Welcome to Eric’s CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated through this hard time. We appreciate your support and words of hope during this time when it matters most.
I’m Natalie, Eric’s ex-wife, and Taylor’s mother. I am remarried to my husband of 4 years, Bobby, and I have three beautiful boys; Tucker, Taylor, and Tripp. On September 1, 2017, I made a promise to Eric and Taylor, that I would be on every step of this cancer journey with them. Not only did I promise, but my entire family did. Eric is my best friend, Bobby’s brother from another mother, Taylor’s Daddy, Tucker’s first influence, and Tripp’s hero. To sum it up Eric is our family; there was no thought about our commitment to be here with him, It’s merely what family does.
Follow along Eric’s fight to live.
Eric was born with an underdeveloped bladder and complete ureteral blockage. Eric’s condition was found at two month’s of age, and his first surgery was performed immediately to place ureteral stents.
At two years old he had the stents removed and a urostomy performed. At age five he had a nephrectomy to remove one kidney that wasn’t functioning at all which left one kidney that was still partially functioning. Eric faced many challenges over the years, but on November 2, 2004, Eric’s cousin Jennifer gave him the gift of life, the give of a donated kidney. Eric’s medical life since the transplant was inherently noneventful up until recently. On Saturday, August 26th Eric went to the ER for what he thought was a kidney infection but turns out it was so much more. They performed a scan and told him they had found a mass and that he should follow up with his doctor on Monday. Monday, August 28th came, and he was at Vanderbilt that morning, after a long day of test and scans they gave him the news that he wouldn’t be leaving. The mass that the ER had found was causing urine to back up into the kidney and his creatinine level to rise. Wednesday, August 30th, Eric’s team of doctors decided that they had to do a biopsy. Friday, September 1st Eric was given the news that it was in fact cancer. Saturday, September 2nd they were able to get the kidney function to a level where they felt comfortable to send him home while a team of doctors tries to form a plan because Eric’s condition and circumstances are so rare. He was diagnosed with Adenocarcinoma of the small intestine. Eric received chemotherapy (FOLFOX) every two weeks for 12 treatments. Eric had surgery to remove the tumor on March 19, 2018, recovery was not an easy road. On April 4th Eric made his second trip back to the hospital since the surgery, due to complications, and found out his cancer had metastasized to the liver. At that time the main focus was recovering from the surgery, and repeat the scans at a later date. When the scans were repeated, we learned the cancer was so extensive that the prognosis was poor with or without chemotherapy. Eric said from that day his choice was quality over quantity but wanted to try the treatments. Eric faced some obstacles that landed him back in the hospital before his first treatment, at the time of the first treatment he just wasn’t able to go through it. On Friday, June 15, 2018, Eric was admitted to the care of Hospice of Cumberland County. Eric continues to fight every single day; his strength amazes me. Please continue to pray for Eric, our son Taylor, and the rest of Eric’s friends and family. We are forever grateful for the power of prayer and would like to thank you all so much for the love, support, and prayers along this journey.
Thank you all for the love and support for our family, our Eric went to be with the Lord on July 2, 2018. Please keep Taylor and the rest of our family in your prayers.
Eric doesn’t want us to mourn, he wants us to celebrate!
We will be celebrating Eric’s beautiful life 7/21/2018 at 2 pm, the celebration will be at Trinity Assembly in Algood, TN.
Eric’s main request is NO BLACK!
Please send any photos or wonderful stories to gumbystrong931@gmail.com for us to use at the celebration. Thank you all.
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