That cancer thing

I began reading Leroy's Sievers's "My Cancer" blog on the NPR site in the summer of 2006, during the time that my dad was going through his last round of radiation for bladder cancer (he died in late August)..  I guess reading Sievers's daily musings gave me a little perspective, particularly in light that my dad lived almost six years after being diagnosed with Stage Four cancer.  I was told that most Stage Four patients don't live for more than a couple years...

Sievers took an ugly turn for the worst this week when scans discovered new tumors pretty much all over his body.  Brutal news for him and his loved ones.  When my dad's situation because officially Terminal, I was concerned about my mom's state of mind.  Fortunately her fears were put to ease when some very good people at Kaiser (yes, KAISER) laid out the options for us in a surprisingly soothing manner.  From that meeting with the doctors in late July to the afternoon we buried my dad in mid-September, my mom (who lost HER mother to cancer when she was in high school) was a figure of strength and acceptance.  Battered but definitely not broken.

I'm uncertain if Mr. Sievers has any more battles in him; I can only hope that he can find the peace within himself that will allow him travel to the next path of uncertainty.