that my grandfather’s cancer came back? I don’t remember if I ever posted about him having cancer in the first place, but yes, it’s back. Last December, my grandfather (my dad’s step-dad) had a stroke while on the way home to Columbia, SC from Hilton Head, SC. He pulled into a gas station and collapsed on the floor. He, being the stubborn headed person he is, got back in his truck not long after that and drove the rest of the way home and told my grandmother that something wasn’t right. When they went to the doctor, they said he had suffered a minor stroke but they also found cancer in his throat. I don’t know all the details as to how the stroke lead them to finding the cancer, but in a way the stroke “saved” his life if you will, otherwise they probably wouldn’t have found it.

He went through a round of chemo and radiation from what I’ve been told and when it was done, they said the cancer was gone. I’m not sure when he finished his chemo – I know he was in the hospital down in Charleston, SC around April so it hasn’t been too long ago. Anyways, when I went to my dad’s for my brother’s birthday on July 9th, he informed me that the cancer was back and at this point, my grandfather was refusing treatment. Of course, I cried. Even though, my brother and I haven’t had a close relationship with my dad’s parents since we were young, who wants to think about someone in the family dying? No one! My dad said he was confident that he’d come around and go through treatment again.

Well, last week when I was moving stuff into my new apartment, my step-mom let me know that my grandfather had decided to go through treatment or surgery (I forget what she said) but if they found the cancer has spread into the jaw, they were to stop. My grandfather has decided that if he has spread into his jaw, he doesn’t want to go through surgery or treatment and doesn’t want them to reconstruct his jaw in order to get rid of the cancer. He’s done, if it has spread. This makes me sad and I pray that it hasn’t spread any further and they can get rid of it. My grandfather is young compared to most people that have living grandparents today. If and when he passes, whether it’s from cancer or another cause, I’ll be sad but nothing could ever prepare me for the passing of my mother’s parents whom I’m extremely close with.

It makes me wish that they had cancer lawyers, like they do Mesothelioma lawyers, so we could just take the damn disease to court and cast it away; like they have no legal right to invade the body! We’ll see how it goes. I haven’t been updated on his status in a few weeks so I’ll have to give my dad a call and find out what’s going on. Sometimes, I think I rather not know because everyone knows I’m the emotional, sensitive basketcase in my family and I just want everything to be okay…

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.