Update from Professor Houston

The following is an email sent out by our professor to all the students on the trip:

Hello Everyone,
I must have composed some version of this note in my mind a dozen times over the past two weeks looking forward to the day when I could sit at a computer and send it to you. Well, today is that day, and I want to say to each of you and all of you “Thank You” in the most sincere way possible through an e-mail. I believe I am one of the most Blessed individuals on earth to be associated with a group of generous and thoughtful individuals such as you.
You certainly have a better recollection of the details that took place in Tirana than I do on 15 October. There are many thoughts that I believe represent what did nor did not happen, but the only things that are clear in my mind (other than the vomiting) are the needles and the endoscope… both extremely painful. Nevertheless, when woke up in the Intensive Care Unit in Munich, I knew neither what day it was not where I was. I later learned that it was Tuesday 18 October and I was at the Krankenhausen in Munich. I knew then that several angels must have taken me there and watched over me while I was out for two days.
The care at Munich was excellent! So much so that when I was leaving I told one of the doctors that “it is a shame to want to leave a place where people treat you so well.” The truth was, and they understood, I wanted to get back to more familiar faces and surrounding so that I could begin to heal.
So I left the Krankenhausen in Munich on Tuesday 25 October arriving home that evening. Since then, I am resting and healing at home, except when I’m not undergoing test at the Kaiser facility in Denver. In fact, I spend most of last Thursday there where every imaginable test must have been performed, some repeated from Munich for validation. The only mystery regarding the medical reports out of Tirana and Munich is that I have a “very nasty” would in the public area that was taped over, but not mentioned in any written reports. Outpatient surgery at Kaiser has treated it, taken a biopsy, and it should heal in a few weeks. Meanwhile, it just hurts, mainly because of location. My primary care doctor at Kaiser is trying to get answers
Well, this “Thank you” note has already gone on longer than I intended, so just one more thing. I know that some of you were more involved that others in assisting and keeping me alive. A special thanks you to each of you. I also know that it was the collective thoughts and prayers of all of you that made it possible for me to be at home this afternoon. So when all of you return, and the winter quarter gets underway, I would like to get all of us together again so that I can thank you individually and collectively. (Zani, I hope you can make it to Denver).
Until then, please enjoy the rest of this incredible journey you have been experiencing. Take good care of yourselves; I love and miss each of you.
Love always,

Professor Houston

P.S. I’m writing this note without my primary eyeglasses. If you have them, or know where they are, please take care of them and bring them home with you for me.