Brrrrrrr! It's cold in Oklahoma right now (I think it's cold EVERYWHERE right now.) I'm so thankful that the ice has missed us so far. I hate driving in it. If there's no school, we have plenty of food, heat, power, warm showers, games, books, and family, I'm all for staying home and enjoying a day or two off. :) The power outage last January did me in for a while. 12 straight days of no power is insane to me. I have no idea how the Amish do it. CRAZY. On to more important parts of the day . . .
Dad's Oncologist appointment was at 8:45 this morning at the Cancer Center located on the campus of Comanche County Memorial Hospital. His oncologist is Dr. Nemeh. The only other experience we've had with him was with my Grandpa Bob (almost 10 years ago now.) I wasn't a fan of his bedside manner, however looking back on the circumstances at that time, I'm not sure that anyone's bedside manner would've really mattered. It was my first up close and personal experience with sickness and cancer and the first that I was old enough to truly understand as well as being an adult who could help with things since I was in college. We met him in the hospital where my grandpa found out that he had lung cancer. Due to his bad health, he was unable to have any chemotherapy or surgery. Radiation was his only option just to attempt to keep him comfortable in the last few months of his life. He was very to the point, no "I'm sorry" or anything. At the time, it made me so angry. Now, being older and wiser (hahahaha) I realize that number 1 it's probably his way of dealing with cancer on a daily basis and number 2 it was my first huge experience with any of this and number 3 he was just doing his job. I said all of that to let you all know that with a slight attitude adjustment before going into the appointment today, I actually liked him after today's appointment. He is all business, but wouldn't have it any other way. There were sparks of some sort of humor when he asked dad to aim his rear towards him and not Mom and I (in much more professional terms.) It also helped that he offered me his own stool when he came in which I kindly declined. :)
He did a full exam on Dad, asked tons of questions (that were probably all repeats from the 50 pages of paperwork Dad had just filled out in the waiting room), and did a rectal exam. Once he went through all of this, read through the pathology test, etc, he pretty much told exactly what we already knew. He is in stage 2 colon cancer with the actual mass being a size 3. He considers it an intermediate stage of cancer (not at the beginning, not at the end.) He said with him being healthy otherwise, that the curability is high. Thank the Lord. The bad news - he will do radiation for 5 days straight Monday thru Friday for 6 weeks straight. Every day that he has radiation, he will take chemo by mouth (pills). The name of the chemo is Xeloda. He will take 2 daily (1 in the morning and 1 in the evening.) He also said that he doesn't think he will need any sort of colostomy bag because it's located higher in the rectum than we first thought (another positive through it all.) One of the bigger blessings we found out today was that Mom contacted her carry for the cancer insurance she has kept from way back when she started working in the school systems and they pay well for the chemo and radiation. They will also be receiving an initial lump sum of $5000 to pay for medical expenses. According to Dr. Nemeh, the Xeloda medication is super expensive so this is a true blessing. We did get to see Nelly Miller while we were there. She was headed back for chemo. It had been a while and it was great to see her.
He is scheduled for one week from today (Monday, January 17th) for his radiation consult. Dad was a little frustrated for the waiting/testing process that seems to be taking forever. He is ready to get the radiation and chemo started and over with. I couldn't imagine having to sit around and think about it all at times anticipating what it might be like.
The next appointment is on Thursday at the outpatient center to do a procedure to "tattoo" with dye the complete area where the mass is located so that once chemo and radiation are finished, the surgeon will know what cells and area to take out.
6 weeks seems like such a long time when you are going 5 days a week (30 treatment days total). I'm sure there are others who've had it much worse and others who have had it better. It just seems long to me for some reason.
The boys and I had dinner with my parents. Maddux is a little terror these days. Unfortunately, I think I will be paying for Aaron's raising. He is a mess. It's as if he knows every little thing he's not supposed to get into, and he does it anyway. I helped mom get her Kindle hooked up and Dad was watching UCONN women's basketball and the pre-game show for the National Championship in football. I'm ready for the covers and my book. I hope everyone had as blessed of a day as we did. Thanks for all your prayers. Keep 'em coming! I leave you with the song that touched my heart this morning on the way into town to meet my parents for the Oncologist visit.
"The voice of truth tells me a different story. The voice of truth says do not be afraid. The voice of truth says this is for My glory. Out of all the voices calling out to me, I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth."
On Thursday
