An Update on Dad

As most of you know, my dad recently underwent surgery to remove a blockage in his intestine. During surgery, they found the blockage to be cancerous. He has been diagnosed with B-cell large cell lymphoma.

He went to the oncologist yesterday and this is an update (in his own words):

I will have tests beginning today and over the next week. I will have numerous test of my heart to insure it can take the stress of the chemo. Some scans of the lymph nodes in my chest to check their size for use as baseline data will be done also. I will have a "port" inserted into my chest for use in injecting the chemo and the 5 drug "cocktail" some time next week. That will be done by the surgeon who did the bowel surgery in January. The actual treatments are scheduled to start on Monday February 16. The first treatment will last 6 hours. Remaining treatments are expected to last 4 hours each and will be given every three weeks. The initial treatment is longer to closely monitor how my heart reacts to the chemo and other drugs. They will adjust the flow rate based on that reaction. Part of today's test will determine if I qualify for participation in a clinical trial drug test. The oncologist told me yesterday that I may be too healthy to qualify. That clearly would be a good problem to have. The oncologist told me to avoid people who are sick since my immune system will be weakened by the chemo. He also does not want me to travel outside of an hours radius of Chattanooga so that if complications develop I can be back here in short order. The oncologist also said that with today's drugs they should be able to medicate me to prevent nausea, that I should expect to loose all of my hair (short-term) and not to expect it to grow back in time for our daughter Bethany's wedding in September. This will give me an opportunity to insist that all men in the wedding party shave their heads or provide their own food and drink for the reception. Since I am paying the tab, this is only reasonable. The groom (Marcus) does not care since he already shaves his head.
More details later.
Bill

We are continuously praying for Dad. His strength and high spirits continue to remind me that he is an awesome man!

My friend, Nancy, sent this to me- I love it! A reminder of what we have control over regardless of our circumstances.

What Cancer Cannot Do

Cancer is so limited:

It cannot cripple love
It cannot shutter hope
It cannot corrode faith
It cannot destroy peace
It cannot kill friendship
It cannot suppress memories
It cannot silence courage
It cannot invade the soul
It cannot steal eternal life
It cannot conquer the spirit