On July 15, 2014, my life changed. I just graduated high school that past May and was gearing up for college. For months, my dad was not doing all that great. He was constantly going to the doctor. I never really knew what was wrong expect for that he was having a bad cough.
He sat my mom, two siblings and I down at the table. That's when everything hit. He was diagnosed with his second cancer. He had already beat prostate cancer, but this cancer is nothing compared to it. My dad told us he has stage 3b lung cancer. That was not the hardest part. The hardest part was him telling us that the doctors said he only had a year and a half to live.
So many thoughts entered my mind. How come they didn't find this sooner? How long did my know before he told us? Why did this have to happen to my dad? I felt my whole entire world crumbling down. I didn't want to lose my dad. The one thing I knew for sure was that this was going to be a long battle that I didn't know the outcome of.
The first few months, I lived in a constant fear. Not only was I three hours away from my dad, my older sister started a new full time job and my little sister just started at a new school. No one really was around for him. I would go to school everyday worrying about if my mom would call telling me my dad isn't doing okay. Would I have to rush home? I wasn't there for my dad and I felt like I made the worse decision by going to college. I know this wasn't what he wanted me to think. My dad was strong and he never wanted us to see him down. He stayed positive and I had to learn from that.
I would come home almost every weekend just to be with him. I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could because I didn't know if it would be my last time to see him. I would talk to him everyday on the phone. This made my dad and I extremely close. We would talk about nothing at times.
My dad had to take off work because of everything going on. My whole family had to live with caution. If we were sick, we had to go to the doctor. Even if it was the smallest of sickness. My dad's immune system wasn't strong. No one wanted to be the cause of him getting sick.
He was going through chemotherapy and radiation. Everything was looking good until November. I never felt so scared in my life. The radiation was doing more harm than good. There was a chance I could lose my dad. Not because of the cancer, but because of something that was supposed to beat it. They had to stop the radiation. It was like my family was walking on pins and needles. The pain of cancer was not only affecting to dad. It was affecting my whole family. Everyone was terrified. We had to stay strong though. We couldn't let our dad see us being depressed. My dad already had enough on his plate.
The months after November were pretty much the same. He was doing extremely better. He was even able to go back to work. Light duty, but it was better than having to be put on disability. Things were looking up for my dad. He was healthy and the cancer was getting better. We were finally not living in a constant fear. I finally had the thought that my dad could beat this. He wasn't going to be just another statistic. Unfortunately, that could all change in an instant.
In March, my dad was told that he has a mass on his kidney. This mass had a 99.9 percent chance of being cancer. The questions entered my mind was again. I had to talk to my teachers to take off school so I can come to the surgery to remove the mass. My mom, older sister, grandparents, aunt and close family friend came to the surgery. My mom was wouldn't stop crying. The surgery lasted hours. We were told it went good, but we didn't know the results just yet.
Turns out my dad had the 0.1 percent that wasn't cancer. Now, fast forward to May. My dad did it. He beat lung cancer. He beat his second cancer. He beat all odds. The doctors told him he was a special case. They truly didn't believe that he would be standing there cancer free.
The whole journey was a long scary one. I learned to never lose faith, regardless of what is going on. I learned to always be strong, not just for yourself but for everyone else. Cancer is a devastating illness and hopefully one day no one will ever have to experience it.
