and I feel real bad for them. One member, about 4 years ago got cancer and we never heard from him again. (I've been a forum member for at least 5 years - I think) Had I known this would turn into a fund raiser I would have never done so. Joan went to be a couple of hours ago crying - just overwhelmed because she knows some of these Nighthawk Lovers and heard a lot more from the stories I have told her. She already knew they weren't just motorbike riders. Both of us have seen this forum turn into more than just talk about Hondas and such. I appreciate the thoughts and prayers.
What I would like to do is for any who are interested, our son in law, Michael, Julie's husband, has kept a very detailed log in the form of updates. It's about 5 pages long at this point. It begins with Julie's trip to a doctor because of the flu, something that surprised Michael because Julie never complains of aches, pains or sickness, let alone go to the doctor. They have limited major medical coverage for themselves only, no medical insurance for the kids (ages 12,11 and 9). Anyway, Michael knew something was wrong. The rest of the story, in brief, very brief is what I sent Allen. Id like to post that log somewhere for any one who wants to read it. Or, just e-mail me and I'll copy it back. I feel like life, normal life that we had been living is a dream and we keep waking up to the reality of what has happened. We were called into the ICU at Hershey twice to say goodbye to Julie and for the last 6 weeks every time we left the hospital we knew it might be the last time we would see her alive. Joan and I both know we would be OK but three little kids and a husband who just loves Julie so much, we have a hard time processing that. Right now Julie is alive, has a trache in her neck and a feeding tube in her stomach. She is conscious, sometimes makes facial expressions and stares at her surroundings, but is unresponsive and seemingly unaware of those surroundings. All this because, just when she had stabilised after an emergency procedure done on her heart and was showing slight signs of recovery (she was in total organ failure they called it), air got into the ECMO machine, the machine that was oxygenating her blood outside the body, and within minutes went to her brain and caused multiple strokes. I think we went into shock and confusion at that point, not knowing what to think. Anyway three weeks later we are going to the hospital every day, using finger puppets (you should see us with donkey from Shrek with David, Julie's brother impersonating Eddie Murphy) and anything we can (aromas, combing her hair, reading to her, pictures of family, music, lots of talking to her, etc) to try and stimulate her brain. She will sometimes look right at me or Joan and just stare. Between our family and Michael's and Julie's church family we are there all the time during the day. The facility she is in is called a Long Term Acute Care 'hospital' and they have told us that unless she recovers sufficiently to warrant neurotherapy at another facility the next step will be a nursing home. So, our hope, prayer and goal is to do all we can to see that doesn't happen. We will do all we can to care for Julie, Michael and the family. While at Hershey the doctor finally, when I pressed him for the truth told me that in his 24 years as a neurosurgeon had never seen recovery in a case like Julie's before (multiple strokes). That was a bad day. We have since seen Julie's organs recover remarkably. One lung is necrotic (has a dead patch). That is where the sepses - think septic, infection began. The starvation of oxygen affected all her organs but all except her brain has slowly started to recover. Julie is 35 years old, in great health, a runner like her father devoted to her family and for the sake of those who love and need her we are praying that God will heal her, Graham On Apr 19, 2013, at 9:19 PM, Paul LeBoutillier wrote: > Hello Nighthawk Lovers! (Please make sure your email reader is set to show > images.) > > I'm sure several of you read the thread "Honda ST1300" where our good friend > Graham Rogers, who has been a member of Nighthawk Lovers for going on 2 > years, shared that his daughter recently endured a devastating physical > condition that has left her, for now, unresponsive. (If you missed that > information you can still read that thread, dated April 18.) Graham and his > wife are making daily trips to be with their daughter, who is married and the > mother of three. > > First off, can I ask that you lift this matter in prayer? Graham's daughter > Julie needs that prayer and the whole family needs to be remembered in that > way. > > Secondly, several of us here at Nighthawk Lovers have been wildly emailing > back and forth today talking about a practical way we can express our love > for Graham's family and any other way we can help. We decided we would ask > our membership here on Nighthawk Lovers, which is now 1,165 members strong, > to consider making a donation, however small, to Graham and the Rogers > family. One of our members, Javier Garcia, whom I and the other NHL > Moderators know and trust completely, has offered the use of his own Paypal > gateway to accept donations. He will pass them along to Graham and his family > accordingly. > > Let me just say this: if you have even the slightest concern that this > request isn't genuine, please just hit delete and no one will hold it against > you in the slightest. We don't want anyone to feel constrained or negatively > compelled in any way. I can tell you that in the six years that this > discussion group has been in existence we've never done this before. Lord > willing we'll never have to do it again...but for right now, this is a > genuine need. > > So...how can you donate? I've provided a Paypal link below that you can click > on. If you don't have a Paypal account, no worries...you can still donate > using a debit or credit card. Once you click on the Paypal button you will be > taken to a Paypal portal which will look like this. Notice the RED ARROW on > the image below. That is where you click if you DON'T have a Paypal account. > > <paypal.jpg> > > Thanks for considering a donation. And again...please pray for Julie and the > whole family. A note of encouragement posted on the group would also be > appreciated. Click the button below to donate. > > <Paypal_button1.png> > Paul > > > Paul LeBoutillier > www.hondanighthawks.net > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en-US. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Nighthawk Motorcycle Lovers!" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/nighthawk_lovers?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
