Tonight we met with Dr. Reeves, the cancer surgeon. Dad was there along with his wife.My brothers Wayne and Eric were there and Alan, my brother that is in Utah called in and was talking to Dads wife. As we waited dad was in a little pain. The doctor was running late. More time passed and dad was not comfortable and his IV was beeping. He wanted some pain medicine so we showed him where his little button was to press for pain. Dad pressed the button, and one person in the room responded, “No, no, no, don’t do that. You want to be alert when doctor talks to us.” Dad is in pain and should be comfortable. I do not listen well when I am in pain and do not know anyone else that does.
Dr. Reeves came in and we all listened. Dad had good eye contact with the doctor and appeared to be listening intently. Dad’s cancer is not localized. It is involved with his gall bladder, stomach, liver and potentially some fatty tissue in the abdominal cavity. There are two options and neither one is a good one. I took notes and could detail the pluses and minuses of each option. On involves surgery and the other does not. However, with both options, a cure is not possible. The outlook using statistics and averages is relatively the same for each option, about 6 months to live. Could be more, could be less. So in a nutshell, I do not need to detail five paragraphs of the complications and benefits of either choice. I personally would not want to be operated on.
So, what do you do with 6 months to live? Live it to the fullest that you can. How do you live it to the fullest? Dad cannot eat anything because of the complications. He has not had anything for several days. There is a slim possibly that he can tolerate food. Tonight he took the test – he ate ice cream. Only some time will tell if he gets sick from it. If he can tolerate it, he can live life to your fullest on vanilla ice cream. I sure hope the test goes well because vanilla ice cream is one of Dads favorite things.
Dad had two half cup servings of vanilla ice-cream. Unfortunately it was from the hospital, so it was fat free and no sugar added. He enjoyed every bite. After that he had some Jell-O and two Tylenol, so he got a complete stomach test. He did burp a few times while we watched TV.
Dad also indicated that he did not want to shave again for the rest of his life. I would like to join him in that quest. For me, there will be no 'Shave of the Day.'
I tucked him into bed at 10:00. One can only hope that he gets some sleep.