[SEL] Glenn Karch update

[Keith Kinney]

Hello all.

I talked to Glenn's wife, Marian, today to see how they were doing.   
She said it would be OK to update you all on his health.

To  bring you up to date on what has been going on.  The first Glenn  
knew he had a problem was the first week of October.  On a Wednesday  
or Thursday morning Glenn and Marian were packing the car to travel to  
the Cotton Ginning Days show in Gastonia, NC.  Things were going fine  
when he approached Marian unable to speak understandably.  He knew  
what he wanted to say but couldn't get the words out.  He finally got  
a pencil and paper and wrote a note for Marian to call an ambulance.   
We were going to Cotton Ginning Days too and got a call from their son  
saying that they wouldn't be able to attend the show as his dad was in  
the hospital with a suspected stroke.  Over the next week or two it  
was determined that it was probably not a stroke as they had found 3  
lesions in his brain.  His speech returned to normal after a few days  
and he appeared to be in pretty good health until a month or two ago  
when he lost his appetite, had little energy, and had trouble  
concentrating.  He went through a long round of chemo and radiation  
treatments which ended about a month ago which hopefully are the cause  
of his symptoms.

The good news is that the MRI he had a couple of weeks ago showed that  
the tumors have not grown since the previous MRI which had been done  
before his round of chemo and radiation treatments.

Glenn seems to be doing a little better the last few days being more  
mobile, watching some TV and having a better appetite.  He started a  
new round of chemo this week.  It is a 6 month treatment where he  
takes a chemo pill everyday for a week then none for 3 weeks then  
pills for another week, etc.

One reason he has not been one the list for a while is that either the  
tumors or the treatments has affected his eye site and it is difficult  
for him to read the screen, newspaper, etc.   Today he had an eye  
doctors appointment and they found that his eye sight has changed and  
they have ordered him some new glasses which hopefully will help this  
problem.

Marian said he is board from being confined to the house but doesn't  
fill well enough to go out to the shop.

Hopefully this will bring everyone up to speed on what's going on with  
Glenn.  I plan to print off some of the messages that have been posted  
here and share with Glenn when I  visit in a few days.  Keep the  
prayers coming .

Keith
>

Keith Kinney
kkinney at herculesengines.com
WWW.HerculesEngines.com