The Big C

So I was watching a commercial the other day and a man was talking about being a cancer survivor. All of the sudden I was completely overwhelmed and began to cry. In my tears the thoughts raced through my head...my dad, I love him, I don't want to loose him. These thoughts did not come because my dad is a cancer survivor; my dad is a cancer patient. He has had prostrate cancer since 2004.

Those who know anything about cancer may think, well it's not like breast cancer. It happens to be a slower moving cancer. But my dad, the over-achiever that he is, happened to get an aggressive form of prostrate cancer. He had surgery and hormone treatments. He changed his diet and lost weight to prepare for surgery. After surgery, he "went organic" long before the world jumped on the natural, organic train with grass fed meat and raw milk. He used to have cheese shipped from CA. He took supplements and changed his toiletries. It was almost a full time job to follow the "T" of his life style change.

It's been 5 years and he's still here. He goes to a lot of doctors and gets lots of tests. He makes really horrid, morbid jokes about his life span. This of course caused me to break down one night and then later tell him, "Dad no more jokes about you not being here. We have a deal...you are supposed to live forever, or at least past me!"

It's hard on a Daddy's girl to think about dad being sick. He's my rock and was the cookie from which the cutter was made for my husband. I look up to him, admire him, am proud of him and proud to say he's mine. I watched him gracefully go through a loss of spouse which I had already experienced. I watched him grieve and then, like me, bring his head up again. I watched him find love again, re-marry and so far...live happily ever after. He has called me his best friend and I am honored with the title and think of him just the same. Not much important happens in my life without him knowing, praying and being there for it.

So the big C...you'll not get the best of this bunch. We'll joke about it. We have cried about it (at least I have). We'll watch it and monitor it. We'll know its apart of life but not our life. We'll be sad when you advance to another place in our lives. We'll rejoice everyday we have with it. But in the end...Cancer will not beat this family. No matter how much we have gone through, we are a strong, loving, Godly family. No one or thing can come between us.