More Ninja Stories

Sometime in October, I posted some stories about Billy's knack for surprising people, sort of like a ninja (they're there and gone before you know it). A few people wrote back with some stories of their own, and I thought I'd share.  Also, after the stories, you'll find information regarding Billy's Memorial and Funeral.  We are trying to get a rough headcount for both events, so if you think you might attend, would you please scroll down to the brief survey and fill it out?

From Erin (Colorado)
As the title implies, this is a story of how Billy pulled a fast one on me almost nine years ago. He'll enjoy it; I know he will. So I was begging my parents for a bassett hound puppy and they kept saying no. This went on for months and months so I lost all hope in getting my first puppy. It was February of 2002, and Brian (my brother) was graduating basic training in Fort Bliss, OK. My whole family went, and we had asked Billy to stay at the house and watch my parents 'dog for them. He willingly abliged. Upon my arrival home from OK, I walked into the house and saw this cute little puppy, thinking it was Billy's. I asked him when he got it and he told me that it wasn't his; he was just watching it for someone. Still, no lightbulb had come on that it might just be mine. So I continued to play and snuggle with the puppy, still not thinking anything of it. Then I asked him just who he was watching it for, and he said me! I looked at him, then at my parents, and they were both nodding their heads. I was shocked! I just kept looking at everyone to make sure no one was changing their minds. Ha! That puppy was mine and it was from Billy! That is one of the greatest gifts a person can get it--their first dog--and it was from someone who means the world to me! I still don't know how he was able to convince my parents or when he would have ever had the time. He and I were the best of friends and we were together all the time. So how I never found out the secret I shall never know. Another funny tidbit is he had to keep him hidden in your family's camper for a few days because your mom didn't allow dogs in the house, and I wasn't gone to OK yet. I bet she didn't know that!

From Rob (New York)
I have a couple of stories...

1. After adding me to his cell phone plan, I broke my cell phone. After work one day, I magically had a new phone.
2. Once, I lost my dog tags and didn't know how to get new ones. The next day, Will bought me a new set, even though he made me do push-ups for them... I never told him that he got my blood type wrong.

From Kelsey (Virginia)
All the boys have always teased me relentlessly for being a vegetarian.  From the jokes when we'd go out to eat, "Kelsey wants a steak!" to Tyler putting bacon grease in my eggs after we had all spent a "family" Thanksgiving together--they never stopped.

One summer weekend, we all went over to Will's apartment for burgers and beer. I came to expect the usual harassment but I never expected someone to actually try to be accommodating. I could tell Will had something up his sleeve and then it came out.

Casually, he goes, "Hey, I got you some turkey burgers."

I paused, not knowing what to do because he was so serious, but I thought maybe this was the joke on me part.

"Uhhh...." I stammered.... "Turkey burgers?"

"Yeah," he said confidently and then he rubbed it in, "since you're a 'vegetarian'," and he grinned that grin of his.

I busted up laughing. "Coot!  I think you were thinking of veggie burgers!  Turkey burgers aren't vegetarian!!"

I think he proceeded to ask me something along the lines of why I didn't just eat normal burgers. :)

Everyone had a great laugh, but I was so touched that he had tried to get me something special that I 'almost' ate a non-vegetarian turkey burger anyway.

From Halley (Texas)
So I met Will back in February while visiting my sister Amy and her husband Ross at Fort Rucker. (Ross flys Apaches). During the time my sister lived at Fort Rucker, she became close friends with Nathan and Melissa. Melissa and Amy decided to play match-maker (Millionaire Matchmaker was their favorite show on Bravo) and thought that me and Will would really hit it off. Low and behold, we did! We went out every night I was there and had such a great time together. Soon it was time for me to head back to Texas and I was definitely dreading leaving. Will and I had dinner together my last night in Alabama and we said our goodbyes. I woke up the next morning to a text message from Will at around 6am: he told me to make sure that I check out Amy's front porch before I headed home. I told Amy and she immediately ran out her front door. She came back in with the most beautiful orange roses (my favorite) tied together with twine. In her other hand was a glass bottle with a note inside. I was so surprised and dumbfounded!! Will and I were out pretty late the night before and he texted me so early in the morning. To this day, I still have no clue how he managed to find the roses and come up with the message in a bottle in such a short amount of time. I don't even remember telling him that I loved orange flowers! Will definitely has a special way with people and it is a memory I will cherish forever.

