End of the Fight and Kurt's Memorial
Kurt tried his best to keep everyone he cared about updated on his condition nf his continuing battle with cancer and the various issues it caused. Since he was very sick the last few months of his life, we'd like to take this page to go over the changes that happened that ultimately led to Kurt losing his battle.
Below that, you will find the various parts of Kurt's memorial that we organized, including a copy of the program and a video taken of the Celebration of life (will be posted as soon as possible).
Kurt's Last Six Months
In June of 2024, Kurt received the good news that the new chemo treatment had seemed to be working. A PET scan showed that the metastasis on his spine has started to more closely resemble scar tissue, indicating their spread had been slowed. Everyone was optimistic that this meant things were headed in the right direction.
As we moved into the fall, Kurt started losing more weight. After working hard to get back up to 175-180 lbs (after hitting a low of 163 during his Urimea scare), he was starting to drop more weight no matter how much he ate. By Halloween, he was sitting around 167 lbs.
What little appetite he had left was almost gone, and the only thing he wanted to eat was instant ramen. We did our best to accommodate his hungar issues, but he was having a hard time keeping most things down.
His oncologist put him on a new appetite stimulant medication we hoped would help. After about 3 weeks on the medication, the weekend before Thanksgiving, Kurt started having trouble with his legs and balance. At first he just had to go slow, and he couldnt carry anything since he needed both hands to use his walker. Then he could barely get out of bed. We used a wheelchair for his Monday and Tuesday appointments because he couldn't walk father than dozen feet or so. On Wednesday (November 27th), he couldn't stand at all. We believed at the time it was a side effect of the appetite stimulant. It had the listed side effect of muscle weakness and was said to react with one of his other medications. Given his propensity to always getting the worst side effects, this made sense at the time. He wanted to wait until after the Thanksgiving weekend to go to the hospital so he'd have plenty of time for the medication to leave his system. Monday, December 2nd came and he still couldn't walk, so we went to the emergency room.
A lot happened between December 2nd and December 20th, but these are the main highlights. On December 4th, it was discovered that a new mass on his spine pressing on his liver. He also had another new mass in his liver. Together, they closed off his biliary ducts, effectively cutting off his liver, and he'd need surgery to open those back up.
The mass on his spine was also causing the weakness in his legs. By this point, it had effectively paralyzed his left leg completely. They would need to do emergency back surgery to remove as much of the metastasis as possible and perform a laminectomy to relieve the pressure on his spinal cord. He had the surgery on December 5th, and was moved to the spinal recovery wing in hopes of getting rehab to regain the use of his leg.
As the days progressed, doctors were concerned by the fact he wasn't recovering as fast as they thought. His numbers continued to dip, he became weaker and weaker, and nothing seemed to help. By December 15th, they were talking about putting him on palliative care and discussing with us that he may never walk again.
On December 19th, we heard from the Kurt's oncologist. He was finally able to review all of Kurt's scans from the hospital. It appeared the cancer had mutated again. In June, he had a small metastasis on his T5 that may be healing. In December, his C3-T7 vertebrae were both covered by and filled with cancerous cells. It had spread fast. According to the oncologist, Kurt was too sick for treatment, and without treatment, the cancer would spread quickly. He estimated Kurt had 3-4 weeks left.
That same day, due to the issues with his liver and kidneys, Kurt was officially in multi system organ failure. His family all came to the hospital room to discuss what the oncologist had said. We knew, with everything combined, he most likely wouldn't get those 3-4 weeks. We weren't sure he'd make it to Christmas.
On December 20th, at 10:57 pm, Kurt Sloan passed in his sleep. There are many small details about those last few days we may or may not share over time. But what is most important is that Kurt got to say goodbye to many people he loved, and he had family with him when he passed on.
If you're reading this, you most likely loved Kurt. Know that Kurt loved you very much. Kurt loved with his whole heart, and those who felt that love knew it was real. Kurt is now with his parents, who he missed dearly, his beloved dogs, and most importantly, his loving daughter, Sarah Jayne, who he never got to know. He still holds all of you in his heart and we hope that you can feel his love still as deeply as we do.
Kurt's Memorial
Kurt's memorial was held on January 31st, 2025 at 2pm. It was not just a memorial, but a Celebration of Life. Kurt had left us his final wishes that included who he wished to speak and other details. The memorial was recorded and is posted below. There is a page here for those who can't/couldn't make it to the memorial where they can share memories of Kurt.
Kurt's Memorial Service
This is a recording of Kurt's Memorial Service and Celebration of Life. This service took place on January 31st, 2025. (This is a recording of the zoom call. There may be a higher quality recording coming at a later time that is delayed due to editing issues.)