And So The Battle Begins

To begin this blog.... this is how it all began. This was written the last week of May:

Around Mother's Day weekend, I had been skyping with my parents. My mom had told me that my dad was having stomach pain for a few days, but just taking over the counter meds for it. After a few days of pain, my mom noticed my dad turning yellow color. They immediately went to the doctor. They ran all kinds of blood tests and began narrowing out all of the gnarley diseases. One of the last blood tests was going to take a week to come back. My parents had felt like Papa brought much confirmation to them that they needed to get to Loma Linda, a very good hospital. My dad was admitted the two weeks ago and has been undergoing test after test. They did a cat scan of his stomach area and found a large mass on his pancreas and in his lymph nodes. This mass has cut off the flow from the bile duct of the liver. All toxins are staying inside of his body, thus causing the yellow coloring. It's been the hardest week of our lives waiting to find out what is going on. They continued to do cat scans and an MRI of his entire body, bones and all. They are all clear. After much waiting and many tests, the biopsy results showed that my dad has lymphoma cancer. We never wanted to hear the word cancer, but the doctors were actually congratulating my dad. Lymphoma is a cancer that can be beat; unlike some pancreatic cancers that have no cure. We have had to fully rely on Papa for strength as it has been so hard to be so far away. My dad is a trooper and will fight this out! My mom will not leave his side and is the best wife any man could ask for. Please keep my family in your prayers. My dad has now in the last couple of days had a stint put into his bile duct to open it up and release all the toxins. During the procedure, his pancreas got scraped and now they will postpone chemo until the pancreas is healed. They will now be watching him for infection due to the scraping. Pray for him to have strength as he is not allowed to eat right now, only having fluids. This helps the pancreas to heal faster. We are also praying that my dad can remain at Loma Linda Hospital. His insurance wants him to go to another hospital, but the staff at LL have taken amazing care of him, praying over him every step of the way. We still believe in God for a miracle! Please pray with my family.