“… And you, my father, there on the sad height…”
August 16, 2009 8:45 pm(This is part 1 of a 2 )
So, it’s been about two weeks since I last bothered to update- and what weeks they’ve been.
The first part of them were spent getting ready to go back to Mo. for my brother S’s wedding. It was good to see him hitched. Pictures are on Facebook and all over the place, so I won’t bother to link them here. Besides, I’m too lazy to go hunt a good one down. I did some basic videography for the ceremony, but I haven’t really taken the time to process it with iMovie (I don’t have Final Cut). If there’s some demand, I’ll post the video here for others to view.
The real stress inducer for this week has, without a doubt been my dad’s failing health. When we were last back to visit in May, he was looking MUCH better, even though there were still some detectable tumors in in his lungs, his oncologist was confident that they wouldn’t really impact his quality of life and they were going to monitor them for a bit – rather than attempt another course of chemo, since the chemo that the cancer had responded too was rather old and more toxic than most.
So once the chemo had flushed itself from his system he started to feel better and my parents went about their lives; nervously, I think, but they got to go out and have some fun.
Well, about a month ago he started to feel worse again. This past trip, he looked worse to me than he had when we saw him after his first round of chemo. Finally, on the day we departed mom convinced him to go back to the hospital.
Which is where he is right now.
Apparently, the pain in his back, his inability to keep down foods, and extreme exhaustion is because his liver- quoting my mother here “looks like swiss cheese” with tumors. From my sister’s blog I got a piece of information that nobody had told me – they’ve categorized it as stage 4 liver cancer. Additionally the tumors in his lungs are now the size of dimes and they didn’t get an exact count- in may there were 14- I expect that number has gone up significantly.
Tomorrow morning he’s supposed to have a needle biopsy; It can take anywhere for 2 days to 2 weeks to get the specific sub-typing that would allow for chemo to begin.
2 Responses to ““… And you, my father, there on the sad height…””
That does not sound like a happy and fun prognosis — I hope it’s better than it sounds.
I have demand for the video! Could you send me an attachment maybe when it’s done? What format will it be in? Thanksssss
Love,
Your new sister-in-law
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