Last Monday my dad had surgery to remove the cancer in his colon.
This was the day before...Father's Day...we visited dad for a little bit. I had pretty much cried off and on all day. I mean...the day to celebrate Fathers and I have this huge fear of losing mine. It was a bit much. And as much as I didn't want to break down in front of him, when I gave him a goodbye hug I just lost it. There are certain times in my life when I remember being hugged by dad. He is a great father, but there are times when his hugs were particulary meaningful. One of those was right after my wedding. My dad met me in the hall and we hugged...again I just lost it. My life was no longer in his hands, but in Joey's hands now. I felt like it was the end of something so precious. And there was this hug...the night before surgery. I felt like I was transported back to being a little kid and all I needed was a strong comforting hug from my daddy. I needed him to tell me it would all be okay. When we got home I told Joey, trough muddled tears, that I wished I had spent the night with my parents. I just NEEDED to be close to them.
Monday morning dad was prepped and ready to go. He had great nurses and a wonderful doctor!! We were very blessed.
They finally wheeled him off and we headed to the waiting room. We had SO MANY people there that we took up an entire section of the floor!! Aunts, Uncles, Pastors, friends, brothers (16 or 17 people in all)...such a great support for my mom!! I will admit though...for me it was rough. I wanted to be in a corner...just with my mom, Grandma and my brother. My eyes were fixed on the monitor that tells those waiting how the patient is doing. They give updates every hour. Well, once we had passed the 3 hour mark (for a surgery that was only supposed to last max 2 and half hours) we started to worry. There were some complications....the cancer was in a different place than originally thought. So they had to go in at a different angle, take out more than anticipated, take out part of his spleen and all his lymph nodes.
I'm so proud of dad! He pulled through and got in his regular room about 5 o'clock that night. He was ready to rest when he got into his room...so we left. I am so thankful to the bestie for keeping ALL my brats. It was so nice not having to worry about them.
Wednesday we headed to the hospital for a visit....the kids wore their Longhorn gear to support Grandpa!!! :)
The kiddos bought him a monkey in the gift shop! Not the best quality pic, but I love it!
Thursday morning we visited as well. It was good to see him progressing each and every visit!!
We visited Friday and he was released that afternoon!!! He is home recovering and we are thrilled he is doing well.
***We did learn yesterday that he has STAGE 3 cancer and it will require 6 months of CHEMO. Not what we expected to hear, but we know God is in control of the situation.***
Please keep my dad in your prayers!!
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