Billy's Memorial
The memorial will be at Durango High School on Saturday, February 26, from 3:00-5:30pm.  (If you are interested in helping in any way, please indicate so on the survey below.)

Billy's Funeral
Billy loved DC, and his favorite time of year was when the cherry trees were in bloom, so we have scheduled his funeral during that time of year.  The viewing will be on Monday, March 28, 2011, from 6:00-8:00pm.  The funeral will be at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday, March 29 at 3:00pm.  We will post more details later.

One of Billy's pictures of DC...

Memorial or Funeral Contributions...
...can be sent to...

Vectra Bank, Durango Branch
FOR William "Billy" McCotter Bohren
1101 E. 2nd Ave.
Durango, CO  81301

Please make checks payable to the William McCotter Memorial Fund.

We are trying to plan well for the Memorial and Funeral.  If you have time and are willing, please complete the brief survey below.  It will help us in planning.

Thanks for everything!

Chocolate Milk

This past Monday night, my mom, Chris, Danny, and I were hanging out together with Billy in his room.  Not being one to pay attention to the NFL schedule, I asked Billy if he wanted to watch a movie.  I knew the Patriots were scheduled to play sometime soon, as our cousin, Bryan, had mentioned his game tickets over the weekend when he was here.  So when I asked about watching a movie, Billy declined.  "I want to watch the game," he said.  And that was that.

I didn't mind.  I was glad to see Billy awake, and I was enjoying the time spent with my family.

As we waited for game time, Billy asked Chris for some chocolate milk from the pantry.  Chris went to get it.  I'm not sure when he returned with the chocolate milk.  Chris just came in and quietly placed the bottle on Billy's bedside table.

Chocolate Milk!

Sometime later, during the game, Danny stood up and said, "I'll be right back."  "Where you going?" Billy asked.  "To the pantry?"  Billy wanted more chocolate milk, so Danny gladly went to find some.

The Pantry...where we usually find chocolate milk.

After a while, Danny still hadn't returned.  Billy looked at me.  "There's no chocolate milk in the pantry, is there?" he asked.  "Why?" I asked.  "Is Danny taking a long time?"  Billy nodded, saying, "Chris took a long time, too."

The pantry fridge...where the chocolate milk bottles usually sit.

I smiled.  Something interesting was happening!  Chris and Danny must have walked to the pantry and discovered that there was no chocolate milk.  Then, they each must have taken the elevator to the 3rd floor, bought chocolate milk from Walt's (the snack shop), and come back to the 7th floor.  They both did all of that without saying anything, without expecting any recognition for the effort the put forth in getting chocolate milk for Billy.  It's the kind of thing that Billy has always done.

I had always thought of Billy as the sneaky one--the one who noticed little things he could do for people and then went off quietly to complete his mission, no matter how far he had to go or how long it would take to finish the job.  But now Chris and Danny were in on it.  And I had witnessed Bobby doing things like that before he went back to Colorado.  This kind of thing makes me smile.

When Danny finally came back in the room with chocolate milk, Billy and I made eye contact.  Without saying anything, we both smiled.  Danny saw it, and wondered what the joke was about.  But it wasn't a joke.  We were just appreciating the care Danny and Chris had shown to Billy.

Billy has done so many things for so many people.  We love it when we get to do things for him.

