Pops, III to III

Okay, so everybody knows that one of the reasons I took a break from this blog a couple of weeks ago was because of Pop's health.

It was worse than we thought. We got the results from his biopsy back Monday night. He has cancer, stage 4, no cure.

Now, we all knew it, the signs were all there, but to hear him come out and say it was a real motherfucker. That finalized it, you know?

 

Julie III came up yesterday as promised. I was expecting about a one hour visit but she ended up staying almost six hours, wouldn't leave until she was satisfied that everything was taken care of and all of our questions were answered. Within 2 hours, she had Mom fire Pop's doctor, had reviewed his charts and ordered more pain meds. Then she got on the phone and called hospice and set all that up. Then she went down and told the radiologist what he was going to do. She was like a redheaded whirlwind, man.

Lisa and I had read up in the type of cancer that he has that morning and saw that he has a life expectancy of 8 short months. Then when Julie asked Pops if he had any questions he asked her how long he was looking at. She didn't want to say, and she used the term 'clinically' a lot, but her answer was 3 weeks without treatment and about 12 weeks with treatment. Then she had to tell him that in her professional opinion, chemo just wasn't an option in his weakened state. She did order a big dose of radiation for the tumor in the bone in his arm to shrink it for pain release, but it's not going to extend his life by much, if any.

I'm pretty pissed - the man has been making weekly visits to his doctors for a few years now due to various health issues, yet his cancer went from undetectable to stage 4 overnight? Give me a fucking break.

So there it is.

 

So, I took a couple of days off work, yesterday for me and today to get Mom's house set up for hospice to bring him home in a couple of hours, but I have to go back to work tomorrow - I couldn't afford losing two days work as it was but you gotta do what you gotta do - family before bills. Plus I think getting my mind off this and into something else would probably do me good, that and getting back around some men for a change instead of all these damned women. I am holding up well though, even spent an hour online last night helping one of my readers getting set up to reload for the first time in his life which was a welcome change of place.

 

I do want to say one thing, though. I hope like hell that anybody that has to go through this either as a patient or family member has a nurse like Julie. She has a great personality and bedside manner, she's extremely knowledgeable and professional, but her compassion stands head and shoulders above everything else, proven by the fact that she came down to help a fellow Patriot for no other reason than she wanted to.

 

I gotta say that is is by far the toughest fucking thing I've ever gone through so far. I mean, we all know the day is going to come when something like this is going to happen but to suddenly (and I do mean fucking suddenly) have it right in front of you is a real bitch.

The one thing that I am so grateful for is the fact that me and Pops have gotten along real well ever since I was in my early twenties. I had the opportunities to learn from him, socialize with him, and be a friend to him as well as a son.

 

Hey, thanks to all of you for your understanding, support and patience. Thoughts and prayers would be appreciated. His name is Kirk Lane.