nootka
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I don't often ask for these, but luckily, I have not had much reason to.
I am fairly anxious over this. My Dad (and stepmom) is the only family I have left outside my husband and sons.
I am estranged from my sister and brother for reasons I won't go into, and my (in biological sense only) mother died in 1994, with my grandmother, my TRUE mother, following in 1995. The other side of my family (mom's side) does not communicate with us because of things my mother did to them, so you can see, we have a very small family.
Last Summer after my Dad got home from visiting here, he started having pains that he knew were kidney stones. Sure enough, they saw them on the ultrasound, but also discovered a cyst the size of an orange on his left kidney.
After much testing and scanning, etc., they've determined that it is very bad looking and needs to be removed. They called it renal carcinoma. The good news is that there appears to be no spreading, still contained to the original mass.
He is going to Fox-Chase Cancer Center on Saturday to have it removed in a laparoscopic surgery. Both the cyst and the kidney will go, leaving him with just the right kidney, which has been doing 60% of the work already, anyway.
He's also a diabetic (Type 2) and 63 years old. Luckily he is a very healthy diabetic with very few other problems, but it is still a factor.
I know anything can happen, but I have to think he will be fine and will have a long, healthy life after this is resolved.
I really admire my dad a lot, and though we had some tough times when I was a teenager, we have grown to have a good relationship and he's always here for me, my husband and sons, helping to make up for the fact that our family is, indeed, small.
Dad worked as a scale repair man prior to me being born, putting his college on hold so my mom could finish hers before they had kids. Well, she got pregnant (though they'd agreed to wait til she's graduated and had her teaching degree) and had to quit college, and he could not finish then, so he found a job with UPS, and worked for them for 30+ years, beginning as a delivery man and ending up as the computer systems manager for the Eastern Region. He was instrumental in helping to set up the tracking system UPS uses now (you know, the clipboards). He trained himself entirely in the language of computers, starting out with a TRS-80 computer in 1980. He's right now building me a new 64-bit AMD Athlon computer (he names them after stars and constellations...this old one I use is called Albireo, and the new one will be Pegasus). He does this for fun and excitement, but he still wondered what he'd do after work when he retired and he halfway dreaded it, thinking he would languish and get depressed.
Dad decided he'd go back to college and finish his degree, which had gotten put on hold when I was discovered to be on my way into the world. So he went to West Chester University and finished his degree in Earth Sciences and Astronomy after trying for a degree in Physics, which is another love of his. He's a very intelligent person, and on many levels, interesting to talk to. He is not one of those that knows a little bit about a lot of things, he knows a LOT about a LOT of things. With him in the car, we can usually know for certain what year a vehicle is, how many years it was made, what type of suspension it might have (his dad invented the tubeless tire!), or any other fun/trivia. Then, we can just as easily know the type of rock in the hillside, the age of the rock, where it originated, and where else in the world it might have been found. If it's nighttime, we can find objects in the sky, and he shares the scientific as well as the mythological history of these objects.
Dad's not a "people" person, but people like him in spite of his shy, reserved nature. He can even seem terse, as he gets kind of stressed in large crowds, but he's pretty much a pussycat with a heart of gold.
Dad's figured out he wants to continue on with his schooling and pursue Paleontology, perhaps help to explore areas that have been largely untouched, to discover the wonders of the creatures that inhabited this planet before us.
He was definitely NOT my role model as a teenager, or so I thought, but he's become one, and though I doubt I will ever aspire to such heights as he, on a career level, I feel like things are attainable that might not have been otherwise because of his hard work and perseverence. I hate to think that he would not have a chance to fully enjoy his retirement, since he did sacrifice so much so that we would have what we needed, even when we were living with my mother (even though she stole the child support money and told us he didn't send it, but that is another story).
As I'm writing this, I didn't know I would go on so much about the person my dad is, but maybe you understand why. If something goes wrong on Saturday and he does not do well, I will be very devastated and will likely not be able to be here as much, for I will need to find a way to be with my stepmom. I would be back there, now, but there are things happening here that I absolutely can't be out of town for. I feel horrible about it.
But if you can, think good thoughts or say a prayer if that's what you do...I still need my Daddy!
(pic taken in 2002 w/my son Brandon, can even see a bit of resemblance, there?)
