Family, Family, and more Family III; The Bill's rule Switzerland!

Happy 4th of July, mitenand (everybody)!!  

So to pick up where we left off at the last blog, Ferd and Audrey left Zurich on Tuesday, May 27th.  Lots of laundry, cleaning and grocery shopping was done in 3 days....then, voila!  La Familia de Bill arrived on Friday morning.  We had 5 days of fun-packed activities to get on with before Aggie was admitted to the hospital on June 4th.

Well, they (Bill, Rita and 'lil sis, Theresa) got here with no problems.  Hooray!  I have to mention from the beginning that this was Mrs. Bill's first time overseas and maybe the 4th time in her life she has flown in an airplane, so it was HUGE that she was making the trip and wonderful that they didn't have any issues getting here. I also have to give Mrs. Bill some props for conquering the hill on the walk up to our apartment from the tram stop. That was no easy feat, and she did it day after day.

They got to the Zurich Flughafen around 8:30am, and we went back to the apartment to get everyone settled in.  Theresa wandered into our room and found a warm bed to lay on while Mrs. Bill curled up on the couch.  Meanwhile, Aggie and her dad hit the town!  (I, unfornuately, had to go into work.)

Ag and her dad first stopped at the train station and picked up half-fare cards for everyone.  Half-fare cards are something that are usually only offered to residents of Switzerland.  Aggie and I have them and, although they are CHF 150 each, they are fantastic because they save you lots of cash on train tickets when you travel within the country - as the name would suggest, half-fare card holders pay only half the normal train ticket prices.  However, since the Euro 2008 Soccer tournament was being co-hosted by Switzerland and Austria during the month of June, the country of Switzerland was offering them to visitors (for CHF 40 each) for the entire month.  Talk about timing!!

After they got their half-fare cards and organized a few days of travel, they headed to Sprungli.  Sprungli is a delicious and somewhat ritzy chocolate shop that only exists in Switzerland (it's the "real" Swiss chocolate, and they're stuff is sold in Sprungli stores only).  They bought a few goodies there, checked out some of the city, and then headed home to see how everyone was doing.   The rest of the evening was very low key and relaxing at the apartment.

Saturday, all of us jumped in the car and drove down to the Interlaken and Grindelwald area of Switzerland.  We walked around the town of Interlaken and checked out quite a few shops.  Our next stop was Lauterbrunnen, which is an extremely small mountain-town with a huge waterfall.  The Staubbach Waterfall is 300 meters high and seemingly just falls into the town.  It was really cool to see.  Then we headed to Grindelwald for a late lunch.  We found a good restaurant and everyone enjoyed a nice Swiss meal!  

On our way back to Zurich, we stopped over at our friends, Sally and Jake's, house for a cook out.  As you will recall from our time in Luxembourg, this is the family Aggie used to work for (their little boy is Sebastian, and they just had a new baby girl, Jamie Kay).  They actually live in Zurich as well now, and it was Sally's birthday.  So we were happy to crash her party and see them (and the kids!).

Sunday was an awesome day for all.  Everyone slept in, which was extremely nice.  Then, we took a boat cruise from Zurich (at the north end of the Zurichsee) to a small town at the south end of the Zurichsee called Rapperswil.  The boat ride was about 2 hours long which was perfect as the day was nice and sunny, and you could see the mountains pretty well in the distance.  

In Rapperswil there was an Ironman going on in full effect!  It was kind of crazy....the running part (the marathon part) was in the little town.  We cheered for runners as we walked through the side streets and finally stopped at a outdoor patio restaurant for a late lunch.  Mr. Bill couldn't resist ordering the "sausage for two" and it turned out to be one of the largest sausages I've ever seen!  (Except of course for...um, well...nevermind)  Seriously though, it was huge.  After we ate, we walked around a bit more, and then we headed back to Zurich via the train.  Within an hour we were all back at the apartment, relaxing and getting ready for the next day's adventure.

On Monday, I had to work, but Team Bill took the Glacier Express, a panoramic train ride through the Alps in the heart of Switzerland.  They took the train from Zurich to Brig and caught the Express in Brig.  They rode for about 4-5 hours enjoying the scenery.  Then they traveled back to Zurich from Chur via the normal country trains.  

They loved this experience, aside from their train being delayed for an hour and a half (and note, trains, buses and trams are like clockwork in this country so this was very strange that things were delayed).  However, the good thing about being delayed is that they got to check out the town of Brig which they wouldn't have done otherwise.     

Anyway, they enjoyed a picnic lunch they had packed on the train, and they also ordered some additional drinks and other snack foods as they traveled.  Aggie said the Express had full course meals, and anything else you could think of, on offer though out the entire ride.  The day was a success, and everyone arrived back at the apartment all happy and excited.

