Fighting On

While the last two weeks have been up and down with Pop's physical health, he is not letting it slow him down. For the first treatment, Pop went into the Cancer Center last Monday. In the room where patients receive treatments, the family caught-up with friends from prior treatments, as well as a few new faces. The bright-side of this round is that the chemo is only administered one day a week, rather than 24 hours a day/7 days per week (as it was with the last round). So, for three Monday's in a row, Pop will go to the Cancer Center to receive treatment, and then he will have a one week break. It continues in this cycle for a few months, then they will re-image Pop's body to see how the cancer is responding.
So far, the road has been a rather sick one. With the chemo running through his body, Pop has lost his appetite, and the nausea has come back with a vengeance. The way that Pop deals with it? Drink a little soda and pretend like it's not gonna slow ya down! He has been sleeping poorly, so he'll rise early and go out to retrieve the paper, and have it read by the time others begin to stir. Then it is off to some small project that will distract his mind from the dull pain and nausea fighting to take over. There are moments of his "humanness" where he is found leaning over a bathroom sink dry-heaving and retching in pain. But, he works his hardest to control these moments of "inconvenience" as he calls them. There are times too where he simply must succumb to the battle waging within this body, and lay down to ease the pain.
Oddly enough, when Pop is feeling half-decent, the one thing that tastes good to him is a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub from Subway. This being the case, we have found ourselves sitting in the shade the past few days eating take-out in the middle of the week (a rarity in our family). Emma has been there for many of these occasions, and it is beautiful to see her walk up to Pop and gently touch his bald head. She realizes something is different, but isn't sure why. We all laugh as she promptly turns around and feels somebody else's head, making a funny face at the feeling of hair. Pop chuckles as Emma waddles around at these lunches getting into everything. As he laughs and talks, the brightness in his eyes is evidence of the spirit that's within him. His body is being put through trials, but his spirit simply cannot be dimmed. As Pop rises each day, he often speaks of the prayers that keep him going. For this we say thank you. It is all the faithful support and prayers that keep him going. For we serve a God that is far larger than our situation, yet ever present at our side.

* - A quick apology for being "blog illiterate" on the default setting for comments. I have heard several people say that they tried leaving comments on the posts, but were unable, so I did some digging and found out that a change needed to made in order to allow anyone to make comments to Pop on the blog. So, the changes have been made, and everyone is now able to comment freely. Thanks!