How is Billy?
He's quiet these days, and he sleeps a lot.  His energy level seems a lot lower than at other times.  It has been a while since I wrote an update, so I'll include some summaries:

Nausea  
Billy had been experiencing a lot of nausea last week.  The oncologists thought it was probably due to his liver and his gall bladder not draining properly.  Since the liver and gall bladder drain into the small bowel, and Billy's small bowel is blocked, the liver and gall bladder are probably backing up.  To alleviate this, the oncologists had suggested a percutaneous ("through the skin") catheter to drain his gall bladder.  That was supposed to happen sometime this week.

By Wednesday, most of Billy's nausea had subsided.  The doctors couldn't explain it; his symptoms somehow improved on their own.  At that point, the oncologists and radiologists thought it would be better not to insert the catheter.  Since Billy's nausea seemed to be under control (using scopolamine and phenergan), it would be better not to take on the risks of inserting a catheter into the gall bladder (risks like infection from another puncture or bleeding from the liver).

Pain
The nurses always ask Billy to rate his pain on a scale of 1 to 10.  Overall, Billy's pain seems to be in good control.  He's on a PCA (patient-controlled anesthesia) pump, which delivers dilaudid continuously.  He can always "push his button" if he needs an extra little spurt.  Usually, Billy says he's at a level 1.  He seldom complains about pain--but he seems to have intermittent, unexplained pain.  Some days, his left side hurts.  Other days, it's his right side.

Yesterday, his left side was feeling fairly sensitive, so he had an ultrasound to check for possible pockets of fluid.  They didn't find any pockets, and that's a good thing.

Today, his right side was hurting, so he had another CT scan.  We're still waiting on the results.

Drinking
When Billy is feeling good, he likes to drink ice water, juice, or chocolate milk.  At some points, he has enjoyed milk shakes or smoothies from Walt's (the snack shop on the 3rd floor).  When he started feeling really nauseous, he stopped drinking anything.  Over the past few days, however, Billy has been drinking more--not the shakes and smoothies from downstairs--but juice and chocolate milk.

Ornaments
We've had several fun packages come in the mail.  Thank you to all who have sent ornaments.  Billy enjoys them.  We all do.  (I will post more pictures soon.)

Visitors
This past weekend, Aunt Robin (one of my mom's younger sisters) and Bryan (Robin's son) came.  Uncle Paul (my mom's oldest brother), Aunt Linda (Paul's wife), and Aunt Janet (my mom's oldest sister) have been here all week.  Kelsey comes most weekends.  And last night, we got to meet Sarah--the girlfriend of one of Billy's army friends.  It has been fun to have visitors here.

How to Pray

• For Rest and Energy.  There are so many interruptions in the hospital; it is often difficult to sleep through the night.  Pray for peaceful nights, good rest, and energy for Billy to sit up and go for walks during the day.  (Sitting and walking help keep his lungs healthy.)
• For Healing.  Billy's left side is healing from a fairly large incision.  His liver isn't working as it should.  His bowel is still blocked.  And his abdomen still has a lot of fluid, with cancer cells spread throughout.  Pray for healing for all of these things.
• For Perseverance and Goals to Work Toward.  It's kind of like a marathon, only longer.  Pray for all of us--to know what the next goal should be, and to know what we need in order to keep going.  Day after day in the hospital can be wearying.  Pray for fun things, good memories, and things to work toward to break up the monotony.  

Thank you for cards, and ornaments, and notes, and thank you for praying!

Ninja Stories

One of my favorite things about Billy is his ability to surprise people.  He does this sort of sneak-attack thing, and people don’t realize that he’s been there until he’s gone.  But it’s not just that he’s sneaky.  He’s clever and stealthy as he works to care for the people in his life. 

So it makes me smile when other people leave little surprises for him!

I started a story last night about a little message that Rob left for Billy, not realizing that there would be more to the story.  Here’s Rob’s message from last night.  He left it without Billy knowing.  I think someone pointed it out to him later, after Rob had left.

This morning (Tuesday) when I came in Billy’s room, a second message had been added to the board. 

