Why I Decided to Form a Relay for Life Team
A little over a year ago, my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer. This wasn't much of a surprise. He used to be a smoker plus he was exposed to a variety of other toxins both in the military and in his wood shop so it probably was just a matter of time before it happened. He has other health issues and, because of those, doctors were a bit reluctant to let him fight it. He, however, chose to go through radiation treatment and defeated it. Or, so we thought. He injured his back last fall and, on Thanksgiving, the pain was intense enough to justify an emergency room visit. While there, they did a CT Scan and discovered nodes on his liver and, earlier this year, he was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer. The most frustrating thing about this experience hasn't been the fact he has cancer. It is the ongoing reluctance, both because of his age and his other health problems, to even bother to fight it. The only option his doctors will even consider is immunotherapy and, because ...