2 Glioblastomas down! (Dad's Cancer update)

Okay, so I am behind on my updates.  If you were a friend of mine on FB you'd be all caught up!  I am on there constantly!  But, with so many social networking sites to keep up with, I can't possible be on top of them all or there would be some hungry and angry children in this house.

Learned that the hard way. 

So, I have a free 10 minutes, so let's get ya update on my dad.

As I said before, the cancer came back.  Now, 2 years ago, we discovered the tumor when my dad was having crazy bad headaches and was forced to go to the emergency room.  They discovered the tumor and removed it immediately. 

It after finishing Chemo and radiation, it was discovered again in September.  Same place in the brain.  Okay, this brain tumor is called Glioblastoma, a terminal cancer, in stage 4.  Yes Stage 4.  After the first surgery, the prognosis was grim.  The surgeon walked in shook his head and said, "We got it all out, but it's not good."  I was there alone and I broke.  I had already researched the tumor and knew that most were not expected to live beyond 5 years.  At his follow up appointment, his oncologist came in and explained what Glioblastoma (GBM) was to us, shook my dad's hand, and said, "Good Luck."  Not something you want to hear when you are talking about your LIFE!

Those words hurt.  The strongest person in m life, who had NEVER been sick? 

This surgery was different.  The surgeon came in this time with a smile.  He said that it was indeed the same cancer, but that my dad was strong.  He said they got it all out and we may be able to get another 6 years out of him. 

Now I know this sounds grim as well.  I mean, what's 6 years?  That's not a lot of years when you're talking about LIFE. 

BUT, on a positive not, it is SOOOOOO much better than the prognosis from before. 

This time was different for him.  Last time, my dad's recovery was a breeze.  He was home within two days and completely back to himself with NO issues.  WHO DOES THAT? 

This there were a few problems.  He suffered some memory loss, due to the swelling, and there was a time when he couldn't remember my name.  And that was scary.  He kept repeating numbers and date and nothing was connecting.  It was so weird.  He couldn't remember how to get into his computer and he couldn't read anything.  It frustrated him and scared the crap out of him because his worse fear was losing his memory or his speech and not being able to sing.  He's a choir director, you know.

But once the swelling went down, the memory came back, just as the doctors promised.  And, with just a little bit of memory issues, he is back up and running.  As much as we tried, we couldn't keep him down long enough to recover. 

So there!  My dad's doing okay and I have faith in God that he will be just fine!