Greetings! 

As you know, Hank was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer 2.5 years ago.  He had been on hormones for a year to try and slow the spread of the cancer, but last December it was discovered that he had cancerous nodules in his lungs. As a result, he started on chemo and remains on the hormones. He has the chemo every three weeks. The week following the chemo is not good – mostly fatigue and no energy. Until recently, he would recover for two weeks and actually feel pretty good.

The chemo he had on April 16 was a different story. He developed an infection since his white blood counts dropped so much which put him in a very vulnerable position. He spent a couple of days in the hospital and was then sent home on a program called Kp@home. It was described to us as a program that allowed him to be home but was to be considered “still in the hospital”. Medical equipment and supplies were delivered to our place and medical people were in and out of the house throughout the day and evening. It was stressful but turned out to be a wonderful program.

Given this recent episode – our good friend Pam offered to set up a Caring Bridge.  This is a blog of sorts – where friends and family can sign on after receiving an invitation and this is a place to get updates etc.  We are so fortunate to have the support system we do and it means the world to us to have all of you offers to help.  The Caring Bridge can be used also for friends/family to sign up for things that might be helpful to us – ie meals, errands, transporting to medical appointments etc. Thank you Pam for managing this.  We are hoping the events of last week will be few and far between, but in the event that something like this happens again, it will be good to have this sight on board to keep people informed.

With much love and gratitude to all of you, we say thank you!

Gail and Hank