Cancer Sucks…….

I have to apologize for the personal blog update hiatus, but over the last 6 months I have been dealing with some family health issues. I was trying to keep busy during this time by occupying my mind with my amazing clearance shopping and deals for the holiday season.

Back in June of 2017 I had received a call from my dad; as I usually do every week or so, however this call was much different. The call started out pretty normal with the “how are you’s and the what’s new”, but this time I was taken back from my dad’s response of “Well, I have been having some strange symptoms of blood in my urine since November…..” He continued with informing me that he thought it was due to his diabetes meds which has a side effect of blood in the urine.

Long story short he didn’t get immediate tests done until the call which was about 6-7 months later from when the symptoms started. The result was stage IV bladder cancer, and it was very aggressive.

He had to still run a series of tests to determine the plan the doctor wanted to take. PET Scans, CT Scans, and lots of blood work and an upcoming surgery to try to see how far it had progressed and if it was still contained to the bladder.

Being away from family when you get this type of news is rough. And knowing you can’t do anything to help is even worse.

Rewind to my childhood years; the closest I was to cancer was when my grandma died of lung cancer in 1989. I was 12 and it was devastating watching her deteriorate. Mind you, I was barely 12; my daughters age right now, and I came home from school and was told she had passed. My response was a bit strange now that I look back at it. I literally said ok and just went on about my day. As if nothing had happened… but I guess I just didn’t get it. I was young; never experienced death and was clueless on how to respond.

My grandmother was my best friend and she took care of me a lot while my mother worked. We had some great times, shopping and cooking while my grandfather played Italian music very loudly while rolling meat-a-balls.. (imagine a thick Italian accent).

So I don’t think my grandmother’s death really hit me until after seeing her at the wake. And quite frankly it was very odd being pushed up to the front where she lay very still, pale, and cold. I can actually still see her face to this day engraved in my mind…. I got closer to her casket and I studied her every feature; her hair, how her hands were crossed, her lightly pressed together blueish lips, and how she looked so peaceful.

Death is scary for any child let alone an adult. Losing my grandmother meant losing my excitement, dancing and singing around the house and cuddles after warm bowls of oatmeal.

Back to my dad….

The update after surgery was not what we wanted to hear. The cancer was too far progressed and the doctor could not take all of the cancer out of the bladder. This meant he would have to do extensive chemo treatments for 4 months and try to kill the cancer that remained in the bladder from surgery. And hope that the cancer did not spread during chemo. The doctor explained that my dad would have a lot of bad days during chemo and they would help him stay as normal as possible with meds to help with nausea etc. He would have 2 weeks on and 1 week off. And that one week off would be a recovery week. It would literally take him 4 days to recover from the 2nd week, meaning he would have only a few good days to do things; like run his business or run errands or just relax without feeling like shit!

His days of chemo came and passed and finally his appointment with the doctor came; the bladder still had to come out but his blood work looked good through chemo and after. Surgery was scheduled for December 7th 2017.

Surgery was a few months away at this point so my husband and I decided that I would go back home to Az for a couple weeks to spend time with family due to the severity of the surgery.

Dec 4th 2017

Flew into Phoenix around 11pm, 1st stop after I got my rental car was straight to my dads house. This evening was the start of his liquid diet until surgery day. Thankfully my sister and his wife was able to take him out to dinner while I was still in the air so he could enjoy a yummy last dinner before the fasting.

Dec 7th 2017

Surgery day; we all arrived at 5:30 am to be there to be with my dad before surgery. He seemed upbeat and not very nervous but he hides his emotions pretty well when he has to. Surgery started around 8 am and we were told about 5 hours. Doctor came out earlier than expected and surgery went better than expected and he would be in recovery for a couple hours so we all went to refuel in the cafeteria until we were cleared to see him.

Once we got up to his very small confined room he greeted us and looked great.. he was still very out of it but looked great for someone who just lost a couple organs.

This day lasted us about 14 hours in the hospital from start to finish and we had to go home to sleep.

Doctor said 5-7 days for him to remain in hospital if he followed all of the rules. By day 5 he was ready to disconnect himself and run but my sister and I who he named “the bulldogs” wouldn’t let that happen. Believe me there were many many times my dad flipped us off because we were abiding by the doctors rules and he was trying to pull the wool over our eyes many times… trying to get us to do soup runs and snack runs when he hadn’t even started on solid foods yet…

Day 7 he was finally allowed to go home.

I only had about 4 days left before I had to head home.

The doctor finally told us before his release that the pathology report was negative and free of any further spread of cancer. Dad is cancer free! The best news we could have ever heard. Now all he has to do is follow up with his doctors on a regular basis for the next years to follow. He also has to learn how to now function with his new devices and stoma which drains urine from internal to external.

This will be a lifestyle change for him but we are all thankful this cancer was contained to an organ that was able to be removed without loss of life.

I’ll add more details on another post eventually but for now I’m back home awaiting Christmas.

Happy Holidays!