It was the night after surgery...

...and Dad had all the nurses in stitches.  I'm not sure if it was the drugs, or otherwise, but his sense of humor was certainly not lost during that surgery!  At one point, a nurse asked him about his pain, and his response?  "She left and will be back in about an hour."  (Sorry Mom!!)

I was able to speak with Dad around 2:30pm yesterday.  JP had been sitting and chatting with him for about an hour.  Of course he was groggy and slow, but had his wits about him.  He said he could definitely feel some pain, but the morphine was doing its job.  I spoke with him around 9:30pm, and he was completely back to himself.  Speaking normally, and already asking how things went in the office!  Yep, he's back.  He was able to go for a walk down the halls, and apparently the nurses told him to slow down, and said he went further than anyone in his position should be.  I think he's just trying to get back on the basketball court by the weekend.  (Yeah, right!)  Actually, he and his college frat brother were ultra competitive with each other, and since he heard his buddy was back in the office, 5 days post-colon surgery, he wants to beat him.  We'll see how he actually feels once the pain meds wear off!

I'll be going to visit this afternoon.  He's asked mom to bring his iPad and laptop.  He just can't stand to take time off from work!  I think he even gets to "eat" jello and broth today.  WOO-HOO, lol.  Thanks for checking in on him, and please continue to pray for quick healing, and that he really doesn't play basketball this weekend ;)

Update on Grumps!

He had to check in, at Presby Main, at 5am today.  They started prepping him almost immediately, and began the surgery around 7:45am.  The procedure lasted about 3 hours, and he is now resting in the recovery room.  He'll be awakened soon, and moved to his room. 

So, how did the surgery go?  They took out everything they needed to.  It was successful, however, the cancer was classified as a "T3," because it did, in fact, protrude the muscle wall.  This means, there could be cells affected on the outside of his intestine, which would mean he could need chemo.  Radiation is not a treatment option.  The results from the biopsy are expected back by Friday.  Dr. Rosen, who is a renowned surgeon, & one of the top oncologists in the US, said he took out about 15 lymph nodes, none of which looked irregular or enlarged.  Please continue to send prayers that this hasn't metastasized into his nervous system, and that no further treatment is necessary.  But, he knows he needs to do what he needs to do, and if that's in the cards for him, he's strong and will continue fighting and winning!

He should be eating solid food by Friday, and hopefully will get to go home.  They'll have him up walking tonight or in the morning.

The kids were praying and talking about Grumps all morning...they are ready to see him soon!  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, and I'll update when I hear anything else.

A little bit of clarification...

I just spoke with my dad.  Apparently I misunderstood him last week.  The blood tests came back fine (YAY).  They were mostly checking on his ability (or not) for his blood to clot.  He's always had poor blood clotting, and that is an obvious concern with any surgery.  Also, he has only had an CT scan, no MRI.  He was cleared for the surgery.

After speaking to his surgeon last week, and hearing of his "clean" blood results, as any of us would in this situation, he asked a million questions.  One of them was asking about post-op, and IF anything was found, what would be the next steps.  The doctor feels like the cancer has NOT protruded the intestinal wall, but may be attached? to it.  Basically, still contained, but it's large (they are taking out about 12 inches, or about 3-4 POUNDS of tissue), and a main concern is how aggressive the cells may be, and IF they have gotten into his nervous system.  The tissue will be sent to the labs, and he will get the results in 4-8 days, possibly even before leaving the hospital.  So, at this point, it's all still unknown.  A 50/50 chance he'll have to do anything post-op.  Specific prayers that we are on the GOOD side of that 50/50!

Anyway, just wanted to clarify some facts, and make sure everyone is in the "know."  I'm staying hopeful, and we appreciate all the prayers.  Dad is "indisposed" today, drinking large amounts of his favorite new drink.  Keep him in your thoughts, and I'll keep this updated as much as possible!

Cancer Sucks.

