Help For Pete Casella

This isme, Pete writing to you this time. It has been a while since we have updated this site. Been busy enjoying life!! Despite doctors saying I might have to use a cane and would take months and months to be back to normal I am glad to say that I am about 95% back to normal!!! The grace of god has worked wonders in my life and my road to recovery. I have been apple picking, I went to the IHRA Nationals, took the kiddos to York’s Animal Kingdom along with others! I am going golfing this Sunday with my pops! It feels good to be alive. Life has a whole new meaning to me. Also, I have been on point with taking care of my diabetes. I feel a lot better now from that and quitting smoking. If you want to talk to me directly don’t hesitate to get in touch with me! Thank you from the people of Breakfast Hill as well as Ravers Only and all my VW friends who have helped out in my time of need. Speaking of VW’s, I am back in a dub again! A few friends pooled some moeny together and got me a car! I am so grateful for everything and everyone who has helped!

So here’s the update as I promised. Pete is doing great! Better than we could have hoped for. He’s been on point with his blood sugars, keeping up with his meds, eatting better (INCLUDING MORE VEGGIES), moving around, and staying as active as he can stand physically. He’s ventured out a little bit this week including a trip to the dragstrip with his dad. We’re just so happy with how far he’s come!
We went to the doctors today and the doctor took a look at the wound site and said it looked as good as a wound like this could look. They removed his drain and figured they would remove half of Pete’s stitches since he was there and healing so well. The only place there seems to be having a problem is a little spot on the bottom that hasn’t closed up yet. The doctor said it wasn’t too big of a deal and should close up on it’s own. We go back next week and hopefully get the rest out!
The only real thing i forsee being a problem is getting him to give up playing Halo and getting him back to work!!

So for those of you who have not heard, Pete is home! The doctors felt comfortable enough with the way the wound looked and his blood sugar levels that they said he could come home Monday afternoon.
So far, so good. He’s still pretty sore, weak and gets tired pretty easy but that’s normal. He’s been walking up and down stairs and he tried to help me pick up a little until i told him to stop and sit down.
He has to go back to the doctors next week for a check on the wound and they’ll probably take the drain out of his leg.
As far as his diabetes goes, he’s done awsome so far keeping on top of his numbers, taking his medicine and he’s done pretty good so far in changing his eating habits, he ate green beans for the first time in YEARS yesterday! For those of you who know him well, you know that’s HUGE for him.
I know it’s a little soon to get excited but i know he’s going to stick to it.

For everyone who didn’t know he was coming home, please don’t feel offended. We decided to keep it quiet so he could settle in and spend some time with the family, before getting bombarded with visits and phone calls.
I’ll update again after his appointments!

As always, thank you for all of your prayers and support.

So i know i’ve already posted an update today but after visiting the hospital, a few things have changed. Pete will not be coming home tomorrow. Instead they’re going to take their time and be extra cautious with his leg. The doctor told him they took a big risk in closing it all up at once and they didn’t want to have him leave too soon, get and infection and wind up right back there.
Better safe than sorry.
On another note, just to show how far Pete has come, the doctor said they contemplated talking to us about putting in a trach and a permanet feeding tube. Thank God and all of you and your prayers that we didn’t come to that.

Since the last time I posted Pete has made some GIANT steps in his road to recovery. He was moved from the ICU to a regular room, has been able to eat and hold liquids and has been up walking around on his own. He’s doing better than we could have hoped for. Yesterday he went back into surgery and had his wound closed up. With the great job the surgeons did on the first surgery and the amount of weight lost, they were able to stitch the huge wound together instead of doing tons of skin graphs. They removed the wound vac dressings and have a regular drain on his leg.
Last night when i talked to to him he had already been up and took two walks! He said it was a little painful but i’m just so happy he did it.
HOPEFULLY, he will be coming home tomorrow. He has requested he did his rehab up here so that we don’t have to keep driving the long, miserable drive to Boston. That’s all i have to report for now.
-Katie

I was going to wait and post this tomorrow but i’m still just so happy that i needed to share the news.

Pete made some huge steps on his road to recovery today. They removed the central line and replaced it with a regular IV, and they removed the breathing and feeding tubes from his mouth!
He had no problems keeping his oxygen up, he sat up in a chair, we had a conversation, it was a great afternoon! Not only did i get to talk to him but, Pete’s parents brought the girls up to see him. He just lit right up!!

I just want to thank everyone who has been helping us out. Not just financially but emotionally, and mentally. We wouldn’t have gotten this far without you. Please continue to keep us in you thoughts and prayers as we still have a long road ahead of us.

I also just want to send an extra special thank you out to one of the pastors from our church, Mark Fee. Thank you for your time and efforts today sucessfully saving me when my car died i was semi stranded and very lost in Boston.

First of all I really want to thank Kelly and Paul for doing this for us. It means more than they’ll ever know.

Most of you have been getting updates from me personally or from a forum of some kind but for those of you who haven’t i’ll recap a little of what’s been going on this week.

After surgery, the doctors wanted to keep Pete on the vent in case he needed to go back for surgery. It’s easier than trying to re insert the tube. By doing so, it caused some pneumonia and one of the lobes in his lungs weren’t expanding properly. The wound where the bacteria was removed looks great. There was a section in question but thus far has turned out to be nothing. Pete’s wound has been covered with a wound vac dressing to help shrink the wound and help with the healing process.

Over the past week, Pete’s parents and myself have been by his side while the nursing and medical staff at BIDMC have been trying to figure out why he keeps running a fever, why he can’t keep his stats up and if there is a possibility of another infection elsewhere. I just want to thank Pete and Linda for being there for me as well. 

Today, i think has been the best day i’ve had with him. Naturally with the kind of pain he’s been in they have been keeping him pretty sedated and medicated.  It’s been so hard seeing him like that but it was best for him.  Today he was less medicated, was being playful and overall in better spirits

The respitory and nursing team collaborated and tweaked the ventilator a bit which seemed to help him keep his stats up. Everything looks good numberwise and as long as he holds out through the night they are going to try and get him up and out of bed which will help with his breathing and the pneumonia.

Thank you to everyone who has kept Pete and our family in their thoughts and prayers. Our strength comes from you and will only help inspire him to work hard and get better.

Visitors..  It is with my deepest regrets that this website has come to be. Last night, I was alerted that Pete had fallen ill with a very serious infection that was threatening his life, and he had been admitted to the hospital. The first thing that came to mind was “how I could help”, and I wanted a place others could come to learn about his story, and find how they too could help in this desperate time of need.

With all do respects, I will let Katie, his loving wife, provide details as they are obtained.
I do urge you to contact me should you find any technical problems with the website, however in respect to their privacy, I would kindly ask that all other questions, comments, or notes be sent to Katie or Pete directly via the contact form.

My thoughts and love are with both you and your family Pete.
-Paul Hattlmann