About 18 months ago my mom got a phone call from the doctor my Dad had previously gone to visit, the doctor said that a mass had been found in my Dad's bladder, and they wanted to examine it. After a couple examinations and a biopsy they'd discovered that it was in fact bladder cancer. They did another surgery to remove the mass, and that seemed to help for the time being. He was sore for a while but he got better. A few weeks later he went back to the doctor and they did a PET scan to see if the cancer was gone or had returned, turns out the mass in my dad's bladder wasn't the only mass he'd had, before they even found this mass it had already spread to other organs. They did confirm it had started in his bladder though.
They put him on chemotherapy for about 6 weeks, going in twice a week every other week. After his chemo treatment my dad had seemed to be getting better since the chemo makes your body weak. He's been in good spirits throughout this entire process and the doctors told us he was cancer free. So they scheduled another scan for him about 6 months after this. Throughout these months my dad had been having severe pains in his abdomen and bladder areas, as well as some back pain. The doctors said it was probably just his body fighting off what's left of the chemo he went through and prescribed him some pain medication.
The pain never went away, even with strong doses Vikaden (sp?). My mother, whom at this point was very worried, called the doctors for weeks before they would finally schedule him to be seen again, so my dad was admitted into the hospital and was scheduled for another PET scan. After his scan they saw that the cancer had in fact returned, and was in his lymph nodes. It had advanced into Lymphoma, the doctors were surprised and how rabidly the cancer had spread. They kept him in the hospital for a few weeks and did some more surgeries on him, while keeping him on IV's containing morphine and other pain relievers. After he was healed from the surgery they sent him back home, however it didn't last long because after a couple more days he was back in the hospital with more severe pain. The morphine was barely doing anything for his pain at this point, they ended up doing several different scans on him to find exactly what all was going on, and the cancer had spread rabidly and very fast, it was now in his spine.
My dad has always been a very good man, and has always looked out for our family. I've always looked up to him as he's been a major influence on my life and who I am today. He's been given a 6 to 9 month prognosis, however the doctors say that it could be be even sooner. At this point it's progressed too far to cure, all we can hope for now is a miracle. Our family has been doing benefits to raise money for him just to do something he enjoys before his time is up, we all know it's coming and want his last few months here to be the best. It's getting really hard to type this at this point, so I'm going to end it here.
They put him on chemotherapy for about 6 weeks, going in twice a week every other week. After his chemo treatment my dad had seemed to be getting better since the chemo makes your body weak. He's been in good spirits throughout this entire process and the doctors told us he was cancer free. So they scheduled another scan for him about 6 months after this. Throughout these months my dad had been having severe pains in his abdomen and bladder areas, as well as some back pain. The doctors said it was probably just his body fighting off what's left of the chemo he went through and prescribed him some pain medication.
The pain never went away, even with strong doses Vikaden (sp?). My mother, whom at this point was very worried, called the doctors for weeks before they would finally schedule him to be seen again, so my dad was admitted into the hospital and was scheduled for another PET scan. After his scan they saw that the cancer had in fact returned, and was in his lymph nodes. It had advanced into Lymphoma, the doctors were surprised and how rabidly the cancer had spread. They kept him in the hospital for a few weeks and did some more surgeries on him, while keeping him on IV's containing morphine and other pain relievers. After he was healed from the surgery they sent him back home, however it didn't last long because after a couple more days he was back in the hospital with more severe pain. The morphine was barely doing anything for his pain at this point, they ended up doing several different scans on him to find exactly what all was going on, and the cancer had spread rabidly and very fast, it was now in his spine.
My dad has always been a very good man, and has always looked out for our family. I've always looked up to him as he's been a major influence on my life and who I am today. He's been given a 6 to 9 month prognosis, however the doctors say that it could be be even sooner. At this point it's progressed too far to cure, all we can hope for now is a miracle. Our family has been doing benefits to raise money for him just to do something he enjoys before his time is up, we all know it's coming and want his last few months here to be the best. It's getting really hard to type this at this point, so I'm going to end it here.
I hate cancer. My grandma, who was healthy as a ox before, died 9 months ago after an 18 month battle with glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer. It came on very suddenly and it was just a shock to our entire family. It was really hard watching her go through the chemo and radiation and the numerous health issues that she faced during treatment. The main piece of advice that I will give you is to always be there for your dad, whether he wants to laugh or whether he wants a shoulder to cry on, even though it might be the most painful thing you have to watch.
