Earlier this year my Dad went into the hospital to have 3 giant kidney stones removed. I spent the day at the hospital with my mom, so she wouldn't have to be alone. She's a worrier, and I knew if I was worried, she had to be ten times more worried than I was. I just had the feeling at the time that she shouldn't have to be alone. The surgery was uneventful, thankfully, but it caused me to think seriously about the fact that my Dad is not invincible, and he's not going to live forever, whether I agree with that or not.
Not long after the surgery, Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Cancer is a word you never want to hear used in the same sentence as the name of someone you love. As he went through his readiation treatments I sent countless prayers out for him to be okay--fully acknowledging that if God had other plans that I would accept those too. I remember one day as I was driving up the Bountiful Temple a line from one of my favorite movies popped into my head, "your Daddy's gonna die" this literally broke my heart. Before then I had beleived that somehow time would make an exception for me -- I've always wanted to believe that the people I love would live forever. But this movie quote brought me back around to reality. We don't get to live forever, at least not in this life. I can't count the number of hours I spent crying and trying to come to terms with this idea.
Radiation went well, but even a couple of months later Dad was having trouble getting his strength back. Then we learned he had pneumonia and fluid in his lungs. The doctors spooted it in time and they were able to drain the fluid and get the pneumonia in check.
The other night, my mom called with good news, they had gone in for a blood test and the results for Dad's PSA level were good, scratch that they were GREAT! Apparently a 4 is considered normal -- Dad's levels were at 0.003.
In short, Dad's protate cancer is gone and I get to have him around for at least 20 more years (I hope).