Big A

Aaron Vere Thatcher, 44, passed away surrounded by his family at the Ogden Regional Hospital on Tuesday December 18, 2018, after a courageous, four-year battle with lung cancer. With Sweet Lorraine by his side, Aaron faced cancer just like he faced everything else in his life-with courage, optimism, rock-solid faith, and dignity, with gratitude and love for all those on his team fighting for him .    Aaron was born in Logan, UT on May 18, 1974 to David Kendrick Thatcher and Kathleen Johnson Thatcher, and grew up first in Wanship, UT, then Providence, and later on a hilltop in Paradise. He was the second of thirteen children. "Big A" grew up playing sports and would become well known for his accomplishments in athletics, but was loved for his kindness, humility, and thoughtfulness. He was known more for his kind heart than for his strong arm. As a disciple of Jesus Christ, Aaron dedicated his life to lifting others, deflecting attention from himself.  ...

Written by Aaron's Mom and siblings: To all who have loved Aaron throughout his life, we want to let you know that he passed away yesterday, December 18, 2018 in the hospital, surrounded by his family. Sunday night, Aaron took a turn for the worse and was taken to the hospital. We were hopeful that he could regain his strength and come home, but it wasn't to be. Yesterday he interacted lovingly with friends, church leaders, siblings, his Sweet Lorraine, and his children. In true Aaron fashion, and with great effort, he spoke to each person, looking in their eyes, calling them by name or nickname, expressing his love and gratitude in a personal manner to each one.  We wish that all of you who love him could have been there with us yesterday to witness his finest hour. He was the Aaron Thatcher we all love to the last moment, and there was an incredible outpouring from his wonderful soul. Each  felt personally loved and remembered by him. In his suffering, he tutored us ...

Is seems like we just figured out how to control Aaron's nausea and were getting him to gain weight when a wicked rash showed up and with it extreme pain. It is a side effect of one of the new drugs. We knew of this side effect, but didn't know how extreme it would become. He had me try multiple creams and ointments to control it and maybe that contributed to it getting out of control. Treating the rash consists of him sleeping his days away while the skin heals and also holding off on the new drug until the rash is under control. I requested to have IV fluids at home so he doesn't dehydrate. Eating is another worry AND getting all the layers of cream we slathered on is an additional worry. I work on wiping the layers away to get down to the raw, red skin. Cancer just isn't pretty. He does not complain and is thoughtful even in his extremities. It was our daughter's birthday this week and I went to check on Aaron and in his hand was a ten dollar bill he had got...

Radiation is completed and a month behind us. Aaron described it as the worst treatment yet. It has caused him to lose his hair and makes his head feel like it has a bad sunburn. He had such terrible balance during radiation that caused him to fall on occasion. It was all around a bad time and was compounded by the fact that our three kids with cf spent 3 weeks in the hospital during the 15 days Aaron did radiation. To qualify for the huntsman drug trial Aaron would have to go through a 30 day wash out period where he would received no treatment of any kind. We didn't feel like we could wait a month after radiation to qualify. Aaron was in bad shape and we couldn't see how he could go a month with no treatment in the condition he was in. He seemed to have hit an all time low in this cancer fight. Aaron's brother, Jeff, seems to never sleep and has an an incredible capacity to research and assimilate all that research in Aaron's behalf. He found a treatment tha...

Our dear friends, the Janet Alder family, are doing a fundraiser for Aaron and Lorraine on Halloween. If you live near to Millville, please stop by and enjoy some of Janet's famous spudnuts. http://www.cachevalleydaily.com/news/archive/2018/10/26/millville-family-offering-halloween-spudnuts/#.W9U7FaeZNX8

Aaron's radiation mask. Just in time for Halloween:) Aaron's MRI showed too much cancer progression in his brain and now if he wants to qualify for the Huntsman drug trial he has to do whole brain radiation. This is something he has tried to avoid from the beginning because of the effect it can have on a person's cognitive abilities, but we really don't have many choices at this point so on to radiation it is. He begins today and will have a radiation session every day for 15 days with weekends off. He will receive lower doses of radiation to the whole brain in order to kill the cancer we cannot see and he will receive higher doses of radiation that will be targeted at actual lesions in the brain that can be seen on the mri.  We hope this treatment style will reduce memory problems often associated with whole brain radiation. The actual type of radiation treatment is called tomotherapy and one of the nice things about it is that it avoids the hippocampus, the...

An eye exam is required to get into this drug trial. Aaron wasn't able to begin the new treatment last week because he needs an MRI and that MRI got scheduled the end of this week and then we had a blessing that got that appointment moved up to tomorrow. I am a little nervous about this MRI because a lot of drug trials are picky about cancer activity in the brain. The drug trial he did two years ago kicked him out when they saw a spot on his brain. Aaron's cancer has moved to the brain, we saw this on the last MRI, but this drug trial will compare tomorrow's MRI with the one he had the end of July and if the cancer seems stable we can go ahead with the treatment this Thursday. The past few weeks have been a good reminder to me to practice " being still ". Other then that I think we have all the other tests completed to qualify.

Thank you for your prayers and fasting and words of love and encouragement. We have most definitely felt the power of your faith. Aaron doesn't have the genetic marker we were most hoping for (MET) but he does have the marker that qualifies him for the drug trial at Huntsman. We are grateful he has an option besides chemo. Aaron will be the only person in Utah in the drug trial and the doctor is really excited about it. In the Petri dish, in mice, and in theory this treatment works, but the real test will be if it works in Aaron. We are about finished with all the requirements to get into the study (scans, eye exam, blood tests, etc) and he will begin this Thursday. He does have to have another lung biopsy shortly after he begins and then again at the end when he shows signs of progression on the drug. My hope is this drug will work and work long enough for there to be another good option besides chemo. Maybe in the meantime Aaron will develop MET (because it is an acquired genet...

