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15 years on this board (or some iteration) of it...yup you're all my family. Happy to have shared all the good and bad with y'all, regardless of outcome especially in these grim days in which may have a team no longer. But they say it's always darkest just before the dawn...so we'll see what happens.
Wasn't sure about starting this thread as I've never been one to air a lot of stuff publicly online, and this isn't a "MOJO post" as much as it is just to keep my "family" in the know, but just wanted to tell you all that my dad was recently diagnosed with stage 4 renal cell carcinoma with mets to the bone (mostly cervical spine). He had been sick with various ailments for over a year and recently had a fall at home when he fainted for some reason. The ER discovered some hairline fractures in his cervical spine which they thought were in an odd spot (even despite the fall) and the work-up ultimately revealed the cancer. He was a big time smoker with uncontrolled hypertension, two big risk factors for this kind of cancer.
He had a 7 hour surgery about a month ago to try to debulk a lot of tumor in his neck, and mainly to stabilize his cervical spine as the bone in that area was severely compromised and he was quite literally not far from having the bone collapse around his spinal cord, which would have made him a quadriplegic. It was a pretty rough surgery, but they got some rods in his neck and stabilized it. Unfortunately he has deteriorated pretty rapidly since then. It was never a good prognosis to begin with, but there initially had been some hope that if he recovered enough from the surgery that he could receive chemo and still potentially live a few good years, but with the state he's in currently, it's not really an option as there is no way he would tolerate it. I will be calling hospice after the holiday weekend and initiating that. He probably has a couple of months at best at this point. We're realistic and not expecting any miracles or anything, especially as we have seen the tangible and rapid decline in front of our very eyes. Won't get into all the details but was never super close to my dad as he wasn't a positive influence growing up, but it still sucks watching a family member (or anyone for that matter) go through so much. Fortunately his pain is controlled and we are hoping hospice provides dignified and gentle closure.
Sorry for the long post. Happy holidays to all, enjoy each other and your families.
Wasn't sure about starting this thread as I've never been one to air a lot of stuff publicly online, and this isn't a "MOJO post" as much as it is just to keep my "family" in the know, but just wanted to tell you all that my dad was recently diagnosed with stage 4 renal cell carcinoma with mets to the bone (mostly cervical spine). He had been sick with various ailments for over a year and recently had a fall at home when he fainted for some reason. The ER discovered some hairline fractures in his cervical spine which they thought were in an odd spot (even despite the fall) and the work-up ultimately revealed the cancer. He was a big time smoker with uncontrolled hypertension, two big risk factors for this kind of cancer.
He had a 7 hour surgery about a month ago to try to debulk a lot of tumor in his neck, and mainly to stabilize his cervical spine as the bone in that area was severely compromised and he was quite literally not far from having the bone collapse around his spinal cord, which would have made him a quadriplegic. It was a pretty rough surgery, but they got some rods in his neck and stabilized it. Unfortunately he has deteriorated pretty rapidly since then. It was never a good prognosis to begin with, but there initially had been some hope that if he recovered enough from the surgery that he could receive chemo and still potentially live a few good years, but with the state he's in currently, it's not really an option as there is no way he would tolerate it. I will be calling hospice after the holiday weekend and initiating that. He probably has a couple of months at best at this point. We're realistic and not expecting any miracles or anything, especially as we have seen the tangible and rapid decline in front of our very eyes. Won't get into all the details but was never super close to my dad as he wasn't a positive influence growing up, but it still sucks watching a family member (or anyone for that matter) go through so much. Fortunately his pain is controlled and we are hoping hospice provides dignified and gentle closure.
Sorry for the long post. Happy holidays to all, enjoy each other and your families.
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