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Bradley’s Story

Site created on August 21, 2020

[Revised March 26, 2021] Welcome to our CaringBridge website. It's Bradley's Story, but guess who will be doing the writing!? I am Rex, Brad's “other half.” For reasons you will understand shortly, Brad won't be providing the updates himself, but when possible he will edit and approve what is being written about him.

Quick background: over the July 4th weekend (2020) we had houseguests, our very good friends Greg and John from Portland, Oregon. While in the swimming pool Greg, a physician, noticed that Brad's skin and eyes were yellow. He advised us to have this checked immediately, which we did. Fast forward: two weeks later, he was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of pancreatic cancer – cholanglocarcinoma. After extensive lab tests, CT scans, an MRI, a tri-phase CT scan and a PET scan, Brad was referred to a surgeon specializing in something called the "Whipple procedure," which is widely believed to be the best (only?) way to survive this type of cancer. You can Google the name to find out everything you ever wanted to know about what Brad is facing. On September 8 he was in the midst of an 8-hour surgery during which they planned to remove the head of the pancreas, the first part of the small intestine, the gallbladder and the bile duct. Because of COVID I wasn’t allowed in the hospital and had to wait instead in my car in the parking lot. A few hours in, my phone rang it was the surgeon — telling me Brad was currently on the operating table but they had determined the surgery was no longer plausible and they were about to sew him back up. As you can imagine, my heart sank. As I update this entry, some six months later, I will tell you that, all things considered, Brad is doing quite well. He goes to chemotherapy one day a week and has had minimal side effects. Six months ago we were told that he would have a “year or so” life-expectancy which of course I did not accept and apparently neither did Brad! He continues to ride his bike several days a week and we are making plans to take a trip to Norway this summer.

That’s not to say this is easy. It isn’t. And one of the big challenges is keeping our friends and loved ones fully informed and up-to-date. We chose this website as a way to do that, because it seems the most efficient way to keep people informed. We hope you'll visit often so you'll know what's happening and so you can keep those positive thoughts and prayers coming our way. I know that Brad appreciates your support and words of encouragement, so don't be shy about using the guestbook. We thank you for your love and friendship.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Elisabeth Cutrer — Mar 20, 2024

Dearest Friends and Family of Rex and Brad--

We are still processing the wonderful moments and encouraging words we received at the Celebration of Life on Monday. I am truly grateful for every hug, every kind word spoken, every memory written down, every expression of grief and love poured out from all of you in person and from the virtual guest book. Thank you all for taking the time and making the effort to express to us your love for my dad and Brad. They lived amazing, rich lives and yet they are gone too soon and we are still missing them every day. We feel so incredibly loved by all of you in the many ways you showed up for us over the past several months to express your condolences and share all of your funny and poignant memories of Rex and Brad. THANK YOU for loving them and for loving on us so well! If you were not able to make it in person or "tune in" live on Monday, below is a recording of the Celebration as well as a link for the slideshow we showed. [Please note that we had some frustrating wifi issues (possibly due to the storm in the area), and the video cut out a couple of different times, so some of the sweet words did not get recorded and we are terribly sad about it.]
Celebration of Life March 18th
BREX Slideshow

Read More of the journal titled "Links for the livestream and slideshow"

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