Dad's Surgery

On November 11, 2009 my dad went in for surgery. He had this lump on the side of his face, right side between his jaw bone and his ear. The surgery was an outpatient procedure, nothing too crazy. I decided not to come down for it because I had a lot going on at school and with the surgery being right in the middle of the week I'd miss to many classes. So I called right before he went in and wished him luck and then I told my stepmom Kim to call me as soon as he was done. This was at 10 my time. By 12:30 she hadn't called but the surgery was suppose to take about 2 hours so I wasn't too worried. Around 1:00 she called me and I could tell she was upset. She told me that when they cut my dad open they found out the lump had cancer in it. The doctor was pretty certain he had gotten it all out but there would be more tests later to determine the extent of the cancer in his body. After I hung up with her and sat down on the floor in the library and started to cry. The scariest thing in the world is to find out the one person you believe to be untouchable isn't. Even though school was busy I felt I had to be there with my dad. Within 30 minutes I had talked to all my professors, explained what was happening and told them I wouldn't be back for a week. They were all very understanding, which I am so grateful for.

By 2:30 I had Asher and I all packed and was on my way to my in-laws house to pick him up. We finally got to Riverside around 9pm. It was a long emotional drive but I was so happy to be in Riverside instead of Cedar where I couldn't do anything. Not that I was really needed there, but it felt good to just be around. My dad was in great spirits, of course, he always is. The day I left to head back to Utah my dad had a doctor's appointment. They told him that even though they were sure they had gotten all the cancer out he would still need to do radiation, 6 weeks of it, 5 days a week.

The week before Thanksgiving they did a PET scan of his entire body and found that there was no other cancer anywhere else that they could see. His radiation started Wednesday, Dec 9th. As soon as my finals were done on Friday the 11th I headed back down to Riverside to spend my Christmas break with him and to hang out with him while he drives back and forth to his radiation appointments. (which is where I am right now) Everything seems to be going ok. He is going to still get really sick from the radiation. The doctors have said that he will lose a lot of weight before the 6 weeks is over. I'm not looking forward to seeing my dad so weak but I am looking forward to knowing that he will be cancer free when it is all over.