The Last 10 Days with my Daddy!

I wanted to write an update about what's been going on with my dad for all of you who are curious. I will try and keep it short, simple, and chronological:

My dad has been having hip pain for the past couple of months. He thought it was probably bursitis or something equally benign, and he's pretty dang toug; so, he just kept on living life. Well, I didn't know it, but on Thursday, September 9th my dad went in for x-rays because it wasn't getting better. The x-rays showed something of concern, so my dad went in for a bone scan on Friday. Again, I didn't know any of this. My mom called me Friday evening to tell me that they had found a lesion on my dad's pelvis. That was all that they really knew, other than the fact that all of his lab results were normal despite what they were seeing. I cried.

Because of the way the lesion lit up on the bone scan, they scheduled an MRI and a CT scan for the following Monday. On Monday, my dad was diagnosed with Primary Bone Cancer in his pelvis with small metasteses on his tibia, 4th lumbar vertebrae, 1st rib and skull. It was a pretty disheartening diagnosis. It could have been worse: they were originally throwing out everything from multiple myeloma to metastatic renal cancer.

So Tuesday, my dad met with an oncologist in Lubbock. Two things really stuck out from that meeting. First, my dad needs to go see a specialist in Dallas, at UT Southwestern of all places. There are no orthopedic oncologists in Lubbock, so my dad is scheduled to see a specialist, Dr. Maale (pronounced "Molly"), this coming Tuesday the 21st. The second thing that stuck out from meeting is that the oncologist in Lubbock was "not impressed" by all of the secondary areas. He is not convinced that those are true metasteses. So we are holding out hope that those areas are nothing but "junk".

So that's where we are now. Waiting. We have been so blessed so far, in that we haven't had to wait. Everyone has bent over backward to help my dad and get him in to see whoever he needs to as quickly as possible. So the waiting is ok. We'll take it. We have been surrounded by prayers and encouragement and couldn't feel more supported than we have been. Thank you all so much!!! Please continue to pray for the doctors and my family, especially my mom and dad. They are such an amazing team--I feel blessed to watch them attack this battle together. We are still believing that my dad will be completely healed or even better, that this won't be cancer at all. Either way, we're armed and ready for the fight. The Lord is without a doubt a POWERFUL healer!!