I guess it's time I write about this, since I'm getting many questions.  A little bit of me thinks things aren't true if I don't admit to them...but in my dad's case, he has very real, very true cancer.  Colon cancer to be exact.  Unfortunately, he is stubborn (I guess the apple really doesn't fall far from the tree, right?)  Until this spring, he had never had a colonoscopy.  I guess it's not something people look forward to, but I'm here to tell you that it's a necessity.  One that I'm not looking forward to having, but I'll be damn sure to get one when I turn 45 (in a LOOOOOONG time from now ;) 

Anyway, onto the facts.  My dad is having surgery tomorrow, Tuesday, July 30th, bright and early in the morning.  They will be removing about 8 inches of his colon.  They are using a super-cool robot, which will make the surgery precise, and his recovery time much less.  It will take an estimated 3 hours, then he'll be out of it for the rest of the day.  We've been talking about how the recovery, etc, will be much similar to my c-sections.  You don't realize how much you use your abdomen until you can't!  Ouch.  Anyway, he's tough and strong, and he'll do awesome.  That's the good part. 

A couple weeks ago, they poked him like a pin cushion, and much like a vampire, they helped themselves to vials and vials of his blood.  Even though they had previously completed a CT scan, MRI, and other blood tests, they were looking for additional "markers" from these most recent tests.  What they found was not what we expected, and a little blow, or set-back, to what we had originally been told.  The cancer, or tumor, has quite possibly protruded the exterior wall of the intestine.  Not good.  This is when, and how, cancer spreads into other organs, lymph nodes, and cells.  What they "think" is that he's at a stage 2, possibly 3, and that it could have quite possibly spread into his nerve cells (not good), but he's, so far, showing no signs of it spreading into his lymph nodes (good).  They'll know exact details and further treatment of what we're dealing with, at the conclusion of his surgery, and once the affected cells are sent off to be biopsied. 

Moving forward....dad is expected to be in the hospital for 3 nights, which is worse than a jail sentence to him.  He's so active, and loves his work, and love to play basketball, that it's a true punishment for him to be "bed-ridden" for any time.  He's supposed to take it easy for 6 weeks, post-surgery, but I have a feeling he'll be damn determined to, AT LEAST, be playing croquet on the beach over Labor Day weekend.  And I'm sure he'll be tending to his yard in the mountains, at some point.  Other than our children, that's his "baby."  IF they do determine there are invasive cells in his nerves, or otherwise, he'll have to undergo 6 months of chemotherapy.  A port will be installed, and he'll undergo a 42 hour drip, which will knock him out for the weekends.  Not fun, but if this is his ticket to sticking around for forever, which he TOTALLY is going to do, then he'll do it. And he'll kick cancer's ass.

Yesterday Brian, the kids, and I went to visit Mom, Dad, and Uncle JP, who is in town for the surgery.  When I got to the house, Wally, Dad, and 2 other guys were sitting around the basketball court, soaked in sweat, chatting away.  I'm amazed, and happy, that Dad got in a game "BS," or before surgery.  Both terms are fitting for this. 

Please say a little prayer for Dad, and all of us, and check for more blog updates, which will happen as I know more.  My Dad is tough as nails, so we know everything will be fine, but it's no less scary for any of us! 

The kids love their Grumps, and he adores them!

Summer at the Sugar Shack!

I love summer.  I even love the 90+ degree days, and afternoon thundershowers, but this summer is getting ridiculous.  The rain is out of hand.  Everywhere, rain, rain, rain.  We headed up the hill to Granby and Grump's mountain house for the weekend, with the Brantleys.  All had high hopes of escaping the rain, but nope.  It followed us.  We did manage to get part of Saturday without rain.  I don't think it ever got out of the 60's!  Brrrrrrr.  The patio heater was put to good use, as I always want to be outdoors. Even so, we love spending time with Geoff, Christy, Knox (2), and Hunter (5 months), and we made the best of it.  We're looking forward to our next outing with them, at the beach.  Hopefully much warmer and sunnier!

Payton getting her baby Hunter fix...

Jumping.  This boy loves to jump.  He even jumps when he says "yes!"

And, here comes the rain :(

Payton sharing her granola bar...top of Sugar

Sweet Hunter

Payton's "selfie"

Major erosion problems in my parent's neighborhood.  Major!

Our favorite place to go in the High Country...Grandfather Winery!

The gorgeous Brantley family

Knox and Griffin got along really well

Casey, the resident hound, LOVED playing soccer with the boys.  Everyone at the winery stopped to watch them play!

Geoff has special powers.  Really special, lol!

