Warrior

 People say that to beat/fight cancer you need to be a true warrior... but I think this might be taking things a little too literally.....

 Actually, this was from Saturday night.  Our church hosted a Pow Wow and as a sign of respect (or maybe just fun) they dressed Dad up in true Native American dress!  Take a good look at those dangles on his knees... those are deer toes people... seriously, DEER TOES!

 It was so fun to see Dad dressed up like this.  He has never had hair that could pull off what this head dress does for him.  Apparently he was wearing about a thousand dollars worth of apparel.  I am sure they kept a tracker on him or something to make sure he wouldn't try to make an escape looking as cool as he did.  There was a lot going on, that's for sure!  Besides the cool head dress, that stick poking out of his head (he almost poked a few people in the eye with that thing, the deer toes, the little sweat band (though I am sure it has some great Native name) and he also had a ton of handmade items on him. 

 Couldn't resist getting a picture with Dad that night!! (Pardon the glare off of BOTH of our foreheads!)  I took some video of Dad dancing around the circle during the pow wow... let's just say I know where I get my KILLER dance moves from!  It was entertaining for sure.  Nice to know I am not the only one who can't keep a beat!  I think I will hold onto the video for blackmail.  Yup, I think that's a great idea!  Anyhow, it was fun to see Dad as a WARRIOR!  Literally.

Side Note:  Chemo is going fine.  A little more tired, but seemingly going on with life as normal.  I mean, as you can see, he doesn't LOOK sick.  He seems to really be managing the chemo well and should be getting scans soon to see how well the medicine is working.  I will update then!

Another go around!

Writing this blog is tricky business.  I want to be informative but I also want to respect the fact that sometimes writing out the gory details doesn't exactly respect my dad's privacy nor does it really help matters.  That being said, here is what I've got to report:

A couple of weeks ago, my dad went to MD Anderson for his checkup.  This is the checkup he has every few months where they do endoscopies, cat scans, pet scans, etc.  After the endoscopy, they said things looked great and his esophagus looked very clean.  That's great news.  However, when the tests came back from the other scans, it showed some spots popping up in a couple places.  Of course, last time there was a spot on his lung and they just zapped that sucker and that particular spot disappeared.   This time they have chosen to go with chemo to hopefully attack any cancer that is in his body.

The chemo now comes in pill form (no more fanny pack.... too bad, I really thought they'd make a comeback!).  He takes 5 chemo pills a day.... Mom says they're like horse pills!  In addition to the pills, he goes in every other Monday for "the juice" which is administered through the port on his arm.  This round of chemo will take 6 months.

To be honest, I have no idea what all this means.  It seems to me, now that we have a bit of experience in all this cancer stuff, that cancer really sucks!  Once it shows its ugly self, it usually will continue to pop up and you have to deal with each little appearance on its own.  So, I think that is where we are at.  We aren't FREAKING out or anything... we are just dealing with another little appearance which should be taken care of with this round of chemo. 

Dad is looking and feeling good.  He is a bit more tired but is his normal self.  I think that is one of the must frustrating things... you expect if he is actually sick that it would be obvious, but it just isn't.  This is a good thing in that the better he takes care of himself and the healthier he is, the better able he is to recover quickly and fight off anything that comes in his way. A month or so ago Dad went to scout camp in west Texas and was hiking and running around like a teenager, so I think you can probably get an idea of how he really is in good shape!

So, this is where we are at.  Dad is doing great so far!  He will have some scans in the next while to make sure the chemo is doing its thing, but besides that life goes on as normal plus five pills.