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Thanks so much for everyone’s support! My dad is home from the hospital now and doing better. He is very weak, can eat only a few tablespoons of soft food at a time, and his abdomen is distended with fluid. He was sent home from the hospital with two diuretics to try to alleviate the fluid, and he has an appointment with his doctor on Monday morning. They talked in the hospital about doing a paracentesis. Has anyone else had experience with this? My dad is reluctant because his tummy is so sensitive right now, and the thought of them messing with it is not very appealing!
Today has been a good day. He has been more a part of things, and is actually conversing with us and even read the paper today! All week he has felt too poorly to do anything and has been very withdrawn. It is good to see him like this. Amazing, isn’t it, how much of life we take for granted.
Thanks for your feedback and your prayers. It means a lot at this time.

Katie, I have my e-mail on my profile, so I’m not sure why the personal message didn’t work, but I’d be glad to hear from you anytime. It is amazing about the similarities! So sorry that your dad passed so quickly, but I’m glad you were able to get home in time. I can only imagine what that week must have been like for you!

God bless all of you in your various stages of this battle. Stay thankful for the little things.

Cathy

Thank you all for your kind words and wishes. My dad was diagnosed in June of 2009. Not sure about all of the specifics in medical jargon, but his tumour was non-resectable and he was advised to do PhotoDynamic Therapy. He had a few treatments ( from Sept. 2009-March or April 2010 I think), and then wanted to stop treatments for the summer months so that he could be out in the sunshine. When he was doing the PDT initially, it did shrink the cancer some, and we were encouraged, but he did not want to waste what might be his last summer by continuing with the PDT—it was never meant to cure him, only to extend his time. He was given a prognosis of 1+ 1/2 to 2 years with PDT. He had a good summer, with good days and bad days and continued to have stents replaced as needed every 6 weeks or so.

Unfortunately, since September of 2010, his days have been mostly bad days and worse days. The cancer grew over the summer, and they resumed the PDT in September. His complaints are mostly of gas pains, bloatedness, “nerve” pain in his back, no appetite, no energy, sleeplessness, etc.

My parents live in Delaware, and my dad is being treated at Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia. I live in Ireland with my husband and 5 children, and being so far away is very, very difficult.

I spoke to my dad by telephone yesterday, and he had a fever of 101. He sounded awful, and said that he felt really bad, though apart from feeling weak he couldn’t nail down any “symptom” that was any different than the usual symptoms. His stools had been very light, but that afternoon he had diarrhea which he said was very dark–almost black. I knew by talking to him that he was in a bad way, but he didn’t want to go to the hospital because he said nothing would be done on a weekend.

Well, a few hours after I spoke with him, he passed out on his way to the bathroom, and started hemmoraging blood. My mom called the ambulance (can you believe he insisted on taking a shower to get cleaned off before the ambulance got there?!!), and when he got to the hospital, his iron count was 6.5. They gave him blood and plasma, and put tubes down his nose to pump the blood out of his stomach. Once he was stabilized they did a scope and found esophageal verices, which they rubber-banded. He is in ICU now, but is improving.
In light of this development, I have decided to book a flight home, and I am leaving in the morning. I don’t know how close we are to the end of this battle for him, and I am trying to brace myself for the inevitable shock of seeing him like this. He is 6’2″ and now weighs about 145lbs. He was always so big and strong. It has been so hard to know when to make the trip home, and how everything was going to work out, but I feel that I have to be there for my mom right now, as much as my dad. Please keep me and my family in your prayers. It is hard to leave my family at home, also. I have a 6 year-old, and my husband and middle daughter both have birthdays this week that I will miss. They are all supportive and tell me I must go, and I thank God for this! I just feel so torn, and emotionally fragile, and I know I need to be strong.

I have a new appreciation for those who have lost a parent. It doesn’t matter how old you are, it is still a shock to the system. I still can’t believe this is all real. My dad is 67 and until the cancer was very healthy. His parents both lived into their 90s–in fact his mother is still living at 93. We never saw this coming, and I can’t imagine my mother without him, they did everything together. It is an indescribable comfort to know that my dad knows Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour, and will be moving on to heaven for eternity, and the sorrows of this life will soon be over for him!! I am thrilled for him in that respect, but we still grieve for our eventual loss, and for what has been lost already. I know you all understand.

Thanks for listening. I hope this is not too discouraging to post. If I had known of the site earlier on in our journey, I would have had more good things to report. God bless you all, and keep thankful for the little things that we so often take for granted. Every day is precious.