My Story

I am a Colorado native and husband to Debbie, an RN Hospice Nurse. We have two adult children Christian (married to Bridget) who live in Lakewood and Stephanie (married to Nathan) who live in Atlanta, GA and six grandchildren. Most of my career has been in Christian pastoral ministry. I served churches in Strasburg, Colorado, Colby Kansas and Lakewood, Colorado.

In 2006 I was elected to the Colorado House of Representatives where I served for six years. The last two years I served as the Chair of the House Health & Environment Committee. During this time I also served as the Executive Director of Teen Challenge of the Rocky Mountains a faith-based residential drug and alcohol recovery program. (www.tcrm.us)

At the end of my legislative service in Jefferson County, we moved to Fort Collins my wife’s home town the last weekend of June 2013.

I was hospitalized on July 22, 2013 following several days of illness and having my temperature spike to 103. I was eventually diagnosed with West Nile Virus. This inflamed a previous undiagnosed condition called Myasthenia Gravis a rare autoimmune disorder. This lead to a life threatening crisis that included meningitis and encephalitis. The result was several weeks on life support that included tube feedings and a tracheotomy to sustain my breathing. A tumor was found in my thymus gland that required surgery. In the mean time I developed pneumonia in my left lung. Surgery on September 26th included removing the tumor, my thymus and the lower lobe of my left lung. I spent 8 weeks at Northern Colorado Rehab Hospital and finally returned to our Fort Collins home on December 10th after close to five months of hospitalization. This blog chronicles my journey from initial hospitalization to the present status of my recovery.

To look at previous post and pictures from Ken’s hospitalization go to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/kensummers

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