Here is a link to Eric's online Memorial
http://marksfuneralservice.com/resources/Eric+John+Hatch.pdf

As a guest blogger today it is my sad task to tell you that Eric lost his battle with cancer this morning. He passed peacefully but the loss is all consuming at the moment.
We will have funeral services Friday October 1st @ the Johnstown Church Building. 3435 Brunner Blvd, Johnstown, CO. The viewing will be @ 9 am with the services @ 10 am.
Eric I Love You
Monica Hatch

what's next

They let me out of the hospital last Thursday. But this morning I woke up again and I just couldn’t catch my breath. The cancer is spreading very quickly. The doctor told me to prepare for the end and so we are. They want me to talk to one more doctor in Denver to see if there would be any hope left for a new treatment but the chance of this would be slim. I have contacted my family and they are heading out to say their goodbyes. This last growth of cancer has been so fast. We had a talk with the kids about what happens next and explained things as much as we can. Please keep them in your prayers as they are going to have a hard time in the near future. -Eric

home from the hospital

They let me out of the hospital. We are grateful to be home from the hospital today. I actually feel better here at home, probably due to the bed and good night’s sleep. The problem is they sent me home with a high OX requirement (8-9mL). This is not a problem in the house since I have an OX concentrator and a long tube. But leaving the house is very difficult as I burn through a large OX tank in less than one hour. I am basically home bound. So unless the chemotherapy drugs shrink the cancer in my right lung and remove the shortness of breath, I am stuck here. -Eric

update from eric

I don’t like hospitals. Between the constant visits from the nurses, constant trips to the bathroom, my body pains, the shortness of breath, and the horrible bed, I have not been sleeping well. It all makes me a bit grumpy. Unfortunately Monica, and the nurses take the brunt of my grumpiness. Once I received my medications and started feeling better, I had to make some apologies. The last week or so has been a big waiting game, they have been hammering me with antibiotics and performing tests to determine what it is in my right lung that is causing me pain and shortness of breath. The initial thought was that it was an infection or pneumonia. My doctor scheduled an Echocardiogram check the heart, and a Bronchoscopy to get samples from the lung. They determined that I was a little anemic so I received a transfusion of blood. The shortness of breath continues. This worries me the most, as it is a very uncomfortable feeling when you cannot catch your breath. I am on constant oxygen at high levels at this point . The Echocardiogram to look for Pericardial effusion (fluids around the lungs) and Congestive heart failure returned normal results. They Bronchoscopy results did not show signs of infection or pneumonia as was hoped or expected. They believe that the pain, the degradation in the right lung, and increase in shortness of breath is due to rapidly growing cancer in the right lung. This is not good news. Options at this point are:
Continue current chemotherapy treatments. The current treatment does not appear to be working. So I don’t consider this an option.
Experimental chemotherapy drugs. This is something that we can consider and we will look into these to determine if there is anything promising out there that might help.
Stop treatments altogether. It seems to me that you are just giving up at this point. So I don’t consider this an option.
Try a new treatment drug. Tarceva (a chemotherapy drug) has been identified as the next chemotherapy option that we will pursue. This is a daily pill, with the usual chemotherapy side effects.
Right now we need to figure out how to get me home from the hospital. I can’t leave until they can take me off the IV antibiotics, and get me to an acceptable oxygen supply level. Right now I am maxed out on my oxygen supply. It may take a few more days to get me out of here.

