Dad's Cancer

This psat summer was spent most of the time caring for my father. It started when he was diagnosed with colon cancer a year before. Chemo had left him with peripheral neuopathy and a lot of pain in his hand and feet. He could no longer walk without assistance from others, walker or wheelchair which he just hated. We were then informed in about April of 2007 that he was in the hospital in Show Low with what they thought was a bowel obstruction. Lori was living in Queen Creek Arizona at the time and had been helping out a lot the past year. Bryan, Jared and I were living in Utah. So Bryan, Jared and I packed up and headed to Show Low where we spent a few day watching over him in the hospital. During these few days we painted dad's bedroom a lilac purple and got a new night stand for his room. It sure brighted up the place and gave us something to fill our void. Back at the hospital they later discovered it was an "inoperable tumor". So we ambulanced him down to the valley. This is when our "tender mercies" would begin relating to my father. I took mom back to Snowflake where I helped her get things packed and ready to head to the valley. The boys stayed with dad until he was in the ambulance and then they followed down after him. During this time mom and I had already left going through the Payson way. We had just went through and realized that it was a huge fire on the rim. Luckily (blessing) right after we went through they closed off the road. We called to the hospital and informed them of the road closure and they were able to take dad through the Salt River Canyon instead and were able to reach the hospital without delay. Becky was able to come to the valley for a visit and Paula was there to help watch over dad. No one was really excited about operating because of the liability, but finally someone did and gave dad a colonostomy. During this time dad was also still suffering from a blood clot in his leg which caused great swelling and pain. So off to Lori's home for a few days until we could get his blood thinned.