My Dad

I just realized a couple of days ago that I have not given an update on my father in quite a while.  The picture above is his graduation picture from high school.  He was and continues to be a handsome guy in my opinion but that's because he is my dad.

So far so good.  His cancer treatment continues and he is in a "remission" state.  Which is interesting in itself because this was never supposed to happen.  Right now his treatment is every 6 months.  So he goes  for treatment every six months and he does 1 treatment every week for 4 weeks.  Then at the end of treatment he has a couple of scans to see how the tumors are responding to treatment. 

He is also at the end of the protocol for his treatment.  What that means is that this particular drug has only been studied for a 3 year span.  ***(Interesting note here....this much of my post was published and I swear  did not click on the publish button)  As I was saying.....the particular drug that my dad is taking has only been studied with people taking it for 3 years.  But it appears to be working so his Dr. is recommending that he continue to take it every 6 months...for the rest of his life I imagine.  There shouldn't be any trouble with this unless his medical insurance doesn't want to pay for it because it has not been studied beyond the 3 year mark.  His Dr. is hopeful that insurance will pay because he is recommending it.  So fingers crossed.

His heart issues remain the same...there is no option for surgery because he is "too old" and he would probably expire on the table.  He can't run a 5K but he manages to keep house, run errands and go out to dinner with friends.  For 83 I think that's just fine.  He still drives and his eyesight is good and the longer he is able to take care of himself then the happier he will remain.  I'm fairly certain if we had to put him in assisted living that he would not last a fortnight. 

So there's the update.  I remain hopeful that the cancer will remain in remission for however long he wants it to.  And that his health remains in the state that it is in currently so that he continues to want to live on this earth.  I know that he misses my mother terribly but he is a practical guy and he knows that there is no amount of love that would bring her back.  He's faced the unthinkable and walked through the door and there is no looking back.