Cliff’s Story

Site created on August 4, 2019

Found out July 19th I'm a new member of the Big C Club. I was talking to Dwight, my old coxswain, he reminded me to call our other rowing buddy Paul Ramsey who just happens to be the CEO of UW Medical. UW called at 7:30 to tell me I had an appointment Monday at 10 with Dr Oelschlager. Paul said he might be the top esophageal cancer expert in the WORLD‼️ Amazing! He was in surgery all day but took a break to see me... 
Got all the the tests done and met with Dr Oelschlager, surgeon; Dr Shankaran who will administer chemo; and Dr Zeng, Radiologist. They laid out the plan... 
 Aug 13th Chemo every Tuesday, radiation 5 days a week. As I understand it will be tolerable for 2 to 3 weeks and then pretty brutal for the remainder of the 6 weeks. Recovery for 5 weeks building myself up for surgery Nov 5th. It will take a pretty big toll, in the hospital for 6 days! Cure rate with surgery better than 50%, don't like those odds but without surgery, 0%‼️
One good thing: It has not metastasized, the chemo and radiation is just to make sure the general area is clear of cancer cells so when they remove the esophagus (and part of my stomach) they hopefully get all the remaining cancer.
The other good thing; I get proton radiation at NW Hospital, the next nearest machine is in Southern California. They are the only 2 in the West. Anyway, the beams are much more focused and will not be as damaging to surrounding organs. It's a crowded area with lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, etc and they will come through a lot better.

Newest Update

SWEEP Magazine and Cliff at the Finish Line

Journal entry by Heidi Hurn —

Sharing the tribute for Cliff that was published in the latest issue of Washington Rowing's SWEEP Magazine. Huge thanks to our dear friend Dwight Phillips who put this together. (page 10)

https://washingtonrowing.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/UW_WA-Rowing_SWEEP-Fall-2020-SinglePages-1.pdf 

Many of you have asked about Cliff's celebration of life and we are looking forward to getting everyone together once it is safe to do so, which will likely be next summer. Our family was able to have a small celebration for Cliff in August, spending the day on Lake Washington in a little Husky electric boat. We spread Cliff's ashes across the UW finish line in the Montlake Cut, and Erika's boyfriend, Matt, put together a wonderful video to remember that day: https://vimeo.com/453793489 />
Thank you for your continued love and support,

The Hurn Family

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