Daddy

Well I haven’t been on in quite a while and I figured now was a good time to share that dad (Adan Cardosa) lost his battle to cholangiocarcinoma on December 17, 2012. He was originally diagnosed on January 25, 2012 at MD Anderson. Nearly the entire year fighting CC, you would have never known he was sick. He always looked and felt great. He was so lucky in that aspect. He did chemo until September and at that time it was determined there was nothing more to do. The tumor was increasing and he had lesions on both sides of the liver as well as the lungs. We did what we could and just kept praying that he would remain comfortable. Which he did. Right after Thanksgiving, things started slowing down. His edema in his legs came back. And mind you, this 76 year old man was still working part time through all of this, even the chemo. Never had any side effects from the chemo either. Just a little tired but nothing major. Once the edema started causing problems again, he decided to stop working. This was two weeks before he passed. Once he stopped working things seemed to get worse. His mobility became almost impossible for him to do without some sort of assistance. He kept falling. He was getting more confused. So the Friday before he passed, we asked for help. Hospice came in that day and they were a blessing!! They would help with bathing and keeping up with meds and anything else he needed. Brought in a hospital bed, special bathing chair, new walker, just to name a few. On that Monday he called me at work and was very confused about his meds. I assured him that his nurse would be by soon. I went to his house right after work to check on him and the nurse was bathing him and had him cleaned up and he seemed ok. My mom called me about 5 and asked if I could go by (while she was at work) to make him a little something to eat. He was already slowing down his appetite and his family doctor said it was probably the tumor growing still. So I made him a sandwich and I had to help him eat it because he was also getting the shakes. He only ate half and said he was full. We sat and visited for quite awhile until he said “maybe you should go home”. I thought that was odd because he always loved company. I said no I would stay until mom got home from her second job. He kept insisting that I go. So I did and I assured him I’d be back to check on him. On my way out, my brother was on his way in to check on him. This was close to 9 and he stayed for about 20 minutes because dad insisted he go too. At 10:10, my mom called me screaming that she came home and found dad on the floor. She was hysterical and I told her to call 911 and I was on my way. I live about 5 min from them and I kid you not, I made it to their house in about 45 seconds. Mom was standing there screaming and I tried to wake him up and he wasn’t responsive. Within seconds EMS was there and they immediately performed CPR and took him to the hospital. I tried to calm mom down even though I was about to lose it myself. We went to the hospital and they tried everything but the dr told us that when EMS arrived, there was no heartbeat.

I really think he knew it was time and didn’t want us to see him go.
We laid him to rest two days later and it’s been extremely hard. Dad was our rock and strength.

Rest in peace daddy…