Cancer Update #6

It's been so long since I could sit at a computer to post here on My Round File! I am sneaking a few minutes at the library but must zip soon to go resume real life - grocery shopping for dinner tonight, shoes for Youngest that are on sale today, decorating for Christmas. The news of my dad is good but not great because that's how he is doing, he is doing good, but not great. He came through the surgery so now he is minus one lobe of lung and is officially cancer free. However, he is still not feeling well and that is a disapointment. We hope that over the next few weeks he will regain his strength. It is discouraging for him to go into the surgery with cancer but otherwise feeling really good and come out of the surgery without cancer but feeling crummy. A little iron for the anemia, some good sleep for the insomnia, and we pray he will be on his way to enjoying the new lease on life he has been given.

A Virtuos Woman by Kaye Gibbons and Cancer Update #5

Dad was in the hospital having surgery - that is actually good news. The chemotherapy and radiation were so successful that the only cancer left was the original tumor in the lung so they cut that bad boy out. Spending the day at his bedside during recovery, I knew I would need a book. I plucked this one off the shelves because I am closing in on the end of the A-Z Reading Challenge and I needed a "V" book. Didn't know until I flipped it open that it is the story of "a virtuous woman" who dies from lung cancer. Not sure what the word would be to describe that ..irony, satire, allusion, just plain bad luck? But despite that, the book was a good choice. Dad is still in the hospital, it has been one week now and we are eager for news that he can go home. I'll keep you posted.

From the Amazon product description: The virtuous woman is Ruby Pitt Woodrow, .... The daughter of prosperous farmers, Ruby runs off with a migrant worker who treats her badly, then abandons her far from home. When she meets Jack, a man 20 years her senior, she's working as a cleaning woman in another prosperous farmer's house. Jack is a man women don't look at even once, let alone twice; Ruby is a woman who needs someone to take care of her. Out of this unlikely union grows a quiet kind of love that is no less powerful for being unstated.
I can hardly remember Kaye Gibbon's first novel, Ellen Foster, except that I remember I liked it. This book shares a setting and a few characters with that one but the only name I recognized was Ellen. A Virtuous Woman starts out with the title character already dead and goes back and forth between present and past to tell us the story. It worked for me because it meant short chapters in an already short book for a reader, who at the time, had a pretty short attention span. (Read a chapter, blood pressure check, read a chapter, skin assessment team visits, read a chapter, chaplain drops by, read a chapter, central line check, continue for the entire day and night....hospital are not restful places.) The description reads of a "love unstated"; there was no flowery romantic language. The book was plain spoken like the people it told about and the most beautiful expression of love comes after Ruby has already passed. Even though it hit a little close to home, I enjoyed this one.

This book is my "V" book for the 2010 A-Z Reading Challenge. Click on the button to see my progress.

Cancer update #4

My dad had a follow-up scan and MRI recently as he finished what was to be his last chemo treatment. Both tests were very uplifting. There is no evidence of cancer in the brain - the surgery removed what was there and nothing has come back. The tumors that were outside of the lungs have virtually disappeared and the large tumor in the lung has been reduced by 75%! He has had 7 chemo treatments each three weeks apart so it has been a long time to go without really knowing if it was working. Now we know, it's working! So he has one more chemo scheduled in a few weeks but that seems to be just a holding pattern move while the doctors debate what to do next. The radiation guy thinks they should do radiation, the chemo guy thinks they should do oral chemo...(insert a witty comment here about another guy who could be at the table advocating for something truly horrendous - I can't come up with it on my own!) So, things look good, tempered at all times by the doctors constantly reiterating that this is not a cure. But my dad looks good, he has some hair (not much to start with so it's not that different!) and he still has a little belly pudge. He's tired, very, very tired but he's here and we're all so very happy and grateful.

