the starting point

After some discussion as a family, we have decided that starting a blog to document our family's journey through cancer is the best solution to keep our friends and family updated.

None of this is easy to talk about and none of us can bear the burden of repeating it again and again. We will post updates here as often as we can, to keep everyone up to date. I will post sometimes and sometimes it will be my mom, my brother or my dad.

So here we go...

There is no way to sugar coat what we are going through. It is cancer. It is advanced. It has spread. What started in the esophagus and stomach is now in the liver and 2 lymph nodes. That being said, my Dad is determined and brave and has said from the first moment that we will fight aggressively with every option made available to us.

 

Our plan is three part:

1. Manage the nutrition

The dramatic weight loss and inability to eat and swallow have been a big concern. We are proceeding with a feeding tube to be inserted directly into his stomach to be able to control the nutrition while bi-passing the tumor and pain.

2. Manage the pain

We have started a new, more regimented pain management this week and it appears to be helping some.

3. Stop, shrink and kill cancer cells

This will be done through a combination of chemo and radiation for now. We were hoping for surgery, but that option is not the best course of action available to us right now. If the radiation can shrink the tumor effectively, we may explore that again a couple months down the road. Chemo will start this week and radiation probably the following week. He is having a porta-cath installed Monday via surgery to make the radiation and chemo easier to administer.

That is where we are. At the start. There is fear and there is love and there is heartbreak and there is strength. We are a family. Always. We are in one another's corner, and come what may we will fight together.

At the oncologist Tuesday while discussing the options, he looked me right in the eye and said:

"This is what we're going to do: we're gonna kick this thing in the ass."

So that is what we are going to do. He is impossible to argue with and I'm not gonna try. We're gonna kick this thing in the ass.

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for the messages and words of support and love. They are so appreciated. My Dad will be reading every post and every comment, so please comment away here on the blog as well!

Let's kick some ass.

....Amber

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