I had pretty much resigned myself that one day I would receive a knock on the door or a phone call informing me that my father had died. I had rehearsed the scenario in my mind many times and I was ready to deal with it.
What I hadn't rehearsed, planned for or anticipated was getting a phone call on July 31st and having a voice that I didn't recognize inform me that he, my dad, was at Kelsey's on Highway 2 and he was waiting for me to come pick him up.
When I got there, I didn't know what to do. He was skin and bones, I hugged him and I could feel all his ribs and his spine. His eyes were sunk into his head. He looked like the walking dead.
There was no way I could bring him home looking like that. The kids would have freaked and so would Brent, so I took him to the HoJo's. Brent and the kids were going to his family reunion so I could have Dad stay with me for a few days. Friday I took him to the out patient clinic in Courtice and they ran an EKG, an ultra sound and some blood tests, because he couldn't keep any food down. By Sunday he still couldn't eat or drink so I took him to the ER. They finally admitted him and kept him there for just over a week.
Turns out that he has a blockage at the base of his esophagus, a growth on the lining of his stomach and a CT scan indicates that he has tumours all through his abdomen, his lower lungs and his lymph nodes. He has cancer, and he has 3 to 4 months to live.
