My Hero...not invincible after all!

I will never forget July 21, 2009. This is the day I found out my dad had cancer. Let me back up to how this all happened.

First of all my dad is 71 years old. He takes really good care of himself. Tries to watch what he eats and takes daily walks. He was an alcoholic for many years but stopped drinking December 1999.

Around the beginning of June he started feeling sick to his stomach. He thought maybe it was spicy food and chalked it up to developing GERD. He basically felt bad on and off all month and even thought he had a virus, went to the doctor..the whole nine yards. Well on Father's Day he started feeling really sick and then about 1-2 weeks later starting turning yellow with jaundice. His doctor ran Hepatitis tests on him which came back negative. Then he was sent for a gallbladder scan. The doctor said it looked like his gallbladder and referred him to a surgeon. The surgeon took a look at his tests and felt there was more going on and refferred him to an oncology surgeon because they found a tumor in his ampula. The oncology surgeon decides Daddy needs a whipple surgery to remove the tumor which they found to be Stage 1 cancer. His surgeon said because of the location of the tumor, they found it early which is obviously a huge blessing.

Where we are right now....
Well obviously we have no idea if the cancer will come back. He will more than likely need chemo/radiation after recovery. He has been in the hopsital for just over a week and will hopefully be discharged by the end of this week. He is on a feeding tube but he started a clear liquid diet this weekend. He is regaining strength every day and has good days and bad days. For the most part, he isn't taking any pain meds. He is getting his days and nights mixed up and having a difficult time sleeping in general. I think he is just ready to be home.

I must say, he has pretty much been seemingly invincible my whole life. I never in a million years thought my dad would get cancer. It just goes to prove that you really never know and you can never prepare yourself for it! To see him so helpless, so vulnerable...it is a sight I never thought I would see. He has always been strong as an ox. Throughout this experience he has proven what a fighter he is and it has really united my sisters. We definitely do well in a crisis. My prayer is that he continues to fight and can finish out his life as a long healthy one.