Afternoon everyone, sorry about my last minute absent from Saturdays game. I had made it back into town from my trip to North Carolina only to find a crisis of a different sort waiting for me Saturday afternoon. Let me start at the beginning.
Thursday evening I got a call from my Mom asking were I was, I told her I was in NC on an investigation. She then told me that my Father was in the Provo hospital with problems breathing (something that has been an issue for the last couple of months) and that they were running some tests. I told her I would be home late Friday night and would come down Saturday, he was to be in the hospital for the weekend for observation. Saturday afternoon, morning spent at kids soccer games, I drove down to check on my Dad and to see what was up. After getting down there I quickly learned that things were far worse than anyone lead me to believe, what was supposed to be a couple hour visit with Dad and then off to the Game, was instead a family crisis. I the process of discovering what was causing the problem of my fathers breathing, the X-ray showed dark spots. This was followed by an CT scan, which was followed up by biopics on Friday. What they found was a growth in the lung which had blocked one part of the lung causing the breathing problem, in addition, a large blood clot was found behind or attached to the mass. Samples were taken and are being looked at and a result is due back today (Monday). But everyone is in agreement that it is cancer. In addition to the one large mass, a handful of other smaller lumps were noted and sampled. As it so happened that night, my middle brother was there with his wife but had to been back home early that evening, so it fell to me to be with my father that evening. We have a thing in the family that works like this, when someone is in the hospital with something serious someone is always there during the day and evening. We switch off so as everyone gets time to get things done that need to be done (work and such) and so that we are not all there at the same time and stepping on each other and leaving long periods of time with the person in the hospital by themselves. So I was there with my father from early afternoon to late evening, with my father coming to grips with the realization of what was before him. It was a very hard night, for him and for me. I was spelled off by my older brother and one of his daughters later that evening (putting my Dad to bed for the evening). I also drew the morning shift the next day (Sunday) as my Mom was back at home getting things done there she needed to do. She was due to arrive back Sunday around noon.
Any way that is what is going on. And that is why I could not make it Saturday. I apologize to Rob as when he called I was in the middle of finding out all the details, as my father understood them, when he called and I was in a mild state of shock, processing what was being told me. I still am in shock and am having a hard time dealing with this right now as anyone who knows my family well knows my father is a anchor strong and sure. And to see him like this is very hard. Not that he is handling this badly, he is resigned to what will be will be. But he is weaker in health than at anytime I can remember and the weight of mortality is heavy.
So that is what is going on with me and my family. And I wait by the phone for the next bit of news.