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Galahad, Alberta | Stan,
My dad died from brain cancer in 2000. He was 85. It started out as a pain in his shoulder that doctors intially diagnosed as a muscle strain. Finally a brighter doctor did some tests and found out that he had cancer that had begun in his lungs and grown out towards his shoulder. By the time it was finally correctly diagnosed, it was too late. I believe that it had already moved to his brain when he began radiation at the W.W. Cross in Edmonton. The radiation really knocked the starch out of him. By the end of the second day, we had to wheel him out in a wheel chair. He died about 4 days after the treatments were done. Those few days after he was correctly diagnosed were such a blur, that we didn't think to ask the right questions. If I had known that the cancer was so advanced in his body, I don't know that I would have wanted him to have the treatment. It made his last month so hard. He might have still died the same way, on the same day, with the same pain. I don't know. It was just so hard to watch him struggle to walk even a few steps.
My advice is to talk to lots of people who have been through this. Get their thoughts, ask them what questions they asked, what ones they wished they'd asked. And write it down, cause when you are sitting there in that office and the Doc gives you the news, you are going to spinning so fast that you'll forget everything.
I wish you the best, tell your dad to keep positive, and believe.
Rosco | |
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Bad news
