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NANCY'S DAD


This bio is about my Dad,age 61 at time of dx. My dad had been complaining of upper abdominal pain since January 2000. He was told everything from pneumonia, pluersey, and the last one just before dx was improve your upper body strength. This was a man who played handball 3 - 5 times a week for the last 25 years, never smoked in his life, ate relativly healthy and was a social drinker. On April 3rd he had a bone scan to see if it was cracked ribs, the bone scan came back perfect. On April 5th he noticed his stool had blood in it and he called the Dr. to see if the dye they gave him for the bone scan would do that. The Dr. said "no" you should have some blood test, so off he went. On April 7th the blood work came back with some abnormalities so the Dr. scheduled an ultra sound for April 10th. Up until this point Dad had been getting really tired, he had no energy, food didn't appeal to him at all and I noticed he was a little jaundice. The ultra sound also showed something in the liver, so they sent him for a ct scan and fine needle biopsy. The radioligist told him 2 hours later that he had "PC" and didn't have long to live. We were dumfounded, couldn't believe what we just heard. Dad's own GP didn't know what to say, he couldn't believe it. We were then 2 weeks before we got in to the cancer clinic, Dad kept getting worse by the day, food was not only appealing but nothing would stay down any longer, his stomach was getting distented ( ascites I now know) and all he did was sleep. the cancer clinic was a joke, 4 different people, 4 different stories and 4 different opinions. The final outcome being Dad had to see a liver specialist first then he could start chemo. Well the liver specialist was to busy and couln't see to perform an ERCP until May 1st. So we just sat by and waited, trusting this Dr.s with my Dad's outcome. The ercp was permormed and supposedly went well. The Surgeon told us Dad's stomach was pretty bad, and his liver was one big mass, but maybe the chemo would shrink it a little and he might have a litte quality for a short time. We were scheduled for our first chemo on May 3. By that day Dad was in and out of consiousness and I knew he was on his last legs. I called the hospital to see if we should still bring him in, yes was the reply. When the oncologist saw him, he immediatly pulled me aside to tell me my fathers was dying and to take him home if that was his wish. So we took him home and he passed away on May 5. It was the longest and shortest battle of all our lives. He fought till the end, but it was so quick. No one believed it would be that quick, not the home care nurses, the oncologist, the GP, Dad or us. So anyone who reads this, please be prepared for anything. Please feel free to e mail with any questions, or any way you think I might be able to help. I am my Dad's only Daughter, he also has a son and a wife of 28 years.I miss him every day, he was a great guy, always smiling and willing to lend a helping hand to anyone who needed it.

Posted 06/21/2000 09:48 pm by NANCY
E-mail Address: NGIRLING@DCCNET.COM

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