Still Fighting

  “Be strong now because things will get better. It might be stormy now but it can’t rain forever.” This quote is important because my mom often says this to my siblings and me to make us feel better about the situation we are in.
In May 2007, my dad, Kalvin, was having his gallbladder removed by a small town hospital in Michigan.  While the hospital was performing the procedure, they found lesions on his liver.  After more testing, the doctors discovered that he had carcinoma cancer, which starts in the tissues lining the liver.  My parents wanted a 2nd opinion, so they went to a few local hospitals, which all told him the same thing. With this diagnosis, they gave him less than a year to live.
My parents chose a hospital in Chicago that specializes in cancer treatment  to take care of my dad.  My parents took the five hour trip to Chicago every three weeks, to have chemo for a one week period.  My dad had spent 14 months with this hospital and still wasn’t getting any better, so the doctors decided to do a wedge biopsy to see why the treatment wasn’t working.  After  this procedure, the doctors realized that they had misdiagnosed his cancer, and that he had been treated  for the wrong disease the entire time.
My parents were crushed.  My dad felt like giving up and my mom was heartbroken.  They couldn’t believe that something like this could happen.  My siblings and I were scared because we didn’t know how we could move on from this, or how things could get better.  My entire family and all of our friends did everything they could to help us. They gave my siblings and I  rides, made us food, took us shopping when we needed something, and even let us stay with them. This all helped a lot with my parents being in the hospital day in and day out.
My parents decided to switch to Beaumont Health Systems, after the Chicago hospital misdiagnosed my dad.  The doctors at Beaumont gave a new diagnosis of neuroendocrine cancer of the liver, which is malignant tumors that attach to the liver.  The doctors explained that the best medicine for this type of cancer was no medicine at all.  My dad stopped getting chemo and started to get healthy again.  He regained most of his weight and strength,  got his job back, and started enjoying life again.
In December, 2014 my dad was having stomach pains again, so he went to his doctors at Beaumont who ran more tests on him. The pain was being caused by golf ball size lesions on his liver, which were rubbing against his stomach.  In March of that year, he had surgery to remove the lesions, and it was decided to put him on the liver transplant list to ultimately take care of the problem.
My mom and dad were filled with relief. They were so thankful for all of our family and friends’ help and support.  All I could think about was how hopeless I felt the day that he was told he had one year to live. On that day, we were all so lost and all we thought about was how would we ever live without him.  So hearing this news, that my dad was getting a new liver, brought our family back together.
My dad was put on the transplant list, but he still had to wait his turn.  Every month he receives a star, which means he is moved higher on the list. He needs 28 stars to be at the top.  He was only at 25 stars when my parents decided they didn’t want to wait any longer, and started looking for a living donor.  My cousin, Blake, happened to be a perfect match.  Blake was happy and willing to help my dad.  After going to the doctor to make sure that Blake was healthy enough and had everything that my dad needed, the surgery date was finally set for October 12, 2015. 
Unfortunately a week before surgery, he got a really bad cold and they had to postpone the surgery until he was better.  We waited and waited for him to get better, and when he finally did, the surgery date was set again.  Surgery had to be postponed a 2nd time because he got sick with pneumonia.  A few days later, to our surprise, our nurse called and informed us that the surgery was canceled by the operating hospital. 
We have reached 28 stars; he is now at the top of the transplant list.  If a deceased liver is found, he goes into surgery immediately.  All we can do right now is wait and pray for a new liver so he can enjoy life again.