Can I ask for prayers please?

[cycloneye]

Also my thoughts and prayers go to you and your family.

[azskyman]

Banshee...from me to you, prayers and warm wishes for a return to good health.

My right hand at work, Tom, was in stage 3 colon cancer before he even knew he had it. Surgery came quickly...the man nearly died as he dwindled to nothing. He went through a year of chemotherapy and did all the things asked of him along the way.

He is now in his third year of remission...and feels good much of the time. Still, it was a close call and he is happy to be here.

Prayers and thoughts help plenty, for sure, but so does a regimen of treatment that gives dad a chance. Encourage him...and remind him that he need never look back, only forward, and count each day as a new blessing.

I hope he not only pulls through, but puts that dread disease out of his life for good.

Meantime, your support for him is obviously real, and he needs healthy doses of that as well.

Keep us posted. A prayer at my keyboard here in Phoenix is headed your(his) way.

Steve

[banshee]

I just got off the phone with him. Man o'man are his spirits high. He's absolutely remarkable.

Obviously the dr stole my idea about the oral chemo leaving nerve ending exposed. He said the experts at Duke, Wake Forest and Nuclear Medicine are looking into it but are completely stumped on the source of his pain.

They think it may be possible the pain is stemming from his bike accident in 95 which caused minor spinal injuries at the time but may be inflammed now, for what ever reason and have given him steroid injections to help reduce the swelling.

He told me he was on morphine the first day, but told them to take him off because it made the pain worse. Now they have him on the good stuff, dilaudid. I asked him if the walls were talking to him and my step mother chimed in in the background, 'heck no, but he's talking to them!'. Ya gotta love family.

Daddy did tell me the reason he stops breathing is because of the pain and when he's doped enough not to feel pain his breathing is fine. so my thinking is the oxycontin dopes him up and puts him to sleep but doesnt eliminate the pain so when he's sleeping the pain starts but he's too doped up to wake up. (I'm thinking through this)

Again, I appreciate all the prayers along with the personal experiences. Between prayer and talking we'll get through this.

[weatherlover427]

I wish you the best and have already said a silent prayer for your father's speedy and safe return to normal health as soon as possible.

I know how hard it is to lose a father, although my dad didn't die from colon cancer; he still passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. That was the biggest shock about it all, one that we weren't really prepared for.

The two year mark of his passage into Heaven was two weeks ago on Thursday, so the past few weeks have been rough for me. I know how it feels and it is definitely not a fun thing to go through at all. You do not want to do it, trust me.

Know that your father is in my thoughts and prayers this evening and will be until he is taken care of by the Good Lord in Heaven Above.