dad, february 6th, 2008

This past Monday my father returned to see his surgeon and oncologist. As he has been he is recovering well from the surgery. They removed half of the staples from his head and plan to remove the remaining next week. The surgeon said that the wound is healing nicely. Dad continues to feel dizzy, however. Some of that is caused by the surgery he endured and some is caused from the seizure medication he is taking. I am not sure what it is, but that is one of the side-effects. He was having an additional MRI this week to plan for the radiation and the oncologist has set up a schedule for treatment. He will begin his radiation treatments on Wednesday February 13^th. Chemo is schedule to start at the same time with oral treatment. I will be trying to get back down once that begins. His particular type of cancer is Glioma Astrocytoma. Those are a couple of big words for brain cancer.

His email tonight said “all I can do is lay around from one chair to another and watch the boring TV.” He sounds good when I talk to him, but I know he is feeling worse than he shares. I respond much in the same way. But you can hear it in his voice. It stirs the range of emotions in me too. I find myself very angry at times. This is not easy for any of us.

Here's an article that was written about him recently in the Naples’s Daily News. Dad’s been writing articles about once a month for the paper’s faith section sharing childhood memories and his deeper sense of connection to God. This time the article was written for him. It will give you some insight into the man I call Dad.