Prayers for my Dad
 

My Dad is going in for his cancer surgery at 11:00 at UCI and I would appreciate any and all good vibes and prayers that everyone could send his way.

For those of you that don't know...he was diagnosed with a recurrence of colon cancer in September. He's already endured 2 months of chemo and radiation and now they are going in to perform a fairly radical surgery. They are pretty sure the chemo and radiation destroyed the cancer but since it was right next to a lymph node they feel his best chance to beat this is to remove the rest of his colon and rectum.

His recovery isn't going to be easy, and if they can't effectively "reconstruct" him internally...this could be a huge life changer for him. One of his biggest fears is being stuck with a colostomy bag for the rest of his life. The one bright spot in all of this is that they have told him he could be in the hospital for up to 10 days. He won't take it easy once he gets home and he's hasn't managed his diabetes for months, so the longer they keep him the better.

I know I can't do anything to help right now, but I really wanted to be out there for MY peace of mind. I was supposed to be driving out to California today with my 4 year old in tow so I could be at the hospital. My Mom (she's been divorced from my Dad since I was 2) had agreed to watch Ms. L so I could be with my Dad for a few days. Well, she informed me on Sunday that she has a scheduling conflict today and can't watch her. On top of that, they've decided to head to Lake Havasu to take care of their boat, so she can't help the rest of the week. Seriously, how can one person be that flaky?

On the bright side, I'm putting all of my nervous energy to good use. The laundry is almost done, bills are paid, and house should be cleaned by the time I pick up the kids at school today. I can't sit still right now...I'll be even more of a basketcase than I usually am. ;)

Thank you all for your help,

swanie

I wish success for your Dad today. If you do decide to come out, let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Maybe I can put a 4 year old to work around the house. ;)

Sending good thoughts to you guys.

Prayers and positive vibes are on their way

now good vibing with all my might.

Fibrilating as I type here, sending good vibes your and your Dad's way.

You got it. Good luck to him, and comfort to you and your family.

Best wishes for you and yours.

More prayers going from here swanie....have you mentioned the scheduling issue with someone in the Inland Empire?

((hugs))

Thinking good thoughts.

Positive vibes being sent your way

Oh, yikes. Prayers for you and yours.

Positive thoughts coming right up!

Good thoughts your way.

Positive thoughts heading your way. Ay least he's at a good place and will be there while he heals for a little bit.

I'm sorry your Mom is such a flake, I know how you feel.

Wolfpack is thinking of you and your Dad...good vibes will be sent all day long!

Positive vibes are on their way.

Our best to your dad, you and your family.

Happy, restful, successful thoughts for you and your dad.

Hoping for the best.

Much love and prayers to you and your dad. *hugs*

Not yet, but I might. :)

As long as everything goes well with the surgery, the easiest thing for Mr. Swanie and the girls would be for me to wait to go until this weekend. Mr. Swanie is offering to take Friday off to shuttle the kids around, so I could travel by myself. It sucks that I would have to wait that long, but at least I wouldn't have to worry about anyone but my Dad once I got there.

Thank you all for the well wishes. My Dad is a tough old bugger, but I figured he could use all the help he could get right now. :)

swanie

I just got off the phone with my half-brother. Dad is out of surgery and it was a 100% success! According to the surgeon, he couldn't have asked it to go any better and a preliminary look at what was removed revealed nothing more than a scar where the cancer had been.

The surgeon did say that if it weren't for the fact that they had a fantastic anesthesiologist, the surgery wouldn't have even happened. His blood sugar was completely out of whack and under normal circumstances, they would have had to cancel everything. He said my Dad has a new lease on life and that it is up to him to get his meds and his diabetes under control or he's a ticking time bomb. Hopefully he will listen this time and take care of himself.

Thank you all so much!

swanie

Yeah for the good news Swanie!

Now comes the hard part: getting Dad to change his ways.

Great news!

Very glad to hear the positive report.

Talk about answer to prayer (yeah Alex we know you don't believe, and that's cool) ...that's great news!!!

Yay!

Wonderful news!

Great news and continued good thoughts on your dad's recovery.

That's the best news! YAY!

I've already had 2 conversations with my hopped up on morphine Dad this morning. He scared the living daylights out of me when the phone rang at 6:00 PST. He is beyond agitated and is hallucinating. If he doesn't settle down, I may have to go out tomorrow cause he's not liking my siblings right now.

He doesn't handle pain meds well. Just like there are happy drunks and mean drunks...he becomes mean and irrational when he's on anything. Thank goodness he doesn't actually drink in real life. This kind of behavior only comes out when he's in the hospital.

He is accusing my brother of hooking up a fax machine to his main line (but was calling his own cell phone from the looks of it), thinks they left yesterday without talking to any doctors so they must not care, and he wants his false teeth and his cell phone NOW. He also thinks he was only in surgery for an hour and because he feels no pain he doesn't think he needs the morphine any more.

Going to be a fun day. :rolleyes: