PLEASE KEEP THE FOLLOWING IN YOUR PRAYERS

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12/1/07 - Mel Murray sent us an email telling us he will be have his right kidney and ureter removed due to cancer on December 12th.  If you would like to send him an email his address is:  mel.murray@yahoo.com

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10/29/07 - Ron Weber, M Division, 1955-1960, has cancer in his spine, lungs and brain. Ron was in Engine Room #3.   He would love to hear from everyone.  His address is

St. Johns Hospital
Room 31
1575 Beam Avenue
Mapelwood, MN 55109

Phone No. 651-232-7000
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8/8/07 - While at the reunion we were informed that John Donnangelo has cancer.  He would love to hear from everyone.  His address is 8 Swallow Road,  Belmont, NH 03220-5417.  I do not have an email address for him.
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8/8/07 - We were informed while at the reunion that Mike Timothy is very ill with cancer.  He would love to hear from everyone.  His address is:  21 Cambridge Rd,Turnersville, NJ 08012.  His email address is ENGRM2@aol.com
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UPDATE 7/20/07 - Tony sent us an email informing us that he is now at home and is recuperating.  He is doing well.  However, he will not be able to make the reunion this year.

I am writing to ask that you not send any e-mails for a few days. Tony is in the hospital and has had a heart attack.  He had a blockage in one major artery that they were able to clear with angioplasty and placed a stent in that artery to prevent any further problems.  He is in ICU for a couple days to be sure all is well before coming home.  The doctor was pleased with the procedure which only took about 45-60 minutes. It is amazing what they can do now.  He is looking better and is already joking with the nurses, only 30 minutes after the procedure. Of course, you all know, that is Tony.  If you would all not mind holding off for 4 or 5 days on e-mails until we are sure he is up and around, that would be terrific.  Please say a prayer for him, and we will keep you updated.
Thank you,

Lorraine and family
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WALLY TRAVIS UPDATE 7/21/07

I am writing you all to give you an update on dad's condition and to thank you all for your prayers, cards, messages, call and visits.  First of all, I want to express to you all how very it has meant to dad to hear how very loved and missed he is by so many people.  As you all know, dad's entire life is dedicated to giving and helping others and it means so much to know how many lives he has impacted.  Yesterday I brought him 23 cards, letters and e-mails that he has received from everyone, which is in addition to the several I have already brought to him.  I wish you could all see how his face lit up when I showed him this most recent stack of cards!  Even the nurse was just about in tears to see how loved he is.  I opened and read each and every card to him, and they are all hanging in his room so he can be continuously reminded how special he is.  This is what has given him the strength to recover.  The beautiful cards that the chidren's Sunday School classes made for him filled his room with glitter and his eyes with joy.  What a wonderful and thoughful thing for the children to do in taking the time to make those beautiful cards for him, please thank them for him.

We are trying very hard to keep his spirits up, but as you all know, dad is used to keeping very busy and is not at all happy about being bedridden.  He so looks forward to summertime so that he can ride his bicycle, attend his annual military reunion, and go boating and tubing... yes - tubing (behind the boat)!  One of the things that has motivated him the most is trying to get well and strong enough to attend his annual military reunion in Pennsylvania.  I have not yet told him, but I really don't see that happening this year, even as hard as he is trying... and that will break his heart.

As for dad's condition... his arm, head, lung, kidney and groin injuries are healing well.  His ribs still give him some pain, but they are keeping a continuous release pain patch on his ribs to keep the pain under control, and the pneumonia is clearing up at a pretty good rate. He can only walk a few feet... very slowly and with the assistant of a walker and therapist.

