Larry Pratt Larry Boy Pratt

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. You can use this to get an update on how LB is doing. Note that comments posted are public to those who can access the site.  If you wish to send a PRIVATE NOTE to Larry, please send a message to lrpratt101@gmail.com. Only Larry and immediate family can access that inbox.

In addition to the Journal section and the Gallery (purple buttons above), there is a "Well Wishes" section (below) for you to leave a message not connected to a Journal entry.

We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

The beginning of the story:

For the new year, we took the opportunity to visit our friends in New Mexico (BTW, in case you are not familiar, NM, is our 47th state, joining the union in 1912 and yes, not every medical staff asking one's whereabouts knows it's a state, much to our surprise.)

During our time there Larry experienced some itchiness, like head to toe, like on fire. To celebrate the new year, we had traveled together to Tucson for dinner, dancing and some sightseeing, so we attacked the itch with body scrubs and massages. How else better to calm it, while in the desert, in the winter, at a resort spa? By weeks end though the intensity grew and Larry awoke with jaundice skin. He was seen at the ER in Las Cruces to hopefully rule out gallstones or worse hepatitis, or so we thought. After realizing that more tests would be needed, we were cleared for discharge and flew home the next morning.  We repeated the experience at AAMC ER, and Larry was admitted for even more testing. We received unexpected news, Larry Boy has pancreatic cancer. With no evidence of metastasis, the treatment option is surgery.  Larry's neurologist is at Hopkins and when one has the choice of a top 10 (#9) medical system for adult cancer treatment, well he's bound for 401 N Broadway Street, Baltimore, surgery on February 7.

While meeting with specialists and getting one's general sh*t together, we've been telling the story to everyone through one means or another and many of you would like to help. Here’s where this Website may help. We’ll do our best to list our needs and plans. There will be many chapters to this unfolding story and many opportunities to connect along the way.  It is our hope that this site will help us stay connected throughout. And we thank you for all your thoughts, encouraging words, and prayers. Those are the most important and treasured.