We are still waiting for autopsy results since Matt declined to fast. He had a good day on July 4th & was able to spend it with family but on July 5th he declined very fast. We are all still in shock. We knew his life expectancy was shortened & that his issues had gotten worse over the last 2 years but we did not expect everything to happen like this or this fast. As far as our home goes its pretty much a 100% loss. We do not have windstorm insurance to pay for the damages. The house is missing half the roof, full of mold. ceilings have feel down, drywall ruined, floors are all flooded & waterlogged. Most of our furniture & alot of our personal belongings are ruined. We did not think the storm would be this bad & since Matt passed away on the 6th there was not alot of time to storm prep before it hit. We took a few belongings & went to stay what we thought would be a couple days with family but its been a month now with no way for us to return home. At this point with all the damage & traumatic memories it might be mentally healthier for us to walk completely away from that property but I still have the mortgage to pay & we are not making any big decisions right now so the big thing is to find temporary housing till things calm down so we can decide. We are trying to work with Fema but they are not rebuilding places. The total they can pay our for repairs is 42,000 but that will not fix our home. We need to completely gut the entire house down to the studs & start all over, There are also some foundation issues so it might be more reasonable to take the entire house down & start over than fix it. We are trying to process & start healing but thats pretty hard when you do not even have a home or safe place anymore so the money I am requesting is to help me figure out temporary housing & help us start to rebuild or put a deposit down on a new place. It will also go to replace personal items that we lost. Our 11 year old daughters room took alot of damage. Her bed & alot of her stuff had ceiling fall in on it plus it is covered in mold. Please say a prayer for our babies & for me. I miss my best friend & soul mate. We were 11 days shy of being together 33 years. He has been my universe for most of my life & while everyone elses world kept spinning mine stopped. I would do anything for one more day but since I can't have that I will do everything to make the best life I can for our baby girl Alyssa who misses her daddy so much!

Matt unexpectedly passed away in Houston at St Luke Hospital on 7/6/24 with his children & wife of 33 years by his side. All money will now go to his family especially his 11year old daughter. Within 48 hours of his passing the family also lost their home to hurricane Beryl & they do not have insurance to rebuild the home. The house is a total loss! It’s going to need to be torn down completely & rebuilt. Please keep us in your prayers. 

Matt has not been physically able to ride his motorcycle much but on September 24th he decided to take a 15 minute ride on his motorcycle. During that 15 minute ride he was in a wreck. He had some internal bleeding around his hemangioma. He broke his T2 vertebrae, his left shoulder, 4 ribs & had to have surgery on his ankle. Those issues are healing but he also has grade 3 Diffuse Axonal Brain Injury in his frontal lobe. He knows who he is & who we are but he will need to relearn a lot of simple things like making a pot of coffee or how to make a bed. He spent several days on a ventilator. He does has serious damage that could have left him in a vegetative state but he is fighting to get his mind & body under control. Unfortunately I have been in the hospital with him for almost 2 weeks. He isn’t allowed to make any medical Decisions on his own & he is very confused so I have needed to be here with him. However that means 2 weeks without a paycheck for us! Anything helps! 

Matt is still home & healing. He has had some infection issues but with some extra antibiotics the infection is being taken care of. He is sore & still had a lot of pancreas pain but that’s expected since they was not able to do everything they wanted in the surgery. 

Long update cuz ya know Matt always has to be complicated & it’s easier to explain it all at once. 

1st I want to thank God for having his hands on him during the surgery! I appreciate all the prayers! Without God he would not have made it this far! 

The doc came in this morning & talked to us again. He explained alittle better. He said basically what is left of his tail is damaged & stuck to everything around it. He said his enlarged veins that are caused by the portal vein thrombosis are wrapped up in the mess also. When they tried to work in one area it started messing up the others areas because its all fused together so they eventually had to stop. He said it was impossible to even tell what tissue was what because everything has been so inflamed & damaged for so long. After seeing where & how big the pseudocyst he said they are not even sure that the tail is the “main” area that is leaking. The tail is leaking but they think the head is also leaking more then they thought. He said there is no way he can safely do a whipple procedure (remove the head of the pancreas) because of the portal vein thrombosis & all the extremely enlarged veins that are everywhere. He also said he can not do anything with the portal vein thrombosis because of how severe it is & Dr Goss would be the one he would recommend for that but Dr Goss has already stated he feels it’s impossible for it to be safely removed. Goss said the surgery is so dangerous it is unethical to attempt it unless Matt’s life is in immediate danger. His recover is still going to be hard because of the laparotomy (where & how much they cut his abdomen open), gallbladder removal, pancreatic cystogastrostomy (procedure they done to attach part of the large pseudocyst to his stomach) to help it drain, omental pedicle flap, falciform pedicle flap (both standard after this procedure), liver biopsy (on some areas that was abnormal or fatty but not around his hemangioma) & the area they tried to remove/clean around his pancreas tail. Everything was already inflamed before they opened him up so it’s going to be more inflamed & aggravated for awhile. Infection is still a HUGE concern so he is on antibiotics. He has a wound vac & has external drain coming out of his stomach. He also has an NG tube (goes in your nose & down your throat to suck our stomach contents). He hates the NG tube but he needs this to help drain the pseudocysts they sewed to his stomach & to keep his stomach empty so his pancreas don’t try to make extra enzymes right now. It needs to rest. You can not eat or drink with an NG tube in so it’s miserable for the person especially when your throat hurts after surgery. He is on a pain pump & pain patch. They recently increased his dose to try to make him more comfortable. They had to give him more insulin because his sugar levels are rising more. His blood pressure is running high but not horrible considering. He has sinus tachycardia (elevated heart rate) but that’s sorta expected after a huge procedure like this that causes a lot of pain & stress on your body. 

Now the good news. Last night their goal was to get him to sit on the edge of the bed for 30 minutes. 

Of course he had to show his strength by insisting on walking halfway across the room to sit in the chair for an hour! He is the strongest man I know & no matter what he keeps fighting! I am so proud of him & so proud to be his wife!