Bill called me in Colorado every day. One day he reported that he’d had chest pains and his doctor wanted him to see a cardiologist in Appleton. I called Loomers and Schangs in tears. Loomers went with him to the appointment. After I got home, Henry and I took him for a heart catheterization at Theda Clark Hospital in Neenah. The surgeon removed a lot of old, calcified plaque from a major artery that was 90% blocked. Since he continued to have chest pain after the procedure, we decided not to take our scheduled trip to Brussels to take Henry home and to Dubai to visit Steve, Maria, Anna, and Kate. I took him to the ER in Ripon Sunday night and they sent him to Appleton Medical Center by ambulance, which he declared to be the bumpiest most uncomfortable ride he'd ever had. Monday he had another catheterization in which they determined that his two stents were functioning well and that his heart was fine. They attributed the chest pain to acid reflux.
Since we were unable to travel, we had to make other arrangements for Henry to go home. Several friends volunteered to take him, and we had him packed to go when we realized we didn't have the legal paperwork for someone outside the family to take him out of the country. Finally Pamela arranged for Emilie Latrielle, a close friend from France with whom he was supposed to spend a week of his Easter break, to come for him. Pamela got the legal permission documents for Emilie and we thought we were all set, only to discover that her passport had to be replaced with one that could be read electronically--even though it was valid until 2012. We bought the ticket for her to come March 27. The passport, which was supposed to arrive March 21, was finally in her hands on March 26.
We picked Emilie up in Chicago on March 27 and spent the weekend with Al and Mindy. We took in the Field Museum, the Nature Museum in Lincoln Park, some nice restaurants, and, of course, Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park. Mindy's a great tour guide and the view of the city from her office is spectacular.
We left Chicago Sunday evening and arrived home about 9:15. The next morning Henry announced that his glasses were broken. Sure enough, the metal had broken on one side of the nose piece. We went to Lens Crafters in Fond du Lac, where we got great service. Henry had new glasses the next day. Emilie was able to use the trips to Fond du Lac to shop for scrapbooking supplies. Wednesday was a nice day, so Emilie got to experience sledding on Kiwanis Hill behind our house, where there was still plenty of snow to get a good ride, kite flying, woods exploring, and watching Henry ride his little bike.
On Thursday, April 3, we took them to Appleton to fly home. They flew NWA from Appleton to Detroit to Amsterdam to Toulouse. After a night in Toulouse, Emilie's mother, Michele, took over for the last leg of Henry’s journey to Brussels.
Pamela missed her little boy a lot, so we posted pictures and video clips on a blog for her. The child is a real character, and some of the videos are quite entertaining. Click here to see them www.henrywoolley.blogspot.com.
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