Dad's Obituary

Geoffrey Richard Lighten, 67, of Draper passed away December 22, 2013 after complications from surgery.  Born June 2, 1946 in Chelmsford, Essex, England, the son of Richard Victor and Mildred Nell Read Lighten.  He married Jill Bullock August 22, 1969 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple.

Geoff was a pioneer.  At 15 years old he joined the LDS church with his younger brother and sister.  From this day forward he lived a life of dedication to the his Heavenly Father, his family and others.  He saved his own money and left to the U.S. at 17 years old.  He lived with the Shumway family in American Fork, Utah and saved money for his 30 month mission to the French East Mission.  After a faithful mission he attended Brigham Young University and graduated in 1970 with a degree in communications.  At BYU he met his lifelong love Jill Bullock.  Geoff and Jill enjoyed 44 years of marriage that included raising seven children.  Geoff was dedicated in his career, working for Johnson & Johnson for 30 years.  Geoff enjoyed serving in the church in many callings, he especially enjoyed being a BYU ward bishop where he touched many lives.

Geoff’s favorite roles were that of father, husband and grandpa; excelling in all these. He is known for being kind, giving, loving, caring, genuine, funny, and for making everyone he met feel special. Among his favorite things were BYU sports, Arsenal Football, his British heritage, writing, and movies with Jill.  He had a love of animals that started as a child when he raised homing pigeons.

His loss creates a void that can never be filled.

Survivors include his wife Jill, children: Amy Domgaard; Rich ( Lisa) Lighten; Dan (Charity) Lighten; Matt Lighten; Heather (Dallan) Andrus; Trevor (Kasey) Lighten; Megan (Ernesto) Jimenez;  Jasmine (Chase) Sagum; his mother Nell; two brothers Rob and Andy Lighten; his sister Margy; and 35 grandchildren.  He is preceded in death by his father Dick and a son-in-law Greg Domgaard.

Funeral services will be held in the Alpine North Stake Center, 1125 East Alpine Blvd.  A viewing will be held at the church and at the church prior to the services.   Burial in the Orem City Cemetery.

Funeral Information

Funeral Services

Friday 12/27 at 11 am

1125 E Alpine Blvd

Alpine, UT

Viewing

Thursday 12/26 6p-8p

Same Location

Dad's Stories

Our dad touched so many lives and we feel incredibly lucky and blessed that he was ours.  There are so many Geoff Lighten jokes and stories.  We've been sharing our own non-stop.  We would love to hear yours.  Please use the comments section here and leave as many funny and happy memories as you can!  We want to preserve our father's memory for us and our children and these stories will help.  Please share as many as you can!  Little or big.  We will be so grateful.

Thank you for everyone's prayers and love.  We feel it.

The funeral will be this Friday, December 27th in Alpine UT.  More details to follow.

Also if you could please include your relationship to my dad that would be great.

Some are having troubles leaving a comment, it seems as though mobile may be the problem.  Do not leave the comment via mobile.  If you still have trouble email your comment(s) to megan.jimenez@gmail.com

Saddest Day Ever

Today we had to say goodbye to our favorite person.  He was surrounded by his wife, Jill, and all his kids, Amy, Rich, Dan, Matt, Heather, Trevor and Megan, as we all were able to say goodbye before he passed.

He died peacefully at 7:30AM Sunday morning.

Dad had surgery just over a week ago to remove a cancerous growth on his pancreas.  Since then he has had additional surgeries to remove blood clots as well as to slow down internal bleeding.  He had remained sedated and with a ventilator since the second surgery last Monday.  Last night was the final effort to stop the bleeding and it proved unsuccessful.

We are extremely saddened by this loss.  We will all miss him incredibly.

We are thankful for your thoughts, prayers and support.

Funeral plans and an obituary will be posted later.  Thank you.

Today brought us to our knees

Megan and Trevor had just left mom at the hospital with dad.  Then the alerts turned on, Dad's blood pressure was critically low.  The nurse asked mom if she was sure she wanted to be there cause dad was "dying."  Dad had a room full of doctors and nurses running around trying to figure out what to do.   They were giving him blood "two more units, three more units..."

The took him into emergency surgery to stop the internal blood loss.  Meanwhile all the siblings, but Matt in Idaho, rushed to the hospital to be together in case he didn't make it.  As the waiting went on we started to assume that we might get good news.  We got it.  Dr Belnap came back from surgery and told us they were able to stop the bleeding and stabilize him.  He is still in very critical condition and the are watching him very carefully.  As I write this, I am watching the nurse give him more blood, drain bags, work on the machines, take his temperature (his body temp is very low).  He is requiring constant attention.

He will have more procedures over the coming days.  The main concern is bleeding.  He is on blood thinners which protect from clotting but are causing internal bleeding.  He's already had two blood clots removed from his portal vein near his liver.

He is stable and looks very comfortable.  His organs, including lungs, need to improve function before they can take him off sedation and the ventilator.

We all are eager for him to wake so we can talk to him again and hope it will be soon.  

