As many of you know, my step-father has been having many health problems for the past couple of years. After his stroke two years ago, my boys and I sold our house in Arizona to move back to Florida and try to help my Mom as much as we could. Of course I never feel as though I can help her as much as I would like.
Now he has lung cancer and started chemo today. According to my mom, they say that the growth in his lung has doubled in size since it was first detected a couple months ago. So, now he goes to chemo every Tuesday in addition to his dialysis three days per week and the other doctor visits.
He has been looking pretty good lately when I visit, and that is a good thing I suppose. Sometimes I wonder what it must be like to feel your body falling apart and wondering how much more it can take. I wish I could stomach some of this stuff a bit better. I help out as much as I can transporting him to and from dialysis. I am not sure why it is so unsettling for me, but I really get noxious when I go to the kidney center. It is the smell of the place and the fact that they are taking his blood out of his body and filtering it and putting it back in. Somehow that just gives me the creeps. My mom says she hates to ask me for help with transporting him, but I try to help as much as I can because my mom is always so tired from working two jobs and all of the worry that she has on her shoulders. One of these days she will be able to have a life again and not the day-by-day worry-and-wait routine that she has been dealing with for the past couple years.