It took a couple days for my dad to recover from the biopsy, it took a lot out of him. We got him home, went about the same routine we did the week before. wake up at 8, get the couch ready for pops to sit in all day and begin juicing him some beets, carrots, ginger and apples. once we greet him, give him his juice and take his blood pressure, my mom or i make him some breakfast, either cream of wheat or fruit or a healthy scramble. even though we were doing the same thing we always have, that morning seemed off, he seemed different. he ate very little, then ten minutes later he is yelling for me, "stace, i'm going to throw up, get a bag." he tried to throw up for awhile and nothing happened. he became very weak, so weak he missed out on the memorial day bbq we were having for him. From that day on, nothing was the same, he continued to get weaker, legs were swollen, edema, bloating and chest pains. We decided to take him to the ER and found that he had a minor heart attack. All of us throughout the day filled that tiny ER room to be with him. They served him dinner, uh, lets see, meatloaf with gravy, mashed potatoes, strawberry cake, bread and butter and i think chocolate milk. Don't worry, i'm writing a letter!! They didn't even ask about his dietary restrictions, he's on blood thinners dammit!! there are a lot of things that can cause eternal bleeding if eaten while on blood thinners. We waited 11 hours for a private room to open up upstairs. My mom never left his side, she slept with him.
after one night, he got released back into the wild. Dad didn't want much to eat, he seemed different, he was losing his will to fight, already, i see it in his pretty green eyes. In the meantime, i'm calling UCLA and cancer treatment center of america to see what they can do for my dad. Not much. why? because of his insurance!! my dad got denied, thats bullshit! i didn't stop there, i met with a wonderful natropathic doctor in torrance and spent 3 hours with him going over my dads condition. When i returned home with the news from dr. knight, i got yelled at by my mother. she doesn't believe much in alternative medicine, she was calling him a crook and told me i was never to see him again. i continued to communicate with dr. knight via email and phone calls behind her back.
Before we got the call that we were denied from cancer treatment center of america, we were ready to go take dad on a road trip to Arizona to save his life. we fell for that ridiculous commercial about some lady named peggy who had stage 4 pancreatic cancer and the treatment center of america saved her life. we got my dad excited, his hope came back! when we knew that wasn't an option anymore, we got him an appointment with the USC pancreatic cancer center. My dad was too weak since he was just released from the hospital, so my brother mike, his girlfriend beth, my brother in law jim and i went to discuss the results from the biopsy with his oncologist so we can move forward and get a second opinion at USC. The oncologist explained the biopsy to us, it came back inconclusive. WHAT?! not okay! he said from his experience its 99.9% pancreatic cancer with a tumor located in the tail of the pancreas and he knows it has spread to the liver, duh, we already knew that much buddy. he just wasn't sure if it was classic pancreatic cancer or the slower to progress pancreatic cancer. either way he said treatment is an option if his leg issues get better. we came home and delivered the news.
No comments:
Post a Comment