Sadly, the Big C strikes again

Our family has another encounter with the Big C... yes cancer.

My father has been ill for a while, and is suffering stomach problems even more severely as of late. He was thinking his appendix burst.... Thursday night he was in such pain, two of my brothers finally convinced him to contact 911 and get an ambulance ride.  (we all live 70-120 miles away)

After a long ambulance ride first to one local hospital, they did an MRI and sent him on via ambulance to a larger hospital in Green Bay.  We knew it wasn't good.

Our youngest brother took off in the middle of the night to drive down from Michigan to be there and find out what was what. He had to drive first to one hospital and then to the other one to track down where the ambulance drivers took our Dad.  He was up all night dealing with our Dad once he found him.  He is our hero! Our Dad can be rather "cantankerous" and our brothers handle him better than us sisters.

By 6 am I headed out to drive up to Green Bay and see what was next.  By noon the oldest brother made it after his night job, and was there in time to meet with the docs. Our sister who runs their own business was standing by on the phone waiting for all updates and giving moral support.  We tried to reach out to the last brother, but, oh well. It is what it is. 

After more tests, CT scans, scoping and conferring with docs, it has been determined that cancer has invaded his bladder, both kidneys, and one of his lungs.  He had a very nice doc who spelled it all out in plain language and didn't hold anything back. He could tell that Dad was a "give it to me straight" kind of guy, and could see that us siblings were allowing Dad to make his own choices and come to terms with the diagnosis.  We were back and forth on the phone with our sister, thank God for cell phones and texts and instant contact devices.

The nephew that lives closest also came by to lend support and bring some sunshine with his fiance and two little boys.  Sometimes you need a good smile at times like this.  Thank you Matt & Amanda, and Colin and little Matt.


Decisions were made today and he was given all the options of treatment. He is able to make his own choices and all of the siblings in contact agree with his choice.

He has chosen to go home and live out his time there.  

Hospice will be contacted and arrangements made to get him some help at home. He wants to be home with his cat, his coffee maker, his garage, in his log cabin in the woods.  He built it himself 30 years ago with the help of us kids. That is where he wants to be.


In between all of this, I left the one hospital to run over to the other hospital on the other side of town to help with our newest granddaughter Whitney. She had lab work done and I helped with her big brother Jameson while they were in with the doc.  Her blood platelets have not increased and she is being watched carefully and goes back again on Monday for more tests.  Then I ran back to the first hospital for dad.  And back again this morning. Our oldest brother took over now and gave us a break.  We came home and took a three hour nap this afternoon.

This is gonna be a tough time for our whole family.

Please keep our family in your prayers and thoughts??