Liz M.
I am fairly anxious over this. My Dad (and stepmom) is the only family I have left outside my husband and sons.
I am estranged from my sister and brother for reasons I won't go into, and my (in biological sense only) mother died in 1994, with my grandmother, my TRUE mother, following in 1995. The other side of my family (mom's side) does not communicate with us because of things my mother did to them, so you can see, we have a very small family.
Last Summer after my Dad got home from visiting here, he started having pains that he knew were kidney stones. Sure enough, they saw them on the ultrasound, but also discovered a cyst the size of an orange on his left kidney.
After much testing and scanning, etc., they've determined that it is very bad looking and needs to be removed. They called it renal carcinoma. The good news is that there appears to be no spreading, still contained to the original mass.
He is going to Fox-Chase Cancer Center on Saturday to have it removed in a laparoscopic surgery. Both the cyst and the kidney will go, leaving him with just the right kidney, which has been doing 60% of the work already, anyway.
He's also a diabetic (Type 2) and 63 years old. Luckily he is a very healthy diabetic with very few other problems, but it is still a factor.
I know anything can happen, but I have to think he will be fine and will have a long, healthy life after this is resolved.
I really admire my dad a lot, and though we had some tough times when I was a teenager, we have grown to have a good relationship and he's always here for me, my husband and sons, helping to make up for the fact that our family is, indeed, small.
Dad worked as a scale repair man prior to me being born, putting his college on hold so my mom could finish hers before they had kids. Well, she got pregnant (though they'd agreed to wait til she's graduated and had her teaching degree) and had to quit college, and he could not finish then, so he found a job with UPS, and worked for them for 30+ years, beginning as a delivery man and ending up as the computer systems manager for the Eastern Region. He was instrumental in helping to set up the tracking system UPS uses now (you know, the clipboards). He trained himself entirely in the language of computers, starting out with a TRS-80 computer in 1980. He's right now building me a new 64-bit AMD Athlon computer (he names them after stars and constellations...this old one I use is called Albireo, and the new one will be Pegasus). He does this for fun and excitement, but he still wondered what he'd do after work when he retired and he halfway dreaded it, thinking he would languish and get depressed.
Dad decided he'd go back to college and finish his degree, which had gotten put on hold when I was discovered to be on my way into the world. So he went to West Chester University and finished his degree in Earth Sciences and Astronomy after trying for a degree in Physics, which is another love of his. He's a very intelligent person, and on many levels, interesting to talk to. He is not one of those that knows a little bit about a lot of things, he knows a LOT about a LOT of things. With him in the car, we can usually know for certain what year a vehicle is, how many years it was made, what type of suspension it might have (his dad invented the tubeless tire!), or any other fun/trivia. Then, we can just as easily know the type of rock in the hillside, the age of the rock, where it originated, and where else in the world it might have been found. If it's nighttime, we can find objects in the sky, and he shares the scientific as well as the mythological history of these objects.
Dad's not a "people" person, but people like him in spite of his shy, reserved nature. He can even seem terse, as he gets kind of stressed in large crowds, but he's pretty much a pussycat with a heart of gold.
Dad's figured out he wants to continue on with his schooling and pursue Paleontology, perhaps help to explore areas that have been largely untouched, to discover the wonders of the creatures that inhabited this planet before us.
He was definitely NOT my role model as a teenager, or so I thought, but he's become one, and though I doubt I will ever aspire to such heights as he, on a career level, I feel like things are attainable that might not have been otherwise because of his hard work and perseverence. I hate to think that he would not have a chance to fully enjoy his retirement, since he did sacrifice so much so that we would have what we needed, even when we were living with my mother (even though she stole the child support money and told us he didn't send it, but that is another story).
As I'm writing this, I didn't know I would go on so much about the person my dad is, but maybe you understand why. If something goes wrong on Saturday and he does not do well, I will be very devastated and will likely not be able to be here as much, for I will need to find a way to be with my stepmom. I would be back there, now, but there are things happening here that I absolutely can't be out of town for. I feel horrible about it.
But if you can, think good thoughts or say a prayer if that's what you do...I still need my Daddy!
(pic taken in 2002 w/my son Brandon, can even see a bit of resemblance, there?)
Liz M.