On Tuesday they were up and out early again...this time they were headed to Luzern, which in my opinion is one of the coolest cities in Switzerland.  It's a very easy 50 minute train ride there from Zurich, so getting there was fast and simple.  Upon arriving, they walked around, checked out the markets, and then grabbed some coffees and ice cream at a little parlor.  

They headed back to Zurich later that afternoon, and while Mr. and Mrs. Bill relaxed out in the patio area, Aggie and Theresa went to babysit the 4 little girls Ag watches.  Theresa, being an elementary school teacher, was going to look after the little ones while Aggie was in the hospital.  This worked out very well, and the girls definitely kept Theresa busy!  That evening for dinner, I met everyone at the Zeughauskeller, a big beer hall in the center of town that has very tasty, traditional Swiss food (they also have "flaming beers" which Josh and I enjoyed while he was here over Christmas).   We all rolled home (literally...we ate so much) afterwards and crashed.

The next morning, Aggie and I went to the hospital and checked her in.  As most of you know, Ag was diagnosed a few months ago with a benign tumor in her pituitary gland (basically, the master gland of the body).  The tumor was producing (in extreme excess) a hormone that would prevent Agnes from getting pregnant.  Around the pituitary gland are your carotid arteries and optic nerves.  And, oh yeah, your brain.  So having surgery was risky.  But, based on our options and consultations (of which, Pete Stratil was absolutely crucial), we opted for a neurosurgeon to remove the tumor rather than fighting it with medicine.  The whole process was quite an emotional one for us, but now that it's done and over with we are so thankful and happy!

Thursday morning, two nurses woke us up at 6-6:30am.  Aggie put on her "surgery" gear and off they wheeled her....only to be brought back to the room 10 minutes later as an emergency came up and they had to push her operation back to 10am!  The time in between was a bit nerve-racking but what can you do?  We sat in her room and laughed and joked and talked about how nice it was going to be when all this was over with.

The surgery ended up taking place at 10am like they said, and we are really happy to announce that it was a complete success!  You could just tell that the surgeon was impressed with his own work.  He was a able to remove the whole tumor, which was amazing (there were risks involved, depending on how the tumor was attached to the pituitary "area").  Aside from Aggie having very low blood pressure and her body temperature dropping during the surgery, all went flawless.

That night she slept in the ICU, which was okay she said because she was on so many drugs she didn't really know (and/or care) what was going on around her!  Friday afternoon they took her back to her room.  The rest of her time at the hospital was okay.  The operation was through her right nostril, so she couldn't breath through her nose for about a week.  She still can't smell, but hopefully this sense will come back in about a month (at which time she will no longer be immune to the Dutch ovens I've been conjuring up for her!).  They took blood every morning and late afternoon.  This became a process after a while, however, as she doesn't have "good" veins.  Therefore, she got poked quite a few times in efforts to draw blood.  The shot she got every night in her legs was a bit painful too, but necessary to keep the blood circulating in them.  Sleeping at night wasn't fun for her as she had tubes hooked up to her and couldn't really move around.  She also had to breathe through her mouth, which made her mouth extremely dry and kept waking her up.  It was tough, but she's a trooper and she managed.  To make light of the situation, I told her that, in the future when our kids act up, she can tell them she had brain surgery in order to bring them into this world, so they sure as hell better listen!

The hospital staff were really cool and they brought me a cot to sleep on in her room every night.  It was a good set up because everyday, I would leave in the morning and head into work.  Mrs. Bill and Theresa would come and spend the day with Ag, then I would come back in the evenings.  Lots of friends and visitors came to see her too.  We are so grateful to have such wonderful friends here and who just stopped in and "chill" with us!  We are also obviously so grateful for all of our friends and family at home who sent cards and gifts and flowers, etc.  Agnes was so happy to receive your well wishes.

Monday morning she had her eyes tested and the reports all came back positive (the tumor had begun to affect her sight in her left eye).  Her blood pressure was still a bit low, but all systems were go and they let her leave one day earlier than expected.  Tuesday we "moved" out of the hospital and back to our apartment.  

Mrs. Bill and Theresa left to head back to the States on Friday (the 11th).  But...not before Mrs. Bill (a carpenter) helped me make a corn-hole set!  Holla!  I can tell you that I've have never been so happy to throw bags than when me and Ag played a couple games out back the weekend after she got out of the hospital.  We have since put our set to good use and it has been quite fun.  We will write about what has been happening during Aggie's recovery time (basically the whole month of June) in the next blog.  Stay tuned!!

PS.  Thanks again for everyone's thoughts and prayers during this time in our lives.  Your support has been wonderful! 

PSS.  We just had a meeting with our endocrinologist today (July 4th), and Aggie's right on par and doing perfect with her recovery. Big smiles all around!

PSSS.  Make sure to check out all our pictures (there are some really good ones!) by using the link at the top of this page.