Blind Sided

Life has thrown our family another curve ball. My younger sister was told only days ago that she has some very abnormal cell growth around her cervix and that she would have to have an immediate biopsy to determine exactly what is going on and a possible surgical procedure to stave off any cancerous growth.

She and her husband were just starting the journey of expanding their family and she is very understandably worried. Tomorrow I take her to a nearby hospital for the procedure and I'm keeping a positive outlook for her no matter what because I truly can't bring myself to think of the worst. I feel like a child with her fingers in her ears singing "la la la la la la la" at the top of her lungs so that they can't hear anything else.

I think what terrifies me the most is that if my dad has had cancer and my sister may have it to that I'm next... I know I'm getting way ahead of myself but sometimes those ugly little thoughts sneak up on you :(

If you could keep my sister in your prayers tomorrow as we find out just what is going on that would be so lovely.

Hugs,
Rosina

Celebrating

Celebrating.....

That's just what we have been doing around here!! I wanted to share with all of you the wonderful news we received this week regarding my dad's colon cancer and surgery.

HE IS CANCER FREE!!!!

The tests results came back and there is absolutely no cancer in his lymph nodes or any of the surrounding tissue that was removed with the section of his colon. That little 1 cm portion they removed seems to have been the entire spot of nasty cancer that was growing inside of him. Oh my word it is a miracle. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. I just know they helped :)

The doctor removed his staples and the incision continues to heal nicely. There is still one spot right around the belly button that is slowly healing but there is no infection and the doctor said he is doing great. So for now he is supposed to continue taking it easy for at least another 5 weeks and then they will do blood tests every 3 months for the first year and an annual colonoscopy from here on out to make sure they keep a close eye on what is happening internally.

I know my dad is strong and puts on a brave face but this past week of waiting was extremely hard on him. You could just see by looking at him that he was worried. His spirits were low and he looked grave a lot of the time and today he looks just like his old self and he has even been out walking around the property a bit more. I don't know what we would do without him and I am just so thankful to the Lord for watching over him during this past couple of weeks and to all of you wonderful friends that have emailed, called and checked up on us.... You're the BEST :)

Big (((Hugs))),
Rosina

Kicking Cancer in the Butt

♥♥ Thank you everyone for all of your prayers ♥♥

My dad had his surgery Tuesday afternoon and he did fabulous! The operating room was running behind schedule so we ended up waiting until just before 3pm before the doctor finally came out to talk with us and get Dad all prepped for surgery. Originally we had been told that they were going to go in laparoscopically to remove the cancerous section of his sigmoid colon but just before they took him the doctor informed us that he would be opening him right up.

Of course this is scary news when you have mentally prepared yourself for little teeny tiny incisions with minimal damage and all of a sudden there's much more involved. In the end it turned out to be a good thing though as the doctor was able to have a really good look at the colon, surrounding tissues and the liver. All of it looked great and the cancerous growth was only 1 centimeter in size!!! Can you believe it?! Praise the Lord ♥♥

I swear sometimes I think my dad has lucky horse shoes up his behind LOL. We were anticipating to find him in recovery with a feed tube up through his nose and the possibility that he would have to have a temporary or permanent colostomy bag and there we found him smiling. I'm tearing up as I type this because I was so scared to see what he was going to look like and there he was actually smiling when we went to sit with him and wait to be moved upstairs the the med surg floor. With the minimal destruction to his colon they were able to reconnect the two sections nice and neatly so there was no need for a bag or feed tube. Again praise be to Him as this is just such fantastic news :)

We finally got moved to the ward he will be staying on by 8pm and then we hugged him goodbye. Yesterday we spent the day with him and he was a little dehydrated from all of the colon flushing that he had done previous to the surgery and from not being able to take much liquid by mouth as they were afraid if he took in to much it might cause vomiting but by evening he was feeling much better. He was sitting in a chair and even took a little walk around the floor so he is truly doing great :)

He will be in the hospital for a few more days to recover a bit more before going home and the results from the section of colon they removed should be available within the week. They will tell us if there is any cancer in the lymph nodes and then define what sort of treatment such as chemo he may need at that time. I am being completely optimistic at this point that it has not spread!!

Thank you again for all of the prayers you are sending up for him. I know they are helping immensely and words cannot express how thankful I am to all of you ♥♥

Big (((HUGS))),
Rosina

Homecoming and Sad News

I know I've been mysteriously absent for the last couple of weeks but I have a great excuse :) We took a family vacation and went camping throughout BC's interior. We hitched up our travel trailer, jumped on a ferry heading off the island and hit the open road *grin*. I have TONS of photos that I can't wait to share with all of you but it's going to take me a bit to get them all off of my camera and into my flickr account.



Sadly upon our return I learned that my dad had been diagnosed with colon cancer while I was away and has been scheduled for immediate surgery this week to remove a portion of his colon and to check if it has spread to any of his lymph nodes.

It has been a bit surreal. I know it's going to hit me tomorrow when I take him into town for his pre-op appointment and find out what time his surgery will be and I'm hoping that you will be able to remember him in your prayers. He beat prostate cancer 4 years ago and he's a real fighter so I'm keeping optimistic that he's going to pull through this and be good as new but I'm still worried.

I spent this evening making a special cloth bag for him to pack his toiletries in tomorrow for his hospital stay with little embroidered 'I Love You' notes inside of it so every time he opens it he knows we're thinking of him even when we can't be there every minute of the day during his stay.

I'm not sure how much blogging I will be able to do over the next week while he is recovering but I'll try to pop in and give you an update or you can check my twitter status as that will probably be the easiest place for me to post updates quickly and easily while being on the road back and forth from home and hospital.

~ Rosina