There are moments in life that you cement in your memory. Holding your baby for the 1st time. Walking across the stage for your doctorate. Your dad tells you he has cancer. 5 years ago, almost 6 now, my dad started a colon cancer journey that would see him nearly die twice and undergo 3 separate surgeries; each surgery literally taking a piece of him.
On January 18th, as I was getting ready for work, my dad stopped me and asked me to contact his cancer doctor; he thought his cancer was back. I stayed visibly calm, said I would take care of it, and then went to my room to cry. I took a moment or two and then I dried my eyes and contacted the doctor.
We had an appointment for the next week, about a 5-day wait. We saw the doctor, got a series of appts, and got sent home. Honestly, I don't think the doctor quite believed my dad about his symptoms. Then two days later, my dad tells my mom he needs to go to the ER, everything is worse. They decided to wait until Friday, Jan 26, since I don't work Fridays, so I could go with him and advocate. That was the last day my dad was in Lufkin. He has been in Temple ever since and we don't know when he will come home.
He had major abdominal surgery on Feb 15th. A surgery scheduled for 6 hrs took 18 and landed my dad in the ICU. That was a hard day, just waiting and waiting. We were told around 7pm that it would be a few more hours due to an accident during surgery. The accident took 6 hrs to repair and then he had 3 more hours of surgery to complete the fix. The good news: no cancer! The bad news: lots of complications.
I got to stay with my dad while he was in the ICU. I was so worn out by the night before waiting on him to come out of surgery that I actually slept on that tiny guest bed and even slept through the midnight blood draws. We had to leave Temple for a BJJ tournament on Saturday and I got to see my dad that morning before leaving. I got to see him get out of bed!
He has not had an easy time of it this time. The previous 3 surgeries, he was out of the hospital in 3 days. This time we are about to be at 7 days and he still can't eat. They won't release him until he is eating. He can't eat because his intestine isn't awake yet. He ran a fever two nights ago and yesterday they placed some tubes into his kidneys. We are playing the waiting game.
Yesterday, I was working on something at my desk and decided to check-in on my dad. I happened to call while a nurse was in the room informing him of the procedure to insert the tubes into his kidneys. The interesting thing was that as I was listening in, "Pressure Machine" (the song not the album) by The Killers was playing. This is a pressure machine. Will I pop or can I hold on long enough to welcome my dad home?
Below is my Facebook status from Sunday, Feb 18:
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