Thursday, March 18, 2010

Colon cancer makes an entrance


I have no direction tonight...I'm just following my thoughts. My dad is in the hospital due to complications from a colon biopsy he had 1 1/2 weeks ago. He had a cancerous growth removed two weeks before that, so the surgeon was hoping for clean margins.

We don't have the margin results yet, but unfortunately, my dad hemorrhaged Tuesday night, was rushed to the emergency room and is now rebuilding his blood supply in the safety of a hospital room.

No one is sure why he hemorrhaged--we're assuming it was related to his surgery--but really, even the surgeon has no idea. This is one of those scenarios where you stabilize the patient, feed them a liquid diet and determine if the colon can handle its job without major, life-threatening protest. Then you send them back home and hope for the best.

Ironically, this is the last thing anyone in my family contemplated threatening my dad's health. He's been dealing with heart issues for at least 20 years and has needed a second bypass surgery for at least two.

Cholesterol is the enemy my family fights, whether they're male or female...cancer has never been an issue. And truthfully, cholesterol has taken enough lives and threatened even more that it's hard to fathom anything else as powerful. Trust life to throw you a curve ball, then sit back and critique your swing...

I'm just tired tonight... Tired emotionally, tired physically, and tired mentally. My husband has been gone for four of the past five weeks, and this entire cancer scenario has occurred during his absence. That's the way it's been during our marriage, I don't think he's ever been in town during a crisis. Uncle Sam and Mother Nature need to invest in an all-inclusive texting/email plan, if they care about their constituents' mental health...

Thank goodness I have the ever-consistent soccer schedule to follow and keep me sane. Seven days per week, rain or shine. As long as I keep showing up on the side lines, I know I'm keeping my head above water...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am sorry - I have not been up on your blog lately... I am so sorry that I cannot just hop in the car and come over and just sit with you.... please let me know how he is doing..... K

Echo said...

He's home and doing much better. The biopsy results showed clean margins, which is wonderful!

I was pretty overwhelmed the night I posted this...if you still lived just down the road, I would have been pounding on your door!

Thanks for being so supportive--it means a lot to me :)

Tournesol said...

So glad everything is looking better. Scary times, our parents aren't supposed to get sick, and then sometimes they do anyway. Take care.

Echo said...

I think the hardest part about aging is watching those older than you aging too. Thank you for your thoughts :)