I apologize to everyone that follows Jeffrey on this site as I haven’t posted any updates for a while.  Just to bring everyone up to speed, Jeff received the results from his CT scan on Monday, February 28^th post the Chemo and Radiation treatments.  The good news was that the cancer was gone in his head and neck area but the bad news was that the cancer had spread to the lungs and bones.  Jeff was given 1-2 years to live.  The plan was to get a bone biopsy to confirm what was seen on the CT scan and then start immunotherapy treatment asap.  

The following Saturday, March 4^th, Jeff was having trouble breathing and by Monday, March 6^th,  Oncology sent him to the hospital thinking he had walking pneumonia. In the hospital, they determined that he had anemia and an infection, they said he was septic.  They were treating him with antibiotics, blood, and platelet transfusions. Jeff had many tests done between the time he arrived at the hospital and the time he passed. The tests didn’t determine much except for the CT scan he had when he came in to the hospital, it showed the cancer was now on the liver.  Initially they thought that everything Jeff was experiencing was attributed to the infection and not cancer. As time moved on their conclusion changed and realized it was indeed due to the cancer, the bone biopsy that he had on March 15th confirmed that.

Before we received this news, Aaron and I had flown to Knoxville, TN to watch Alivia swim at NCAAs (her last meet as a Senior). We were able to see her swim the 500 Free on Thursday and received the news later in the afternoon. It was decided that we needed to leave the meet and get home asap.  This is not an easy task when you’re in Knoxville and had planned to fly out of Nashville.

We made it back and got to the hospital by 3pm on Friday. We were fortunate to have Jeff’s brother Randy at the hospital from Wednesday to Friday.  When we got to the hospital, Jeff’s team held a meeting with us and told us that there was nothing more that could be done and they wanted to start setting him up for Hospice care, removing the current treatments that they were conducting with the goal to keep him comfortable.  It wasn’t long before Jeff’s body started shutting down and he passed at 8pm on Friday, March 18^th. 

Jeff has gone through a lot over the last 27 years, and I hope he is now out of pain and in peace. Alivia, Aaron, and I would like to thank everyone who diligently checked in on him.  I know that Jeff appreciated the cards, the calls, the text and the visits even though half the time he probably wasn’t up to it. And of course we really appreciate his brother Randy who took Jeff to almost every appointment allowing me to continue to work.  It was a lot of driving for Randy, and he lost many of his weekdays…it was very much appreciated.  I know that Jeff liked spending time with Randy and was comforted by his presence during this time.

Jeff’s Celebration of Life will be held on Friday. March 24^th at the Oakwood Funeral Home in Maplewood. There will be a visitation from 3-6pm with the ceremony to follow.