Thanks for your continued prayers as we really need them right now.

Recovery Progress

Geoff's progress has gone well in the last couple of days, here are some of the key factors in his recovery:

 Sedation

 He is still sedated and will remain that way until his swelling goes down and he doesn't require as much oxygen. He is doing very well on the oxygen side. The swelling is going down but may take some time.

 Dialysis

 He has been undergoing dialysis treatment for the last couple of days and it is going well. He has mostly past the risks associated with the treatment and can now start receiving the benefits. Dialysis will help reduce swelling and help kidney function improve (which it has).

 Pathology Test

 We are still waiting on the results of exactly what kind of cancer he has. We will get the results in a couple of days.

 Next surgery

 He will have surgery in the next few days to remove the stint that ways placed where his blood clotted near the liver. This will be a quick surgery. At that time they will assess the health of the pancreas and determine if they need to remove it. If they remove it he will be entirely insulin dependent, which is a lifestyle change but manageable. Essentially he will be a type 1 diabetic.

 All of the other key indicators in his progress are moving in the right direction and his recovery is on track. There is always the caveat that his is critically ill but so far he is recovering well. Please keep our Dad in your thoughts and prayers. He is the finest of men!

 Jill

 Just a word on my incredible mom, she has been a rockstar. She is spending many hours a day by his bedside caring for him. She talks to him, and massages his head, arms and legs. She is a true companion. With all the attention going my Dad's way we need to be careful not to forget about her. We love you dearly mom!    

Recovery Day Three

Update on Dad

Not much has changed since yesterday.  Geoff is trending in the right direction with the exception of his kidney function.  This is the primary concern right now.  His kidneys are functioning at a very low level and as a result his blood is not getting proper filtration and he has significant swelling.  Today the nephrologist said that Geoff is not yet requiring dialysis however will probably need it tomorrow.  The hope with dialysis is that the kidneys will get relief and begin recovering.  Dialysis itself poses some risk of further complications it but they are small.  If you are praying for our dad please include his kidney function in those prayers.

Recovery challenges but good prognosis

Dad's been alert and resting well in the hospital all weekend.  He's been uncomfortable and weak but awake and we all enjoyed some nice visits.

On Sunday they still weren't seeing much function from the kidney and liver.  They did some scans and determined that he had a clot in his liver.  This was a big concern as he wouldn't have survived long in that condition.  They acted quickly and planned an immediate surgery.  Because it was short notice, and since we weren't here, they had some local priesthood give him a blessing.  The surgery was successful and they were able to remove the clot.  However, they did notice that part of his pancreas was not looking good.

Mom and I (Dan) got here this morning and Dad is still sedated and has a breathing tube; as well as 1000 more tubes and machines working together to keep him stable.

The latest word is that his numbers are looking better including function in his liver.  However, they're still not seeing a lot of improvement with his kidneys so they have a specialist coming and may need to do dialysis.  The kidney problem is a result of the clot in the liver and they feel confident that the kidneys will improve but it just takes time.

The plan now is do keep him sedated and with a ventilator through Thursday.  Then they will do another surgery to remove the stint in the liver as well as check on the pancreas.  They will determine then if the pancreas needs to be removed.  If that were the case, he would then become insulin dependent.

There is a still a lot going on for us to feel real comfortable at this point.  However, we feel like we are in really good hands and hopeful of a full recovery.

We are thankful of the support and really do feel comforted by your thoughts and prayers.

The Surgery

After rushing to the hospital in the nick of time Dan, Rich and I were able to give my Dad a blessing.  Rich performed it, the blessing was a great experience and I believe it calmed my father down and prepared him for the major surgery he was about to undergo.  After plenty of hugs, we waved goodbye as my dad headed off to the operating room.

Geoff began surgery at about 12:00 pm.  We did not hear anything until about 5:30.  The conversation with the nurse went something like this "he is stable and doing okay, we have sent several specimens out for analysis and we will get back to you in a couple of hours".  Talk about vague, we sat and waited for the next call.

The next conversation was more informative.  We spoke to Dr Belnap, he said that they were still working on the removing the tumor and that it would take more time to do so.  He also shared some great news: the tumor has not metastasized - meaning it has not spread and is local in the pancreas.  He said that they would remove as much of the tumor as possible and treat the rest with a "radiation catheter".  He was busy and said that he would not be able to answer questions because he needed to get back to the operation.

About an hour later they called with more great news:

• They have removed the tumor completely
• They were in the process of sewing him back up
• Lymph node tissue tests confirmed that the cancer has not spread
• They would proceed with the radiation catheter

The Radiation Catheter

My mother had read just a little bit about this prior to the surgery but for the most part we have learned all about this tonight.  This is a fairly new therapy but when it has been practiced they have seen great results. The radiation catheter is a tube that is placed right at the site of the removed tumor or the "tumor bed".  A rod is then attached to the tube (or tubes) and comes out of the skin.  Over the next week they will treat the tumor bed with radiation. Think of removing the tumor as a one two punch.  They remove all (or all they can) of the tumor surgically and then treat right at the site with radiation to really make sure that the tumor is gone.  Here is the kicker: the PA told me that when they do this the chance of regrowth is "very rare"!

