Dad's next surgery

Day after tomorrow. Sorry to my blog-crowd but things got hectic there for a while. I will now proceed to fill you in.

Dad was diagnosed with a tumor on his pancreas about December 8th shortly after his gall-bladder surgery. He was still jaundiced after that and they did 3 endoscope plus 1 interventional procedures to get a stent placed in his bile duct. 7 biopsies later and still no clear-cut designation of "cancer". What they have found is "cell abnormalities". Doctor Billinglsey, who we have complete confidence in, says (after a more state-of-the-art CT scan) that is is almost certainly cancer and that it may have spread to his liver, they'll do another biopsy of that region on Thursday and if it hasn't spread they'll do a modernized version of the Whipple procedure on him shortly after the biopsy. If it has spread then they'll go the chemo/radio route and avoid the surgery due to the physiological expense of the procedure. The surgery will all be happening at the Oregon Health Sciences University hospital. Recovery time is about 10 days and 2 months of recuperation.

That was all determined last week. We got someone to watch the house and farm back home. My big bro asked his good (and wonderful!) friends Jesse and Darcy to loan us their RV and we found a great little park called "Jantzen Beach RV Park" where we could stay. The people here have been great. They even have a wireless router so I can stay virtual.

For the last 6 weeks we've been making sure that dad gets plenty of great cancer fighting foods and as much physical activity as he can take. He has recovered from the procedures so far very well. He is in no pain and only a little discomfort from the stent and gall bladder operations. He's feeling good, looking good and doing good. If it weren't for the diagnoses and CT scans this would just but an awesome RV vacation for us.

If we're lucky and the operation goes well I'll be here long enough to get a chance to visit with an ol' classmate and some other friends.

It's late, I'm rambling and I need to go hit the sack. Up around 5:30 tomorrow morn to go fill out paperwork and to meet the anesthesiologist for some EKG work-up.

Y'all be well, eat well and keep and eye out for beauty.