On the down side, the head injury and damage to his kidneys have caused a problem with his sodium level, which is resulting in some pretty serious episodes of confusion and lethargy.  One day he is able to sit up, carry on a normal conversation and walk a few feet for his physical therapy (although it exhausts him) and the next day he can't even finish a sentence or answer a simple yes/no question, or he says a lot of things that don't make any sense or he can't find the word he is trying to say.  He is getting very frustrated with that because, while he is confused, he also knows he is not making sense but doesn't know how to fix it.  The doctors are experimenting with various medications to try to determine what is causing him to be so lethargic.  They did an MRI and CT scan on his head, and those tests came back good.  He is very weak and is not eating well, but the doctor has had to tell him to let people help him more because he wants to try to do everything for himself, but he doesn't have the strength and he doesn't want any pain medication.  He's a stubborn sailor!  They did take him off the oxygen and remove the cathater a couple of days ago, but they had to put both back today because his oxygen level drops when he falls asleep and something is causing him not to be able to urniate (they removed two liters of liquid from his bladder today)!  He was having some problems with his blood pressure and heart rate dropping drastically, so they changed one of his medications and then his blood pressure went up too high... so they changed it again!  It has been one hurdle after another.  It seems we take two steps forward and another one back.  But we are slowly moving in the right direction.  Whenever he does get released from the hospital, he will have to go to a residential sub-acute rehabiliation facility for a while before he can come home.  But he seems to be ok with that, because it is only temporary.

Yesterday during one of his episodes of confusion, he got out of bed (pulling out his IV in the process) and was trying to walk out - unassisted! When the nurse got to him to get him back in bed he said he had to go sew some walker bags because they needed so many at the hospital.  She finally convinced him that he was in the hospital to heal, not to work and that everyone would be ok without their walker bags until he gets better, and she got him back into bed.  I was sitting with him today while he was sleeping and he was going through all the motions of sewing, folding, cutting and tying thread in his sleep.  So, apparently he is anxious to get back to volunteering and making the wheelchair and walker bags and is concerned about there being a shortage in his absence.  Since he can't actually do that right now, he is doing it in his sleep. But that tells me that he feels needed, and that is so important.

Sorry for the tardiness and length of this update, but I have been so busy with all of this that I haven't had a chance to update everyone.  I know that some of you forwarded my last e-mail to others who know dad and whose e-mail addresses I didn't have.  So, please forward this update to those individuals as well.  I really appreciate it.  Please keep the cards, letters, and e-mails coming.  They really bring him joy and makes him feel loved, needed and appreciated.  Keep praying, God is listening!

Thanks again, Patty

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This e-mail is being sent to all of you from Wally's daughter, Patty, because he is in the hospital and may not be able to get online for quite a while.  We just don't know at this point.  I just wanted to let you all know that on the Saturday before the 4th of July holiday, dad was hit by a car while riding his bicycle.  He has seven broken ribs with eight fractures (which led to septic pneumonia), a broken arm, bleeding in his lungs, kidney damage, diaphram damage and severe groin injuries. He is currently having a difficult time communicating and is struggling with a lot of mental confusion.  He is not eating well and has become very weak.  I met with the doctors this morning, and they are hoping that in about a week he can be transferred to a residential rehabilitation facility to try to get him walking and functioning normally again.  There are a lot of concerns in a lot of areas, but he has a good team of specialists working on him, including a pulmonary specialist, a kidney team, a cardiologist, an internal medicne team, an orthopedic specialist, a physical therapist and a nutritionist.  I will periodically update you all on his progress until he is able to communicate again.  If you want to send him any correspondence, cards or words of encouragement, you can send them to my address as I go to the hospital several times every day and will deliver them to him.  That way, if he is moved to another facility he will still receive the correspondence.  He really needs some cheering up.  As you know, he is very active all the time, and this is very scary and frustrating for him and I worry about him getting depressed.  He is currently at Ingham Regional Medical Center, Greenlawn Campus (room 406 - bed #1), but again, it would be best to send any correspondence to my house just in case he is moved any time soon.  My mailng address for him is Wally Travis c/o Patty Lance, 13669 Dusty Trail, Grand Ledge, MI 48837
I will keep you posted.
Sincerely, Patty

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