This is Aaron's sister Alison posting. Last week on Tuesday morning, Aaron had a lung biopsy done.  Like his previous biopsy, this one also resulted in a collapsed lung. He was in quite a bit of pain that day and through the night. On Wednesday his lung was able to seal itself, and he was able to come home Wednesday night. Aaron deals with his pain such a quiet way. He doesn't complain, he just bears it. And I don't know how, but he manages to think of others when he's suffering himself. I'm sure I don't need to tell you all how remarkable he is! There's no one quite like Aaron. Lorraine texted the family today with a request that we pray and fast for Aaron. We felt that there would be many people out there who would like to join with us, so we'd like to share the invitation to all who would like to join in a special fast for Aaron this weekend.  Here is part of Lorraine's text: "I don't know for certain what to ask everyone to pr...

Aaron had his first scans since starting the immunotherapy drug Keytruda. The results aren't good. There has been a definite increase in tumor size and quantity. The report says there are innumerable tumors in the lungs as opposed to the couple that we have been watching. It's also in the bones and lymph nodes. He didn't have an MRI and so we don't know what the cancer looks like in his brain. Most likely there is more there too. This report is surprising to us because Aaron has been feeling better these days. We are hopeful he can get a needle biopsy this week and praying it doesn't collapse his lung like it did after the last biopsy. Drug trials are our only option at this time, and we can't really move on any trials because they all require a washout period (usually 4 weeks) and this biopsy, which can take up to three weeks to get the results. We hope to have the drug trials researched and one chosen so when the results are in we can move quickly into a new...

June 9th at Aaron's youngest sister's wedding. It seems like things keep changing faster than I can keep up. Aaron started a new chemo, Gemzar, in April, but after two months of it, scans showed there was definite cancer progression in his lungs. He then completed the four week washout period (a specified amount of time you have to be off all cancer treatment drugs in order to qualify for certain drug trials) and then decided that instead of a drug trial consisting of two immunotherapy drugs combined, he would stick with the one immunotherapy drug, Keytruda ( Pembrolizumab ) that is as simple as going to the dr. office and running it through his port. The drug trial required a total of three needle biopsies over the course of his treatment. His biopsy,about two years ago, was painful and went from an outpatient procedure to a week-long stay at Huntsman Cancer Center. Drug trials also require a lot more dr. visits and tests, and in the case of the Huntsman drug trial a lot m...

Aaron face times with his parents (they are serving a one year mission at the  New Zealand MTC)  about his options for his next treatment. Aaron has consulted with five oncologists and the good news is he still has multiple options. He can choose between two chemos from different families than he has used before and three drug trials. We have a few concerns about the drug trials. First, they all require a needle biopsy and the last one Aaron had caused his lung to collapse and landed him in the hospital for a week. Second, he doesn't have a tumor large enough to get a good sample. Third, we would have to potentially wait for two weeks for results of the biopsy and another week before starting a drug trial. Since Aaron has not received any treatment for his cancer for nearly two months he has opted to do another chemo. He will start next week. We are hoping this chemo will help him feel well enough to do a needle biopsy and lay the groundwork for doing a drug trial (we w...

MRI a.k.a.Aaron as a Storm Trooper  Aaron had his scans on Wednesday and the results are not what we thought. I guess that "knocking on wood" business doesn't really work. Aaron met with two of his oncologists yesterday to discuss his scans and his next treatment.  In the brain, there is a spot that indicates a small stroke. The kidneys appear to be stressed from the chemo and some cancerous nodules in the lungs appear to have increased in size. It has been 5 weeks since Aaron has had any treatment and my simple way of seeing things says to just go back to what he was doing and this will resolve (I would suggest taking out the most toxic of the two chemos), but his doctors don't agree. Aaron will fly to Colorado this week to discuss his options with his dr there. If there is a promising drug trial Aaron should be able to start immediately as all drug trials require a "wash out" period of three weeks (meaning treatment-free for at least three weeks)....

Aaron had a rough three weeks. Besides heavy fatigue, he also couldn't get his nausea under control. He says he would rather be tired than nauseous all the time. I had to take him in to get fluids last week because he became dehydrated. Due to these symptoms and the fact that his white blood count and platelets are low AND he now has two blown veins, he is going to take a week off chemo and see where his numbers are next week. His blown veins also mean it is time for a port. We probably should have gotten one placed months ago. Live and learn I guess. He has scans next week including an MRI. Because his oxygen saturation # is good and he doesn't have any breathing difficulty, I am going to guess his scans will look fine. I should probably go knock on some wood just in case:). Aaron has such beautiful veins it makes me sad to see these two main ones lost.

I'd like to point out two things from this photo. One, Aaron is sleeping while sitting up. Two, he has fallen asleep while in the middle of texting someone. If ever you receive a text from him full of nonsense, you will know why. His white count is pretty low and that makes for one tired Big A. Something this picture doesn't show is that he still gets out of bed and goes to work each day. It doesn't show what all is requited of him each day in order to preserve his life. And through it all he is still pleasant and full of hope and optimism. I wish he didn't have to go through this cancer, but  Gandolf had something to say about such sentiments: "so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."  Fitting advice.

Aaron's scans from December 27th look good. Good, meaning there is evidence of cancer, but it hasn't grown since the last scans. The cancer appears to be quiet right now. He won't scan again for six weeks and that means at least two to four more rounds of chemo before we would potentially have to switch to a new treatment. It is a nice way for us to end 2017 and ring in the new year!