-Eric

latest

Hey all,

I know there has been some information trickling through, I have not had a chance to send out an update, so here it goes:
Late Monday night I started to experience sever pain my lower right side just below my ribs, along with sever shortness of breath. I woke up Monica and we decided to call the on-call doctor. He told me it sounded like it could be a blood clot and that we should head to the hospital. I was very weak, and unstable on my feet it was unclear if I could make it down the stairs and to the car under my own power. We considered calling an ambulance. After some time I did make it downstairs into the car, and we arrived at the hospital about 1AM early Tuesday morning.
I immediately started throwing up we when got to the ER, good thing it wasn’t in the car.
I had my oxygen tank with me but it goes up to 5mL. At the ER they saw the shortness of breath, and low oxygen levels, and immediately put me on a high volume oxygen pump to get my OX levels back up. They gave me some pain medication and I started to feel better.
They took some blood and a CT scan. The CT scan results showed that my right lung was full of something. The question was whether it is infection or pneumonia? After getting me checked into a room, they immediately started me on a number of different antibiotics. It was determined that I was Anemic so I was given a blood transfusion. Tests were run on blood, and on my Gallbladder. No results yet on these tests.
Right now I am very tired, weak, and my I am still on a lot of oxygen due to shortness of breath.
The doctor told me that I could be in the hospital for 5-10 days. I did not know if I should punch him, or cry due to my last stay in the hospital. I bit my lip and did neither.
The success or failure of the antibiotics will determine what it is that I have. Success of the antibiotics would suggest massive infection. Otherwise it is likely pneumonia. If I don’t start to feel better a Bronchoscopy would be required to take a sample from my lungs and determine exactly what is in there. There however is a lot of risk associated with doing this so we don’t want to go there unless we have to.
The kids and Monica are doing well. We have some good friends and neighbors that are helping us get the kids to and from school and activities so that Monica can spend as much time as she wants at the Hospital.

-Eric

Sorry about the delay

I haven’t sent out an update in a while, there’s been a lot going on so let’s see if I can get you caught up. After starting the new Chemotherapy drugs I experienced some significant fatigue and weakness. My oncologist was concerned about my fatigue and general history of infection, so he scheduled a number of tests just to make sure that something new had not popped up. My scheduled chemotherapy treatment was canceled because my CBC (blood count) levels were very low. A blood culture was taken to check for infection and both CT and MRI scans were scheduled. Follow up CBC checks showed that my CBC levels had bounced back, so no significant concerns here, this can happen easily with cancer patients undergoing treatments, particularly with those starting new chemotherapy drugs. The blood culture tests came back clean, showing no signs of infection. The CT scan showed possible fluids around the lungs and the heart. The immediate concern was fluids around the heart since this could over-stress the heart and cause other problems. An electro-cardio-gram was scheduled. It took a few days to get the test scheduled and performed which caused some stress on our side. In the end the test came by normal so no fluids were found around the heart. Two MRI’s were scheduled. One of the head to check progress of the tumors on my brain, and the other to check the check progress of the tumor in my back. The MRI of the head showed so some actual shrinkage of the tumors on the brain, so that is good news. The MRI of the back showed NO shrinkage of the back tumor. This is bad news since that is what the recent radiation treatments were supposed to take care of. If the tumor in the back remains then pressure on the nerve in my back would also remain and continue to affect the function of my right leg. This makes me wonder if the Physical Therapy I am undergoing will have any impact at all given that the tumor is still there and the nerve is still being impacted. We cannot do any more radiation in this area, since I was given the maximum dose allowable. Two options exist here. Back surgery to try and remove the tumor, or hope that the chemotherapy will reduce/remove the tumor in my back. Surgery is not the preferably option, as it is very invasive, has long recovery times, and no guarantees that it will work. I have not heard good things about back surgery. Surgery is not an option that we are seriously considering right now. We are hoping the chemotherapy will deliver the results we need by reducing/removing the tumor in my back and helping to restore the function of my right leg and ability to walk. The CT scan also showed growth of the cancer in my right lung (the “good” lung). The left lung has been severely compromised and is generally considered non functioning, so seeing the degradation of the right lung is NOT good news. The growth of the cancer in the right lung has caused a significant increase in shortness of breath, and degradation in my ability to breathe on my own. I am on oxygen 24/7 at this point. There is a significant increase in my general fatigue due the chemotherapy, continued recovery from the radiation therapy, and degradation of the right lung. I get severely winded just walking from the bathroom to the bed. While walking up and down stairs is already very difficult due to the this issues with my leg, it is a huge chore now when adding the additional shortness of breath from the degradation in my right lung. We have also been referred to a specialist in Denver to look at the possibility of trying some trial chemotherapy drugs, we’ll be visiting with this specialist in the next week or two to look at the options. So at this point chemotherapy is our only hope in solving the host issues that I am experiencing. Taking all these things into consideration, the situation sucks, but we have not lost hope and will continue to fight this. - Eric