I hesitate to get too excited, we still have unanswered questions and I may be misunderstanding what they have told us in these quick conversations.  However there has clearly been great news tonight the many who love this man have a great deal to hope for.

I must say that I am seeing many miracles taking place throughout this experience.  We almost missed out on our critical connection with Dr Belnap due to a insurance problem.  I could go into greater detail but I believe that we had help from above to make this connection happen.  I know there have been promptings telling us when things just didn't feel or look right with my dad.  Yesterday, when my dad went through a complication that eventually led him to surgery, he was very upset and all by himself.  I just happened to be on my way to see him for a quick visit at that very moment.  I was able to get in and encourage him just before the ambulance came to wheel him away.  We had short notice of the rush into surgery that took place this morning but Rich, Dan and I showed up at the hospital within five minutes of each other and were able to give him a much needed blessing.  All of these things plus the other comfort and guidance we have received through prayer and fasting confirms to me that Heavenly Father is keeping close watch over our family at this time.

  

Update- surgery today

The last few days Dad was in a health care facility recovering. Trying to build back health before surgery. But yesterday he started bleeding internally, mildly, and he was readmitted to the Intensive Care Unit.  Late last night Dr. Belnap decided to do the Whipple procedure this morning. Somehow they didn't get in touch with any of the family, and we didn't know until this morning around 10:30. Megan and I (Heather) were able to call him on the phone. He seemed at peace, a little anxious, but he knew this is what we need to have done. Mom was able to get there in time to see him before they took him back, Rich, Dan and Trevor were on their way and caught him on time. They were able to be with him and give him a blessing.  We won't have any updated for four to five hours. We will be in touch.

"Don't Believe the Statistics"

When we first learned of the mass on my Dad's pancreas we found out that he would require a "Whipple" surgery to remove the tumor and give him the best long-term prospects.  We are fortunate to live in Utah with some of the best cancer facilities and physicians in the world. In our research we learned that there is a wide range of success outcomes and that who does the surgery is the key factor.  I am in pharmaceutical sales and know a couple hundred primary care doctors throughout the state.  I asked around 10 of the doctors, of whom I have a high opinion, who they would recommend do this surgery.  One name came enthusiastically to the top of the list - Legrand Belnap.  After overcoming a couple of obstacles we got an appointment with Dr Belnap and he has been in my father's care ever since.  We have full confidence in this doctor.

At the end of our first appointment with Dr Belnap I asked him for a prognosis.  He said that he didn't want to give a prognosis until they do the whipple surgery and they know exactly what we are dealing with.  However his next statement gave me a lot of hope, he said "Don't Believe the Statistics".  When learning of his diagnosis our family, like any would have, frantically began doing research.  Some of what you read online can be pretty grim, and indeed he is in a very dangerous situation, however Dr Belnap said that the statistics in his clinic are much better than what is described online.

Some other things we know about my Dad's current condition:

1 - As far as the scan showed the cancer has not spread to his liver and lymph nodes, if this were the case my dad would not be eligible for surgery and the prognosis would not be good.

2 -  Those who have a successful Whipple surgery normally recover and resume a normal quality of life.  Most live for 2-5 years and some are completely cured.

3 - There is still a possibility that this is a benign tumor or some other type of mass

Please pray for our father!  We love him enormously and have faith that he can make a strong recovery.

What can you do?

To know our dad is to love him...and you are aware of this if you are here :)  Of course this news has been devastating to all of us.  Our dad is still funny, happy, and positive Geoff.  But as you can imagine there are highs and lows.  Our mom is doing as good as can be expected.  We are all faithful and optimistic about his future health.

We would love as many prayers on behalf of our dad as possible.  Miracles happen all the time.  There is plenty of reason to have hope.

He would love to receive cards.  I've added our parent's home address on the sidebar if you'd like to send one.

Additionally the best contacts if you need to call would be one of the brother's that are there day-to-day.  Their numbers are also on the sidebar.  They have all the facts, details and stats.  If you need to cry or vent, call Amy, Heather or Megan :)  We're good for that.

Geoff's Diagnosis

In November 2013 he started turning a little yellow. After visiting his physician we knew there was some kind of blockage by his liver. A few days later he had a CT scan which revealed a mass on the head of his pancreas. It is likely pancreatic cancer, although there is a possibility it is benign. He is scheduled to undergo a whipple procedure to remove part of the pancreas and tumor. This is currently scheduled for Friday December 13th. This is a major surgery.  His surgeon is Dr. Belnap and we are grateful to have him, he is certainly an expert. Since the scan he has been hospitalized a few times, nothing serious, but getting him as healthy as possible for surgery. Please check back regularly, any major news and events will be updated in posts.  He is currently at Salt Lake Regional Medical Center which is also where the surgery will take place.