Jerry Griffith Jerry Griffith99

I noticed a difference in Jerry over Christmas - he loves playing complicated board games with his kids, and he could not focus or have fun with  us. He types alot at work and he began to lose the sensation at the fingertips on his left hand & up his left arm.  Next I noticed that he was hugging the center of the road when we were driving someplace. Thinking back, I remember him coming home with a headache and mentioning that he was having a hard time focusing. We went to the doctor who thought the arm pain was carpal tunnel and he might be suffering from depression - this was the first year without his Dad being with us, so this made some sense.  We went to an UNI basketball game the next night and Jerry kept running into people on his left side and the noise of the game was very bothersome to him. The next day we went back to the doctor and had an MRI. The MRI was read and we were sent to Iowa City Hospitals where Dr. Matthew Howard sent us into surgery the following Wednesday, January 31, 2018. Jerry has glimoblastoma multiforme - a very fast growing and deadly brain cancer. The surgeons removed a large mass about the size of a baseball from the right part of his brain, right behind his right ear - that was only 67% of the tumor. He has temporarily lost some of the use of his left arm and leg - with physical therapy this should come back - but teaching nerves is time consuming. We begin radiation and chemo March 1st. That is Jerry's cancer story , but a better story is that Jerry is my awesome husband of almost 36 years.  He is the wonderful dad to 3 great kids - Ian , Zachary and Olivia and daughter-in-law Chelsea and soon to be daughter-in-law , Whitney (June 23). He has purple panther blood - as he played football for the University of Northern Iowa 1978,79,80 & 81 - defensive end #99. He graduated from UNI with a BA in business management and later from Drake with his MBA. He has worked for John Deere for 37 years and is currently a marketing manager at the JD Waterloo Works, a job he loves. He is a proud Hudson Pirate parent and served on the school board for 11 years. We live on an acreage were he likes to garden and mow the lawn with his JD mowers. We are blessed to have the best family and friends in the world!