June 6, 2006

Hi all -

As another evening fall upon us here in the Hawaiian Islands I wanted to give you all the latest updates on Dirk. As you all can see, this list is growing steadily from so many of you emailing me with best wishes for Dirk. Any email I receive I try to add you to this list. Please forgive me if I am overlooking someone.

THE LATEST - Dirk spent most of day 3 in the hospital getting tested. Although we made some promising progress yesterday, today was not as good of a day. He was less responsive to the Dr.'s requests to move and wiggle, he was also not really responding at all to family. The cat scan showed clear improvement from Saturday which means the swelling is down and the bleeding is not worse. The angiogram was initially described as inconclusive, but as Kiki says, the fact that it does not show any leaking from the blood vessels is reassuring. We still do not know for sure what it is: an AVM? An aneurysm? Since this angiogram was not conclusive (for now), as you read from Kiki, it means another one will need to be performed. He does have pneumonia, possibly from fluids leaking into the lungs while being unconscious. This is being treated though given what they can do while focusing on Dirk's other conditions.

THE CHALLENGES - Today was a frustrating day for Kelsey and family. After yesterdays progress, the heart definitely sinks when she does not see that same progress today. We all don't want to see steps going backwards. But as I mentioned to Kelsey, we all have to realize we are in this for the long haul. Although he gave us hope and relief yesterday, today he brought us all back to reality on the severity of this situation. We will see progress, but we will also have plenty of frustration and disappointment. We need to remain focused on the positive: that the progress made in the last 48 hours is still very positive and that given where we are coming from, we are extremely grateful for what he has displayed & achieved so far. This all being said, I would like to remind all of you praying for Dirk that we still have a lot ahead of us and I hope my communications are properly conveying the challenges and obstacles Dirk must still overcome. I say this not to be negative, but to let us all be sensitive to how long Dirk really needs you all to remain on this 'journey' with him. We are just getting a sense of how long and challenging this road will be - with the ups and downs recovery from this can bring. I hope I said that right.

SOME QUESTIONS AND REQUESTS - Some of you have asked whether visiting him might be a good idea. Given that his progress and responsiveness is still very unpredictable, Kiki agrees that this might be due to exhaustion, his pneumonia and some other circumstances that are 'stressing' the system (such as the angiogram). Which means more visitors might be best to wait until Kelsey and Family give the ok. Cards are totally welcome, these can be read and easily packed in a box there, so feel free to send. PLEASE hold off on any flowers, gifts etc. since the intensive care unit does not allow them. I will let you all know when we can flood him with everything he can handle. Dixie, Ruby and I are heading home to California tomorrow. We will be closely coordinating with the Jerries and Kiki on ensuring we continue to send out updates. Please try to refrain from updating other than from the Jerries, Kiki or me since we have had a lot of calls and questions that were very misinformed on Dirk's status. We do not want to upset anyone, but there are a lot of emotions out there and wrong information can really upset some.

NEXT STEPS - We all want to see Dirk progress as we have seen yesterday, but we also want to see the bleeding slow. Slowing would mean many things but mainly that the leaking blood from the artery is being absorbed by the body and therefore not longer causes the swelling and area of hemorrhage. If we were to see that slowing, it would mean that Dirk is really reaching the next step in this long journey. Let us just hope for now that those two things happen: progress from Sunday & seeing the bleeding stop/slow since the body can absorb/work through it.

I hope you are all well and that these emails keep you motivated to have Dirk remain in your thoughts and prayers.

Chris

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