Saturday, August 27, 2011

Ironman?? Missed it and I don't care

tWednesday I was supposed to be on the road for Louisville. Earlier this year I was looking forward to completeing this Ironman. In January my father was diagnosed with Stage IV melanoma. He had skin cancer that had moved to his lung.

He immediately started treatments through clinical trials in January. The chemo was too hard on his body and had to be stopped after 8 weeks. I was training regularly at that time and feeling pretty good about the approaching summer. He was switched to a brand new drug that had showed great results in some patients. The problem was it only worked in 20% of the receipients. When switched, the scans showed his cancer was maintained but no tumors had shrunk.

This medication was much milder to Dad's system. However, the mental side of the situation was catching up to him. He was struggling to see that a positive result was possible. As time passed, I began spending more time assisting him and dealing with this internally. As a result the training suffered. At the beginning of July he had an event that appeared to be a stroke. Adding a new medical condition was not a welcome option. Turns out it was a side effect of the cancer medication. If his body had not sounded the alarm with a seizure, he wouldn't be with us today.

After a round with the Dr's and hospital stays, he found out all side effects could be managed with medication. However the cancer medication had to be stopped and he had not completed the initial 4 treatments. He won't admit it but he was very discouraged. He was sure this medication was going to be the thing that saved his life. Now he couldn't have it anymore, ever. We had to wait 6 weeks until the Dr. was willing to do the scans. By this time I was pretty sure the ironman was out of reach this year because I had let myself become distracted from training.

Turned out the scans were yesterday, the Friday before the ironman. Couldn't be at the Dr's. office and make it to Louisville in time to check-in for the race. Dad's day started about 5 am with drive to Little Rock. That is followed by hours of waiting, a few minutes of tests then a visit with the Dr.

The Dr's main nurse came by to take some information. Dad was immediately convinced this meant he was going back into clinical trials and the medication had not worked. In reality she just wanted to take his history to make sure it was accurate after the last hospital stay. The Dr. came in for her visit. She went through all the tests except the scans. They had not been posted to the computer yet. She went to check on them She came back and said they had not been read yet. We needed to stay in the examining room and wait until she came back. Needless to say the modo was very tense. Dad and his wife were very nervous.

Dr. shows comes back in with a great poker face. Dad's tumors had disappeared or shrunk from 4cm to 1.2 cm. Almost within acceptable levels. It was amazing three doses of medication had almost completely erradicated his cancer. I am pretty sure the magnitude of the event is still settling in everyone. Lots of speechless people.

Missing Ironman Louisville to be in the room when my Dad realized his life had been handed back to him was well worth it. I will definitely be in Louisville next year celebrating the anniversary of this momentus day. Hopefully he will come and watch me finish my journey since his is going to be a lot longer than he thought.

Langley Out

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