Our Experience with Cancer Part 1

A few months ago, my parents informed our family that my father had a rare, incurable form of leukemia that affects people by increasing the white blood cell production from  the bone marrow.

It was a shock but we were blessed with a notion of time in years before the disorder would run its course.

A few months pass after that and we recognize that despite the new powerful medicines, Dad was taking on a lot of fluid, and his belly was ballooning.  After a few discussions, we convinced him to visit with the doctor.  They went to visit with the specialist at the VA and the doctor decided to pull some of the fluid out of his body for tests and admit him for more tests throughout the following weekend.

To be honest, this put my mother at bit of ease because she did not have to watch him at home with no idea of what to do.  Whatever it was, we hoped to get an answer and he was in the care of the VA hospital. They gave Dad several treatments to help get better Xrays, MRI and CAT scans; some that made him essentially be chained to the toilet for hours to do this "cleansing." On Tuesday afternoon following that weekend, we were summoned to a meeting with the doctors to get a prospective or diagnosis of what they learned over the past few days.

The news trickled over our ears as we patiently tried to understand the terminology and diagnosis they were giving.  The prognosis changed from years to months. I could feel the anxiety in the room just flow as the doctors took turns describing what they were finding.  (His tests were not done yet either.) They finished their analysis and a Catholic priest from the local parish happened to walk into Dad's room. Dad and Father start talking.  I and mother found a reason to excuse ourselves from the room. We were both in a bit of shock as the gravity of the news started weighing. Stage 4 carcinoma and months and it is spreading- they want to do more tests - do not know the source - radiation was not an option and chemotherapy may not be as well. What do you with a death certificate that is pre-dated and nothing to do or say about it??.

After making a couple calls to some family members, we found ourselves in a bit of disbelief. mother and I went to the chapel area while Dad spoke with Father.  We couldn't hold it and both cried together as we were trying reckon what information was just given to us.

The doctors proceeded to keep him for a couple more days and found even more cancer and tuned the prognosis from months down to "weeks."  So within a short time, we had a bucket list to be accomplished within 5 years narrowed to a small window of a few weeks. Perhaps the doctors were wrong again about the time.  As far as Dad was concerned, he looked at Oct 20 at his and mother's anniversary date for a target.