Haven't posted in awhile

I have not been real great at posting these days. We have had a rough week and I am only afraid it is going to get even more so. Things with my dad have not been improving as I had hoped they would. He went back to his PCP this past Tuesday for a follow-up visit and another chest x-ray. Results from the x-ray indicated that even though he had been on oral antibiotics and been receiving antibiotic shots for a couple of weeks now (btwn the 2), the pneumonia had gotten worse in one of this lungs, so they sent him right over to the hospital to be admitted. Our close friends watched Caroline so that we could go up to the hospital. (Thank you again!) When we got there, he was still in the triage area of the emergency room and they were giving him oxygen and an antibiotic via an IV. He had received a CT Scan of his chest earlier. They ran more tests the next day (blood work, EKG, etc). His oncologist came to see him the next morning and indicated that there was a mass in one of his lungs. They were not sure if is the pneumonia or some form of cancer (lung/lymphoma).

I went to the hospital Wednesday night after work and the pulmonary specialist finally showed up at about 8:00ish and basically indicated the same thing about the mass in his lungs. Although since I got to hear it for myself, it sounded to me like the probability of it being the pneumonia was less likely. The doctors know what these things look like....They also indicated that that they saw signs of COPD/emphysema because of his 50+ years of smoking.

They ran a thoracentesis Thursday morning which is a procedure where they extract fluid from the space between the lungs and the chest wall. Thomas and I went up to the hospital today for a bit and got to see both his oncologist and pulmonary drs. They finally released him from the hospital, but not before telling him that he has Aortic Valve Stenosis, which is the narrowing of the aortic valve. He will need to see a cardiologist for that early next week as well. What else is going to be thrown our way...isn't it enough that he may have cancer??

We have not gotten the actual results back from the thoracentesis yet, but the drs seem to be preparing us for the fact that it is cancer. We are supposed to have a dr appt Tuesday of next week with the pulmonary dr where we will hopefully get some answers. I want to just stop time right now and go back and erase this past week. I am trying so hard to remain positive and strong for my parents and I think I have done an okay job at that, but it's incredibly hard! That's my daddy they are talking about and seeing him in that hospital bed broke my heart. I am so scared! I want Caroline to know her Pa Pa and truly understand what a wonderful, loving man he is and for her to know how absolutely in love with her he is. When I talk about her or when he sees her, his face lights up...

So I guess that's all for now. Sure wish this blog wasn't turning into what it has been about so far. ..I will rey and be better with posting.