Sunday, January 17 at 2:13pm - Jim

Dad recently hurt his back (severely, and not the first time) snatching an extension ladder off the wall and out of the garage on Christmas day. Mom, Eddie, and Susan's family all came down to my place for Christmas. Dad stayed home due to a bad cold/flu. It was raining and dad was investigating a bad roof leak.

Since Christmas, he's struggled with back pains and stubbornly refused to seek a doctors help. I finally convinced him to see a doc, and get an MRI about a week ago. That doc had him returning this Tue (1/19/10) to "discuss his condition". We figured this was bad news, but I was hoping for "just" a slipped or ruptured disk...

Meanwhile dad struggled to get around, and fell Saturday, and mom could not get him up. I called returning from funerals in FL (my best man tragically lost both his mom and middle brother last week). Dad was in bad pain, said his legs felt numb/dead, and could not walk, but he could move them some, wiggle his toes. He wanted to wait till Tuesday to see the doc. I finally got him to take an ambulance to the hospital Sat night. He had the EMS take him to the VA, but was transferred to Lexington Medical Center (803)791-2000, and is now in room 471 North Tower. Mom is there with dad.

He's had several tests, so far the mri, x-rays, urine, blood, and got more to go, including very likely a CT scan later today(for organs/soft tissue to find a source), and biopsies. So far we believe he may have lung cancer, that has traveled over to 2 places on the spine. We don't know the exact types/severity/stages, but if the source is lung cancer for example it would have probably have been there for a while. The CT scan is better for looking at organs, and the MRI was very distorted in his mid back, from his 5mm piece of shrapnel souvenir from Vietnam, so you can't see it well. Susan and I converged here in Columbia to help and support. We will keep you posted.

Meanwhile we aim to keep dad's spirits up and fears down. And not beat up on him for smoking and procrastinating on medical help... He is a child of God too, and we know God has a plan for all of this and will see us through. It was good to talk to several of you, and we appreciate everyone's support and prayers for dad.