Family update - health matters....

I have talked about my mom having cancer... and her surgery and chemo since May. Well about two weeks ago we received news that my dad has cancer too. He has cancer in his kidney (malignancy) and bladder. He was scheduled for bladder surgery on Tuesday. My sister flew down to help my parents this through journey. Her notes from Tuesday:

After getting my dad to the hospital early this morning, they cancelled his surgery because the Anesthesiologist decided that it was too risky to perform because of the potential heart blockage they detected from his stress test. It would have been nice, especially for my dad, if they had decided this before they hooked him up to the I.V.!. So, dad is scheduled to have his Cardiac Catherization tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m.. Mom goes in for her CT scan at 9:00 a.m. at a different medical location of course, and I will have to drive like a bat out of hell to make it happen, but hey, I'm up for the challenge. Dad will most likely have to spend the night in the hospital.

And the saga continues...Cheryl was taxi cab driver extraordinaire! She took dad to the hosptial for his Catherization...kicking him out of the car and onto the curb ash she had to get mom to her CT scan at 9:00 am. They finished the CT scan heading back to the hospital only to find dad still waiting for his Cath. And they waited...and waited...and waited. I called them around 3:00 pm and ...he was still waiting.

I had a meeting to attend and received a call at 4:00pm indicating they were done. I'd say - that was fast - but it was not. It was a long wait BUT thank god for it. Dad had 90% (no typo there) blockage in the artery on the right side of his heart. He had a by-pass about 20 years ago on the left side. Scary stuff. Kudos to the anesthesiologist for cancelling his surgery yesterday as dad could have sufferred a stroke, heart attack ... or worse.

I spoke with my dad when he was in recovery - he sounded pretty good. I did tell him that Cheryl would NOT sneak him any food. My dad loves to eat... especially junk at night. Cheryl did ask the heart surgeon if he found any M&M's in the blockage as they are his new favorite "snack". He laughed.

So, dad comes home from the hospital today. Mom doesn't want to find out the results of her ct scan until AFTER my visit. She doesn't want to be depressed while I'm there. Good lord... I think she has the right to feel anyway she needs. Emotionally, it is so hard to be far away while all this is going on. I don't have any vacation time left and my parents feel as though I should wait until they NEED me before going down to help. Grrrr....

That's it... I am sorry if my postings are sporatic these days.