This August, Matty was taking the kids and Rosie on a hike when he stepped on a bee’s nest hidden under a railroad trestle. Despite having no history of allergies to stings, including a long battle with the wasps who’ve laid claim to our patio, he went into anaphylactic shock. One shaky 911 call and ambulance ride later (God bless you, Bethel EMTs), he was safely in the hands of the medical staff of a Norwegian (Norway, Maine, that is) hospital. After some follow up tests, doctors noticed some abnormalities in Matty’s heart, and after many tests in both Maine and Boston, we have learned that Matty has severe Coronary Artery Disease.
SO, Coronavirus/Trump Presidency/massive bee attack, hold my 2020 beer, because here comes…open heart surgery! That’s the bad news. The good news is that we have a rockstar surgeon, Dr. George Tolis, who’s basically the Dr. Preston Burke of Mass General, and he assures us that Matty is a great candidate for a bypass surgery. Currently, his surgery is scheduled for Friday, October 9th. This will be followed by 5 days in the hospital and a longer recovery at home.
The other good news is that Matty is, as the tattoo he randomly returned from a business trip with says, "game to the bone," which loosely translates as a badass, and we can only expect that he'll emerge from this surgery even gamer to the bone.
We’ve told a few people so far and are already feeling so much gratitude for all your love, support, and offers of help.
We’ll use this site to keep family and friends updated in one place.
