Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Sending up a prayer...

Sorry to be M.I.A. Nothing major really going on!

KC got to the rink early on Sunday. When I caught up with him, I could tell something was "off." I asked him what was wrong...he paused for about 5 seconds. I swear, my first thought was, "oh gosh, who is sick???" And sure enough he said, "I just found out my dad has cancer...in his pancreas and his spleen."

My heart just dropped. I have dealt with cancer so much in my family. I won't even give you the whole rundown. In February 2008, my dad found out he had prostate cancer. But his PSA was at a good level, and the cancer was only on one side, so they just went in and took his prostate out. Fast forward to July 2008 - my mom calls, my dad is at the hospital. His stomach had ruptured and they had to do immediate surgery. It was 50/50 as to whether or not he was going to make it through the first 48 hours. I thought my dad was gonna die...and I couldn't get to him and there was nothing I could do. I was all out of sorts.

My dad and I had a rocky relationship for a while. I won't go into all the details, but from about age 24 until 30, I barely talked to my dad. I was just angry with him about things that happened when I was growing up. Finally at 30, the light bulb came on. My dad is human. He's not perfect. All I can do is move forward from here. We started mending our relationship, and last year we probably talked more than we had in a long time. I was glad that we had at least mended things, so if we did lose him, I wasn't going to be filled with the "woulda/coulda/shoulda." Luckily, he made it through. A five week stay in the hospital resulted in a forced detox...he no longer smokes cigarettes, and most importantly, he no longer drinks. We have the best conversations now.

But back to KC - please keep him and his father in your prayers. One of these days we are going to eradicate cancer. I can't wait.

2 comments:

Tazzee said...

Definitely praying for KC and his father. Cancer is no joke, I had an aunt that died from pancreatic cancer last year. She lived over 2 years after the diagnosis with 6 months left...

I'm so glad you were able to mend your relationship with your dad.

Marilie said...

That's good to know. I knwo it's hit or miss with the diagnoses, as far as how long a person has. I didn't get to ask him what stage it was, or anything like that. I just hope he has a coping mechanism in place. I'm guessing he will just drown himself in work even more. :(