Uncle Bill

Most of the people who read my blog are family and know Uncle Bill. For those of you who don’t, let me introduce you.


Uncle Bill is my Father’s oldest brother; he is the oldest of 5 children. He is married to Aunt Leslie and they have been married for 44 years. They have 3 children and their oldest daughter is Cousin Mary, my very best friend. Because of my relationship with Mary I am also close to her Mom and Dad. Earlier in June Uncle Bill was not feeling too good and was just not acting like himself. He was transported to the hospital on June 3rd because of signs of a stroke. He spent his 66th birthday in the hospital. He was released after a few days with a diagnosis of ‘dehydration.’

After his release there was still odd behavior, difficulty driving and concerns of his ability to do certain tasks. His family knew they would not be able to get him back to the doctor or hospital, so they came up with a master plan and tricked him into going to the ER on Wednesday, June 30th. The MRI showed 4 brain tumors. He was transported to Barrows Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital. Friday morning they did surgery for 5 hours to remove not 4 tumors, but one elongated tumor the size of a bratwurst. The surgeons were able to remove the rest of the tumor in a second 8 hour surgery on Tuesday July 6th. The pathology report showed it is a high grade Glioblastoma brain tumor, which is very aggressive. Chemotherapy begin the 3rd week of July for about 6 weeks.

This is shocking and heart breaking news for our entire family. We have gone from not knowing, to disbelief and now to a recovery plan. We have been on the internet and have read of the grim prognosis. Doctors have shared with us the worst and they have also shared with us the possibilities.

Let me tell you, my Uncle Bill will recover. This is a strong man who has a will and desire to live. He is a husband, father, grandfather, uncle, great-uncle, son, brother, friend, retired Fire Chief and a former Congressman in Arizona’s House of Representatives. He has many reasons to keep on going and pushing forward with his recovery. He has hunting trips and fishing trips on the calendar and he does not plan on missing them (we just haven’t told him they will need to be rescheduled.) He makes us laugh with his jokes, he can build or fix anything (even an X-Box with the 3 ring of death - picture above), and he tells us funny stories by the campfire (and protects us from the camp skunks.)

We love our Uncle Bill and we are praying for the very best outcome.