James Louthan was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer on July 30th, 2024.

James began Phase 1 part of his treatment on Thursday, September 5th, 2024, which also happened to be the girls' first day of high school. This treatment included five days a week of 10-15 minute radiation sessions at at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center at Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland and daily chemotherapy pills. In total, the chemo pills and radiation occured for 6 1/2 weeks. He experienced a lot of discomfort and fatigue and lost his drive to focus on his work during these several weeks.

Following the radiation, he took a 4-week break and then began Phase 2, IV chemotherapy in November of 2024. He went through 4 months of chemotherapy. Each appointment occurring every two weeks and lasting approximately 3 hours at the hosptial. He was sent home with a chemo pump for 48 hours. On day 3, he returned to the hospital to remove the chemo pump, and he recovered for the remainder of the 2-week cycle. James experienced extreme fatigue, nausea, neuropathy (numbness and tingling), and cold sensitivity during the phase 2 of chemotherapy. He continued to lose his drive and motivation for doing much with his work during this time.

James finished chemotherapy at the end of February 2025 and took 4 weeks off to recover. He had an MRI and another colonoscopy that showed that there was still some cancer remaining. So the next step was surgery. This would be Phase 3 of the cancer journey.

On May 5th, 2025, James endured an almost 5-hour surgery to remove the rectum and part of his colon. In addition, they did an ileostomy, in which he'll wear an ostomy bag for 3 months. He stayed in the hospital for 4 nights, 5 days where they were able to keep a close eye on his incisions and his recovery. The surgery, his first week at the hospital, and the following week at home recovering were by far the hardest weeks throughout this entire experience but he has been exponentially recovering with each day. He's getting a little more energy every day.

James continues to struggle with neuropathy of the feet and hands and unfortunately, it has progressively gotten worse since the chemotherapy ended. The oncologist say it may continue to get worse before it gets better in a year or so.

In August of 2025, James will have a second surgery to reverse the ileostomy. He'll be in the hospital for 2 nights, 3 days for recovery.

Many of you have offered support and asked how you can help. Some of you have wanted to donate financially and I've been reluctant to set anything up but because some of you have donated to Caring Bridge, assuming it was for us, I've set up a GoFundMe page. With James not working much this past year it has put a financial strain on our family. Your support will go towards medical expenses, groceries, utilities, bills, and our teenage daughter's expenses.

James continues to build his real estate business during this time, so if you, or anyone you know, is interested in buying or selling a home, referrals are incredibly helpful.

Ways we could use help:

Financial donations:

Thank you again for taking a little bit of the load in support of our family during this time! We appreciate all the texts, messages, calls, mail, and love!

Love,

The Louthans