Case and Hilary Wilson (friends from Fort Rucker...case graduated from flight school with Billy on September 2, 2010) had visited last night, staying later into the night.  I don’t know how late they stayed, but it was definitely after Rob had gone home.  Case is full of fun stories, and it’s clear he likes to pick on people.

As he visited with Billy, he picked on Billy’s choice of helicopter.  Billy had learned to fly a Blackhawk.  Case knows how to fly an Apache.  The joke (or maybe it’s reality?) is that Apaches are easy to fly, and they break down all of the time.  Hence the photo in Billy’s facebook album…

Billy tagged several of his friends as the caveman.  (Nate, Chris, and Case were a few.)  Ah, the jokes between friends.

So I shouldn’t have been surprised to see the following message (to the left of Rob's message) on the board this morning. 

Little did Case know, Rob was coming back.  And somewhere along the line, he left a third message. 

So who wins this one?

The banter made us all smile.  Our whole family agrees…Billy’s army friends are really good for him!

I like to think of Billy as a ninja of sorts.  He has this sneak-attack way of loving people, and he’s incredibly good at it.  My brothers can tell stories about Billy’s ability to find things and figure out surprises without being discovered.  (He used to unwrap and re-wrap his Christmas presents without my mom ever knowing!)  And I have a few of my own. 

My favorite one happened right after I bought my first car.  It was a teal Dodge Shadow ES—not the most premium car, but it was my first one, and I loved it.  Except for one thing.  The speaker cover on the front passenger door was missing a little plastic piece.  The missing piece was no bigger than 2”x3”, but its absence was annoying.  The speaker cover kept sliding around. 

I had taken the car to the dealership to find out if I could get a replacement part.  When I found out that the little plastic piece would cost about $20 or $30, I decided to forget it.  I’d live with the annoyance.

A few days later, I got in my car, and I noticed a new little plastic piece.  I KNEW Billy had been there.  It couldn’t have been anyone else!  Without me knowing, he had gone to the junkyard to get an old piece out of some other Dodge Shadow, paid $1 for the part, and replaced the piece in my car.  But he also got a hold of my car keys somehow, because I always kept my car locked…  It’s things like that, that prove that Billy loves me. 

I think we’ll have some more ninja stories to share about Billy in the future, but for now, I wanted to ask all of you for some.  If Billy has cared for you in some surprise/sneaky way, that sort of “got” you without you realizing he had been there, would you share them?  You can message me on facebook, and I’ll share the story on the blog, or you can post a comment here.

As we’ve hung out with some of Billy’s friends (people who have quickly become our friends as well), we’ve heard story after story of ways that Billy went above and beyond to care for the people around him.  And we’d love to hear more of them…especially the stories where there’s an element of surprise. 

And a quick note on how Billy is doing…  Today was a good day.  His energy was good.  His sense of humor was great.  He slept a lot this morning because there was a bit of hospital drama last night (equipment changes, work orders, fixing things, etc…the usual stuff that can keep patients from sleeping).  But he was up and awake for most of the afternoon and evening.  I think we kept him up until 11 tonight (Tuesday). 

He had a CT scan today, and it helped to give the doctors more of a clear picture on what’s going on in Billy’s body.  But it’s not going to drastically alter his treatment at this point.  There’s still a lot of fluid building up in his body, but now it’s in “pockets” instead of one big area.  This makes it hard to drain the liquid (they’d have to do 5-6 punctures, which is a bit invasive).  The liquid is still infected—probably with both bacteria and cancer.  So if you’re praying specifically, please pray that we’d be able to knock the bacteria out, and that the liquid would thin enough to be drained, or decrease, or disappear all together.  Also, pray that God would protect Billy’s lungs and liver from cancer, and that his bowels and stomach would work again.  He’s got quite the rash/red spot developing on the left side of his belly and upper left thigh.  Pray that God would calm that part of his body, and restore it to full health…  Thanks for praying!

Billy is sporting a new look…but we’ll have to save that for tomorrow (Wednesday). 

Thanks for the love, support, and prayers!