December 1, 2007

This is Benjamin Young writing on behalf of Art. I am not the superb word crafter that my father is, so I apologize before hand. He really wanted to type this to you himself, but it is not a possibility. So here is the latest.

Art went to the ER at Southwest Washington Medical Center Friday November 30th. He was having trouble with low energy and shortness of breath. They took a new CAT scan of his chest to see how the masses in his lungs were affecting his breathing. The ER doctor said that as far as he could tell there was nothing new in the scan, but because Art did not have the energy to get up and walk around they admitted him to the Kaiser Sunnyside hospital in room 111.

The doctors at Sunnyside reviewed the new CAT scan against the scan done before the biopsy. The main mass in his lungs was around .75 inches in the first scan, while the scan taken a few days later showed the main mass was around 3.5 inches as well as several new masses on the other lung. This confirms that it is fast growing sarcoma and he does not have more than a few days to live.

He is currently on the highest subsidy of oxygen available. He was in a lot of pain although now the medications seem to be keeping the pain under good control. He is lucid when he is awake, but the pain medicine seems to keep him between sleeping and waking a lot.

If any of you would like to visit, please call either me at 360-609-5179 or Marcus at 360-607-4714 before hand. We have a very small room and are trying to schedule out the different visitors so they are not all coming at the same time. Please refrain from asking Barbara questions about Art’s health as it is difficult for her to continue repeating the information. My brother and I will try to answer calls as best as we can.

I want to thank you all for the support and prayers that you have provided for Art as well as our family through this difficult time. If you could continue praying for us we would really appreciate it. It will be difficult for our family to say goodbye to such an amazing man. He is a great husband, father, and friend.

It is about now that my father would start saying,

You should cheer up, this goodbye is not forever. You are all just jealous because I am going to get to heaven before you. But don’t worry; someday I will get to see you again.
~ Art Young

Written by: Ben Young