Prayers for my Dad

The past couple of weeks have not been easy. As some of you know, my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer in the beginning of February. It’s tough because it seems like it is one thing after another, first with my mom and now with my dad. I am at the end of my rope in dealing with this kind of stuff. My pregnant hormones don’t help the situation either. My dad has been a heavy smoker for 40 years, so this news should not be shocking to any of us….but when it actually happens, it of course is. Back in December he started having really bad pains in his upper right chest/shoulder area that would run down his back and right arm. He called his doctor and they instructed him to go to the emergency room. They did blood work, chest X-rays and a CAT scan. They didn't really find anything, so they wrote him 2 prescriptions for pain and released him. A few weeks later, the pain continued and intensified. Even his skin was painful to the touch. He went back to his doctor and they ordered additional tests. He went in for a CAT scan, a PET scan and also a biopsy. After going through these tests it was confirmed that he has a malignant tumor and he has lung cancer. After learning the news we were able to get in with the oncologist right away. At his appointment, the doctor went over all of his scans and made things easy for us to understand (and explained how cancer works). He said the tumor had probably been growing for at least 2 years. He felt he would be able to help my Dad with a combination of radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. He couldn’t lay out a treatment plan until it was confirmed that the cancer had not spread anywhere else. My dad had a handful of additional scans to make sure the cancer had not spread to his brain, bones, lymph nodes, etc. Luckily, all of the results came back good and it had not spread.

Soon after, we had an appointment scheduled to meet with the surgeon to figure out when/if the tumor could be removed. The surgeon went over all of my dad’s scans/results and gave us some bad news. He said that he has a very rare tumor called a pancoast tumor. Basically, where the tumor is located, it is completely wrapped up in all of his nerves (which is why he has all of the pain). The surgeon said he has only seen one case like this in his 30 years of doing surgery. He said it is going to be a very risky surgery and he did not feel he was experienced or equipped to do his surgery. He referred us to a top surgeon at Northwestern that has expertise with these types of tumors. Luckily, we were able to get an appointment with him right away. Even though my dad has a rare tumor, it is not rare to this surgeon (which is a good thing). He feels he would be able to help my Dad. So the new surgeon coordinated with my Dad’s oncologist and radiologist and they came up with a treatment plan. My Dad was scheduled for 6 weeks of radiation (5 days a week) along with 6 weeks of chemotherapy. Hopefully his tumor responds to the treatment. If everything goes according to plan, they will remove the tumor 6 weeks after his last radiation/chemo treatment. The surgery is still going to be a challenge and will have a long recovery time.

Shortly after, the surgeon “installed” a chemo port in my dad’s chest and he was scheduled to begin treatment the week of March 5th. The radiation appointments are quick 5 minute appointments and then the chemo appointments would be scheduled on the same day and would last anywhere from 2-3 hours. The doctor said he would be able to drive himself to the appointments. Towards the end of the 6 weeks, he may start to feel weak and may need a ride to his appointments. Well….things have not gone according to plan. On his third day of radiation and chemo, he had a SEVERE allergic reaction to the chemo. His entire face swelled completely, he couldn’t breathe and was in a lot of pain. It was scary – I didn’t know what to do to help him when I spoke to him on the phone. He sounded horrible. Luckily, my uncle lives close and was able to go over there (since I was at work) and took him to the doctor right away. At the doctor’s office , they gave him some Benadryl and had him on oxygen (because his oxygen levels were dangerously low). They still gave him chemo that day but changed up his chemo “cocktail.” He had a break on Friday (only radiation) and he was scheduled to have chemo on Monday (today), but then not again until March 30th. They gave him a few different prescriptions to help with his breathing and swelling. I felt really bad for him. He was absolutely miserable…..and it is only the start of his treatment. I am hoping that since they have changed the chemo mixture, he won’t have this type of reaction again. I talked to my Dad a few times over the weekend and he didn’t sound good. He said he felt awful, but better than he did a few days prior. He was still having a very hard time breathing. He was not well enough to go to Annabelle’s birthday party (which I knew broke his heart). I stopped over there on Saturday morning and he was very weak and just didn’t look good.

This morning I called my dad when I got to work and he sounded bad. He said he had a horrible night and didn’t feel good. My uncle was on his way over to pick him up for radiation so my dad said he would call me later when he got home. When my uncle got to the house he had a hard time getting him out of bed. He was shaking uncontrollably and wasn’t making much sense when he spoke. My uncle immediately decided to take him to the Emergency Room. At this point, I was in a meeting at work this morning and when I got back to my desk I had 8 missed phone calls on my cell phone from my uncle, my brother, my aunt and one of my dad’s friends. I immediately freaked out and tried calling everyone back and no one answered. I finally got ahold of my uncle and he explained what had happened so I left work and headed to the hospital. Luckily he was at Good Sam, which is right down the road from work. By the time I got to the hospital they had already done several tests and an EKG on my dad. He had started running a temp of 103 so they gave him Tylenol to bring the fever down. The doctor’s determined he has a bacterial infection but don’t know its cause yet (we should know tomorrow). They admitted him to the hospital and they said he would be here for the next day or two. All of his doctor’s (his primary, oncologist, radiologist) are coordinating a plan (he was supposed to have treatments today and the whole week). They have given him two breathing treatments to help because his breathing is erratic and he will continue to receive them every 4 hours. He could barely breathe - they thought he might have pneumonia (but he doesn't). So now, I am just sitting with him in the room while he doses in and out of sleep. He hasn’t eaten all day so he had a light dinner and is just trying to get comfortable. He was not happy that he has to stay the night, but in all honesty it is probably the best thing for him. I would be too scared to let him go home, considering the kind of night he had last night. They have given him a few antibiotics to help clear up the infection and hopefully he will start feeling better and he can go home tomorrow. His white blood cell counts were really low. I hope this is the only “bump” in the road we have with his treatment plan. Smoking is definitely not worth all of this! My dad has committed to quit and hasn’t smoked in over a week. He said as soon as he started treatment he was done. I hope that is the truth. Please keep my dad in your thoughts and pray that we get through this.