These past two days have been surreal.
I picked my brother (Mike) and his wife (Sherry)up at 8:00 Friday morning and took them to Providence Hopital in Everett.
Mike has had stomach problems for months and they finally did some extensive tests and found some "suspicious masses" in his peritoneal area.
Friday morning they went in three different places with a laproscope and camera and biopsied the masses. They told Sherry that the procedure should only take about an hour and a half. He went to the operating room at 12:30, and at 2:30 Sherry and I looked at each other and said "Dang, this doesn't feel right". About three o'clock the doctor came out and told us they found numerous little tiny masses in the area and they are cancer. He said they cannot operate to take them out as there are thousands of them. They are around his colon, appendix, pancreas, everywhere. He said the only hope (if any) is chemotherapy, and that will only prolong it. I asked how long, and he just stared at me. I asked "Weeks? Months? Years?" He could only shrug his shoulders. This type of cancer is very rare. It is mostly found in women.
Mike stayed in the hospital overnight and came home this morning.
Sherry, bless her heart stayed at the hospital with him right by his side.
She was devastated when we were told. She started crying and said "how can I go on without him?" They have been married for 32 years. I told my brother that he is a very very lucky guy. He has a woman that has loved him unconditionally for 32 years. That is a love we ALL search for in our lives. His son Galen is 30 years old and is a good man. He brought Mike and Sherry home this morning.
Mike has a doctor's appointment on Friday and will get more answers then. In the meantime it is a waiting game.
Prayers are good. He keeps his Faith and that is good. It gives him hope for Heaven. He has alot of questions, and had been agnostic most of his life. He accepted Christ a few years ago and was Baptized in the ocean two years ago. His Church will bring them food and some wood for their woodstove. People are offering help with transportation to and from treatments. Mike knows how loved he is, and is on his knees with gratitude. Times like this brings phone calls and cards out of the woodwork and feeds the soul. Thank you everyone for all the prayers. Please keep them coming as there is always hope....he hasn't started treatment yet, and who knows...God can still work His miracles.
What ever the outcome, I am so thankful for the time I have with my brother.
I love him dearly.
I wish I could fix him.
I wish it was me and not him.
Really.