Cancer update #3

For those who may be wondering how my dad is doing. He has been handling the chemotherapy very well. In fact, there is this piece of me (and one of my brothers voiced this as well) that wonders, if it is not affecting him like we expected - he's not nauseous, he's kept most of his hair, he has a good appetite, etc, is it working? Well, we still don't know that for sure. But because he is doing so well, because he is as his doctor describes "robust", he gets to do more. They are adding at least one more, maybe up to three more, doses of chemo. He has a scan scheduled after the next one so we will get an idea if it is working.

My mother was very specific with me that the doctor said this is not a cure. The stage four cancer will not be cured; this is giving him some extra time. Now the ball is in my court to make good use of that time. I must find time to go visit. It's difficult with work and three kids active in sports and such but I am going to make it happen. Dad isn't going through chemo so he can do more yard work or watch more TV. He is going through chemo to give his family the gift of more time and I need to take advantage of that gift.

Happy Valentines to me...random life happenings

I spent Valentine's Day driving back to South Carolina after spending the weekend with my father. He handled his first dose of chemotherapy very well - kept his appetite, kept his hair (what there is of it!) and, most importantly, kept his sense of humor! His next dose occurs later this week. The first week of March he has a repeat of the brain MRI to check for new growth. That will be a red letter day.




While I was away, I missed snow here in coastal South Carolina. The last time it snowed here was 1989. I missed that snow too - again I was away visiting my parents - what a coincidence!



I got home Sunday night and found a sweet Valentine's gift from Ex-Marine - a Snuggie! As seen on TV! I hinted around quite a bit at Christmas time but nobody took the bait so I was very pleased to see it now. Along with it came a big box of chocolates - diet to follow.



Less than an hour later, Bookworm said, "Somethings wrong with my tub." That something was the septic tank backing up and soon all three tubs had an inch of YUCK covering the bottom. An emergency plumber visit to dig up the tank lid by flashlight revealed that the drain into the tank was clogged with PAPER TOWELS. Some child...and there are really two equal suspects....decided that rather than walk down the hall to get a new roll of toilet tissue, he would just substitute the Brawny paper towels that I keep under the bathroom sink so they are handy to wipe the mirrors. Never dreamed a child would consider using them to wipe something else entirely. And, more than once. Boys really are a different breed. Sigh. Aren't you glad I chose a picture of paper towels rather than a picture of a septic tank.

This post is late getting up but Happy Valentine's Day!

Cancer update #2

The MRI did show a spot in Dad's brain so last Tuesday was "Brain Surgery Day". It was a non-invasive surgery using a laser called the Gamma Knife and it went well. Picture a highlighting cap with a laser in each hole. The individual lasers do no harm to the brain tissue, but they are all aimed at one small spot. The power of the combined lasers at that one spot zaps the tumor - poof! (Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!) They did a higher definition MRI that day but it did not reveal any more spots in the brain so they were able to take that one out and maybe we are finished with the brain. (Did you get that David Sedaris reference?) Two days later on Thursday, he started chemo for the all the other spots - lungs, neck, windpipe. He was feeling OK Thursday night; I haven't gotten my Friday update yet but am keeping fingers crossed.

Cancer update

This pretty white ribbon is the symbol for lung cancer awareness - I did not know that before, I'm learning all sorts of new things! In fact, my brothers and I are so curious that my dad calls us "the amateur oncologists"; we are all about the reading and Googling. You can tell from that comment that my dad's sense of humor is still in good shape. In fact, he is feeling good all over; he had aboslutely no symptoms before the diagnosis and now he still has no symptoms, so it feels somewhat surreal.

The real part is that he met with the oncologist, who scheduled a brain MRI to see if the cancer has spread to the brain (no results yet), and he met the chemotherapy providers, and next week he meets the radiation providers. So after the results from the MRI and second meeting with the oncologist (Wednesday), he will be ready to begin treatment.

I've been reading lots of non-cancer stuff too so will try to write those up over this long weekend. I'm not turning this into "The Cancer Blog" but at the same time, I want to update those are interested. Humor me - it's all a work in progress!