SUCCESS! - Surgery on October 30

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Waiting for the goods to arrive, on Saturday, October 29, before the operation.

If you look carefully, Mr. Tank is getting a taste of his own Medicine.

June 27, 2011

As most of you know, our friend Hal was diagnosed last year with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and has sustained irreversible lung damage.  Doctors say it wasn't caused by smoking (Hal quit many years ago), or even by a lifetime of Asthma and all the medications for that.  While there may be some association between IPF and autoimmune diseases like RA (Arthritis), which Hal also deals with, Idiopathic literally means "disease of unknown cause".  Here's another good article on IPF

After many, many months of dieting, calisthenics, consulting, poking and prodding and more tests and forms than anyone can count (with Mr. Tank as his constant companion!), he's now on the UCSF list for a double lung transplant. It's estimated that Hal has an excellent chance of full recovery and long-term survival with a transplant.  A transplant may even relieve his asthma.

Many of us have admired Hal’s unique blend of courage and humor throughout this ordeal, and have wondered "what can I do?".  "Can I do anything?".

Several of Hal’s close friends (Stu Smith, Jon Gray, Michael Mullen, Mark Miller) have set up this donation site to enable mutual friends to help out financially, if they can.  Even though Hal has reasonably good insurance, un-reimbursed medical and miscellaneous expenses are daunting when you're on long-term disability. 

You know Hal… he definitely didn’t ask us to do this.  We decided to offer this help because we love him, and because we can.  We can’t do anything about the medical situation; that’s up to God (and his little hospital helpers).  But we can at least help relieve some of the financial worry.  Plus, this is just a nice way to let Hal know that we really care about him, and appreciate all his generosity to many of us over the years. 

We're sure this will be a humbling thing for Hal.  In a way, it is for all of us - and that can be good thing.  We should all be grateful that we have friends who will stick with us in a crisis... and also that we can be those friends!

Please consider giving, if you can.

Thank You!