Worried about Cancer
Hey Live Journal,
I haven't have a live journal in a long time. But, there has been a lot on my mind recently and sometimes I just kind of need to get things out, rather than keeping them bottled up. It's unhealthy to keep things in, or so I am told. But, I'm not really the sort to complain much, I guess. It's hard to talk about certain things...but I really need to. So, I am hoping that some of the things I say in this entry may inspire or help someone else.
A lot of the issues that have been bothering me lately are family related, specifically, concerning my dad. He's smoked all of his life, from the time he was 12. He's 56, now. Five months or so, ago, we learned that he had lung cancer. Discovering it was a complete shock, while he was going in for surgery for a high hernia. But it was there and it was about the size of a gold ball. Sadly, all I can think is...if he had listened to me and quit smoking sooner...
Anyway, it was there and his doctor sent him to a specialist who wanted several thousand dollars up front to do the surgery. My family can not afford that. So, he let it go instead of going back to his main doctor. In fact, he would not go back until he really began to feel ill. The cancer grew 3 centimeters. With in a few weeks, he was at a hospital in Charlotte North Carolina. Levine Cancer Institute, Charlotte Medical Center. The didn't even care if they got paid. They said they were going to do the surgery regardless. So, they removed half of his lung.
We had hoped that removing the bad part of his lung would be the end of it, but sadly, it was not. Tests showed that the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes. So, now he has to face four months of Chemotherapy and radiation treatments and hope it kills the cancer cells. We have been told that if it doesn't work, the cancer can show up in other parts of his body. If it shows up in another part of his body, we have been told that they can do nothing. They won't be able to cure it.
Needless to say, I am very worried and terrified for my father. He means the world to me. I don't know what I would do with out him. Of course, he makes things very difficult when he won't listen to what the doctor tells him to do, either. But, he is stubborn. It's the way he has always been. We just have to try and help him through all this, the best we can. He started his Chemotherapy on Wednesday. He's been very tired, since then. So, he sleeps a lot.
I haven't have a live journal in a long time. But, there has been a lot on my mind recently and sometimes I just kind of need to get things out, rather than keeping them bottled up. It's unhealthy to keep things in, or so I am told. But, I'm not really the sort to complain much, I guess. It's hard to talk about certain things...but I really need to. So, I am hoping that some of the things I say in this entry may inspire or help someone else.
A lot of the issues that have been bothering me lately are family related, specifically, concerning my dad. He's smoked all of his life, from the time he was 12. He's 56, now. Five months or so, ago, we learned that he had lung cancer. Discovering it was a complete shock, while he was going in for surgery for a high hernia. But it was there and it was about the size of a gold ball. Sadly, all I can think is...if he had listened to me and quit smoking sooner...
Anyway, it was there and his doctor sent him to a specialist who wanted several thousand dollars up front to do the surgery. My family can not afford that. So, he let it go instead of going back to his main doctor. In fact, he would not go back until he really began to feel ill. The cancer grew 3 centimeters. With in a few weeks, he was at a hospital in Charlotte North Carolina. Levine Cancer Institute, Charlotte Medical Center. The didn't even care if they got paid. They said they were going to do the surgery regardless. So, they removed half of his lung.
We had hoped that removing the bad part of his lung would be the end of it, but sadly, it was not. Tests showed that the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes. So, now he has to face four months of Chemotherapy and radiation treatments and hope it kills the cancer cells. We have been told that if it doesn't work, the cancer can show up in other parts of his body. If it shows up in another part of his body, we have been told that they can do nothing. They won't be able to cure it.
Needless to say, I am very worried and terrified for my father. He means the world to me. I don't know what I would do with out him. Of course, he makes things very difficult when he won't listen to what the doctor tells him to do, either. But, he is stubborn. It's the way he has always been. We just have to try and help him through all this, the best we can. He started his Chemotherapy on Wednesday. He's been very tired, since then. So, he sleeps a lot.