My Loving Father..........

On 5/10/2008 Helene0710 wrote:

My father went in for whipple surgery this past week. Once they got in it was found that the tumor was too large and could not be removed. As I understand it, the tumor was too close to the aorta. It was also found that the cancer has spread to his lymph nodes. The doctor removed his gall bladder and did a little rearranging of his intenstines. He also gave him some sort of alcohol block whic along with the rearranging is suppose to help with some pain relief and allow him to consume some food. The doctor also said he was in stage III possibly stage IV.

This is still all so new to me, my dad has been in a lot of pain for some time now. He has been in and out of the hospital a few times for dehydration and was at the point that he could not eat or drink anything. One blood test showed negative for cancer the other showed high readings which indicated cancer. His pet scan did not light up any organs indicating cancer and the original biopsy was inconclusive. What makes it even worse is that I live in a different state than my parents. My mother and brothers have been relaying all of the information to me until I can get there to be with him in about 2 weeks. I have been trying to do as much research as I can which is not giving me much hope.

 When my  mother asked the doctor how long he thought my dad had in his experience, he suggested six months to a year. They have an appointment for an oncologyist to visit them in the hospital on Monday and after hearing what he has to say in regards to treatments she is considering contacting the cancer center as well. Right now my dad is still recovering from the surgery itself, they only took the drains and ports out today but he is still feeling nausia, which I understand could be due to the rearrangement of the organs. I just pray that if the timeframe the doctor is suggesting is true that my dad is able to live out his days without being in the pain that he has been in thus far. I am also hoping he agrees to at least some of the treatments offered, although I am not familiar with the treatments as of yet. All I know is that my mother is tough she is a figher and will not give up which is what my dad needs right now. Right now I am so very angry, a lot because I am not able to be there with him right now and partly because he is such a wonderful man. He would never hurt a fly and yet he is being put through so much agony. The only thing I know to do is be a supportive as I can make sure that he knows how much he is loved.