Awesome new pavilion at the winery...now we can come, rain or shine :)

Playing with another group of kids

Sunday was miserable.  We all decided to get up, clean up, and head out.  It was windy, cold, pouring rain, and foggy.  Just a crap day.  The flooding up there is really bad, and the rain doesn't show any signs of stopping anytime soon.  Brian pulled the radar out on Saturday which showed a solid cloud cover from Virginia to Florida.  We're going to have a hell of a winter if this weather pattern continues!

Here are a couple of pictures from mid-week...

Griffin slept with his new "Mater" from the movie, "Cars."  Although he says "Matah."  And "he-ah" for here.  This Boston-loving mom just giggles when I hear him say these :)

Last week's camp theme was Princes and Princesses.  We are loaded up with crowns, and princessy stuff.  Madison and Jacob came over for a swim and dinner.  Here, they are winding down watching a movie.  And yes, Payton has mostly traded her thumb for her pinky finger.  Progress?

A (spooky) princess and her Pinkberry yogurt...YUM!

Payton and Madi ride a rollercoaster ALONE at Carowinds.  Although Payton looks terrified, she asked to ride it again, and again.

Since Brian had a sustainability conference at ASU this past week, we decided to head back up the mountain, and give Mother Nature another shot...we had several different groups of friends also visiting the High Country, so it was nice to meet up with them.  Also, Granby and Grumps were up with us, so that was a lot of fun (when they weren't cleaning or doing projects :)

Back at our favorite place...Grandfather Winery!

This is Savannah (9 yrs).  Her mom, Laura Ann, and I have known each other since the 1st grade!  Here, Savvy was trying to explain to Griffin that she met him when he was just a baby.

Hanging with the boys, playing ladder golf, aka, horse-balls.

Mini Me and Mini-Laura Ann!

This is Vince.  Laura Ann's 5 year old son.  As you can see, he's super-shy.

This is Heather and two of her three kids (Betty Grace and Hank).  Heather and LA were sorority sisters at Alabama, and she was in from Virginia visiting LA and her kids.

BUSTED!

Chris Killar, Brian, and Griffin

Chris, Knox (20 mo) and Kyler (4 in August)

Practicing for the beach tournament!  She'll be champion, one day. Whitt-Tis, watch out!

Griffin and Casey, playing ball.

Celeste, Steph, and Andy McDaniel, and their precious kids...We went to ASU together, and snowboarded A LOT.  Their kids are little groms, and already tearing up the slopes!  It was such a nice surprise to run into them!  I probably haven't seen them in 8, or more, years!

It was nice to see a beautiful SUNset, after many evenings of clouds and rain!

          Do you know what this mountain is called?  Nope!  Per Payton, it's "Grumpsfather Mountain!"                               Here's another "Paytonism": she came out of our room with a ton of "lip stuff" on her lips.  She said she had "chopped" lips.  HA!

The kids found a balloon out on our hike!

Looking for our pet groundhog, who lives in these rocks!

Beech Mountain had a festival over the weekend, called "Bikes, Brews, and Views."  Celeste and I went up, during the kid's naps, to "run" a 5K Hash Race.  What's that, you ask?  Well, we took the lift up the mountain, and there were 3 beer stops on the way down.  So, we got off the lift, beer #1 (in a can, cold, but running while drinking?  Does NOT appeal!)  We took a couple of sips and tossed (alcohol abuse, I know, but I didn't want to spew!)  We ran down the mountain, past "Oz," and down the ski slopes, where there were downhill mountain bike races going on.  Beer stop #2, we were definitely in the "lead" of the majority of the people, which paid off, since it started to DOWNPOUR on us close to the finish line.  There, of course, was a frosty beer waiting there, too, so we didn't mind :)  We met up with Celeste's hubby, Chris, and their two boys, Knox and Kyler, then shortly after that, Brian met us with our kids.  There were bands playing, 40+ beer vendors from local breweries, where we could taste what we wanted, and there were the downhill & slalom bike races all day, which certainly got more interesting as the rain came down...but thankfully, it stopped for us to enjoy our afternoon!

Sean Pepin and Matt Herdklotz, friends from college.

Our First "Hash" Run

Dinner at the Painted Fish...Grumps and Payton's best "duck faces"

And, Griffin's Krispy Kreme face...on the way down the mountain.  Not a smart car food (or smart food, in general) but oh so yummy!

On the way home....we were above the clouds!  Well, some of them, anyway.

We hope you enjoy your week ahead, and that you get to see some sunshine!  Hold onto summer....