Not good news for My Dad....

[comsnark]

Heh. .. good one.

- - - - -

Good luck to you and yours. I have been through this more than once. It is not pleasant.

There a few pieces of advice that may be relevant at this point;
1) Don't sweat the small stuff.
2) It's all small stuff (except for things that affect your family). This is a time to forget family squabbles and unite.

 

[Gunn]

Hey Todd; just read your updates. Good deal. Your Dad's joke made me laugh. Our Dads must have the same sense of humor. When my Dad awoke from his brain surgery to remove a single tumor, he looked right at my Mom and said "Well hello Margaret".

My Mom's name is not even close to Margaret. Made my Mom's heart skip a beat. Then he busted out laughing and said "gotcha". Needless to say my Mom did not find it funny one bit!

My Dad later said the brain surgery was a walk in the park. He recovered quickly and was back to normal a week later. In fact, it was during deer season and we went out that very next week together. Now those were good times.

 

[billandamy]

Just caught this...Im hoping for the best for you and the family.

 

[Nehalennia]

Thank you.
Update:
He will have a "gamma knife" procedure next Friday to attach the tumors in his head, then chemo treatments for the tumors in his lungs.

The diagnosis is Melanoma (skin cancer). He has never had any spots on his skin and no sign of it now. That's baffled the doctors as they usually see some sort of skin irregularity prior to something this severe.


WEAR YOUR SUNSCREEN

 

[billandamy]

Wow, skin cancer? And no signs.

I hate how fragile we are sometimes. Wonderous machine we are, yet our self realization of mortality is a conundrum.

Best of luck! Although I am agnostic, I will "pray" for your family in my own way.

 

[Woody]

My brother had the same situation, Melanoma. They never found the original site on him either. They referred to it as an -occult source-, makes sense I guess.

 

[Hampton]

Thanks from me too for the update. Hoping for a swift and thorough recovery.

 

[Wayne's World]

Todd, Sorry to hear about your Dad, I'm glad he's doing better :smt001, I don't get on here much anymore and almost missed this. :smt021 . Take care....Wayne

 

[billandamy]

Todd...updates? Last you wrote about attacking the tumors etc...anything new?

 

[Nehalennia]

Todd...updates? Last you wrote about attacking the tumors etc...anything new?

He's actually doing pretty well but we'll see how the next few days go. He starts chemo either today or tomorrow(whenever the meds arrive) and they may have some nausiating affects. As you may have seen, my Admiral and her Brother are walking in the American Cancer Society 24HR "Relay for Life"
and my Dad may show up for that and visit with her team.

It should be a pretty emotional weekend. I'll say thanks here as well to everyone for the support as she is very close to her goal.

Now that the Gamma knife surgery is done, it will take another month and a half or so before his brain is scanned again to see how that procedure did.


Thanks for thinking about this. I'll do a better job on the updates.

 

[billandamy]

Thanks for the updates...my mom's sister has basically been given about a year or so with bone marrow cancer that is spreading, and it reminded me when I looked down here in the holding tank of your thread.

Ill be hoping for the best for you and your family. We all will go through this at some point, but none of us are alone.

 

[Nehalennia]

Thanks for the updates...my mom's sister has basically been given about a year or so with bone marrow cancer that is spreading, and it reminded me when I looked down here in the holding tank of your thread.

Ill be hoping for the best for you and your family. We all will go through this at some point, but none of us are alone.

very true.

Thanks again.

 

[water rat]

I just read all of this... Sorry to hear all of this Todd. I hope for the best for you and your family. Thanks for sharing with us and keeping us updated.

 

[Slacker]

Good luck! Stay optimistic. Best you can do for yourself and everyone around.

 

[Nehalennia]

Good luck! Stay optimistic. Best you can do for yourself and everyone around.

Thank you!
He actually is doing pretty good. He had an MRI last week which found 2 of the brains lesions gone with no sign of regrowth, the 3rd had no additional growth and his blood count was good to continue Chemo. Next update MRI is in a couple months so it's just going to be a long slow road.

Thanks for all the thoughts and well wishes

 

[RiverRat]

Good to hear the treatments are having a positive effect!!! Give him our best.

 

[douglee25]

Glad to hear things are better as well.

Doug

 

[Tonka Boater]

<deleted>

 

[Nehalennia]

Hello everyone.
I thought first I would again thank everyone for the kind words and support.
I thought I'd post an update:
My Father has received the news that there is not much more the doctor's can do and we've moved him to a skilled nursing facility to begin Hospice care.

After three weeks of radiation from Dec 3 to the 22nd, he felt as if he was going to pass away on Christmas day. My Mom, brother and I were able to share words with him that we're not sure we'll be able to do again. It was scary and extremely emotional.
The following day my Mom took him to his Doctor appointment and the Doctor hospitalized him from Diabetes that set in due to the steroids he's been taking to reduce swelling in his brain. My Mom had to get him to the bathroom every hour or hour and a half 24/7 and she was wearing out. He had fallen twice as well and I was relieved that he was going into the hospital for care and relief for my mom.
Also that day (Dec 26th) he had a new MRI showing growth in the tumors in his head which precipitated the reality from the Doctors that there is not much more that they can do. It's simply a too aggressive type of Cancer(Malignant Melanoma) to continue treat. There are tumors in the lungs and spleen as well that they have not been able to treat because they feel the chemo would simply wipe him out and kill him.

It's really a sureal feeling knowing that my Dad is not long for this world. It has taken me a bit to set aside the time to share this here as it seems final, and the words as I type this somehow make it more real.

This site has been a diversion for me since mid-December but I wanted to update this and let everyone know what's been going on.

Thank you again for the prayers and well wishes.

 

[osd9]

Sorry to hear the news Todd. It's good that you had the oppurtunity to share some kind words with your dad.