Peanut and Dad

Peanut loves to ride on dad's shoulders.

And pull his hair.

And tug on his ears.

And yank off his glasses.

It's a barrel of laughs.

For everyone but dad.

(P.S. Like how it looks like Peanut has a big part in his hair?

That's really just where he cut that chunk out!)

Grandpa Update

Grandpa had his post-op appointment with the surgeon and is healing up nicely. He is still sore, but that is to be expected and will take time until he's back to normal.

Grandpa also had his consultation with the oncologist. Our research proved correct. Grandpa's cancer was Stage 2 and surgery is the only recommended treatment. No radiation or chemotherapy is recommended at this point. He'll follow-up with scans every three months for a bit and then every six months. He'll also get a follow-up colonoscopy in a year. Hopefully everything will remain disease free.

On the E. front, he's scheduled for his scans on December 14th in Texas and the subsequent doctor appointments on the 15th. All prayers, thoughts and positive mojo welcomed.

Grandpa's Discharged

Grandpa finally got discharged today. He'll spend a few days with us recuperating but only because we have football on tv. (Seriously. That's what he told us.) He's determined to drive the two hours home, even though the doctor said he needs to stay with us for a couple of weeks. We'll continue to work on him and see if we can't talk some sense into him.

He had a few rough days in the hospital, throwing up and passing blood. He did require a blood transfusion, but so far hasn't needed another. They were able to remove all his drainage tubes and staples before he was discharged, so that was one less thing to worry about.

We were able to get the pathology report back yesterday. The tumor was a bit worse than anticipated, coming in at a T3. On a good note though, all of the lymph nodes tested negative, so it's a N0 and with no metastasis, it's a Mx. All combined, the T3 N0 Mx translates to a Stage 2. After his post-operative appointment with the surgeon in a couple of weeks, he'll meet with an oncologist to discuss any further treatment. From what we've researched though, it doesn't appear that chemotherapy or radiation is part of treatment for a Stage 2 colon cancer patient. It seems like surgery generally does the trick. Hopefully that's the case because grandpa has already made it clear that he's not doing "none of that other crap."

He's pretty sore, moving cautiously and slowly transitioning back to solid foods. It's going to take some time for his body to heal, but he seems like he's on the right track.

Grandpa's Surgery

Grandpa's surgery started over three hours late, but once it started, it was surprisingly quick. It took less than an hour to complete. They were able to do it laparoscopically, which should make healing quicker and easier. There is no colostomy bag at this point, although there is a slight outside chance (like 1%) that a bag could still be needed at some point in the healing process. The surgeon still couldn't tell us much about the stage of the cancer and said we'd have more definitive answers once the pathology came back (the actual tumor and several surrounding lymph nodes were sent to pathology). It is anticipated that the pathology results should be back about the time grandpa is ready to be discharged from the hospital ... at the end of this week, or the beginning of next according to the surgeon. Hopefully Grandpa will be able to transition to solid foods and be able to slowly start getting up and around a bit. Now if his blood sugar levels would cooperate, that would just be a bonus. Given all the possible scenarios, it sounds like things have really gone well so far.