Father-in-law progress

Hey all

My father-in-law, Donald, has been, for the last couple of months, dealing with being diagnosed with bladder cancer.  The end result of lots of testing, scraping of tissues inside his bladder and the muscle just beyond the bladder wall, and several trips to Jackson, MS, to see the urologist he was referred to, was that he had stage 2 cancer in his bladder and the muscle just beyond the bladder wall.  Stage 1 cancer, but since it was in fact in the deeper muscle, it automatically becomes stage 2.  He had surgery yesterday in Jackson, to remove his bladder, prostate, and surrounding lymph nodes.  This surgery gives him the absolute best success rate percentage of eliminating the cancer, and the best success percentage for his not ever having to worry about it coming back.  The surgery went exceptionally well, better than his doctor hoped it would!  He has opted to have the "bag" for urine disposal, versus having a bladder "made" and having to re-learn what it feels like to have to go urinate again.  I think this was the best decision.  He has an NG tube right now, but hopefully he will get this out tomorrow.  That will help him tremendously, as he says that's bothering him more than the pain and discomfort from the drainage bags and such.  They will have him up to walk in a little while, and he's already been up and sat in a chair for a while this morning first thing.  For someone who's just had this kind of surgery yesterday, he looks terrific!!  I know this will be real tough for a few days, and then it'll be quite an adjustment for him to make, getting used to his new "normal" and completing the recovery process in general, but so far he is handling things a lot better than I thought he might.  This man has had NO SURGERIES, HOSPITAL STAYS, OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, in his entire 63 years of living!  Impressive, to be sure, and very blessed also, but it can make it very scary for your first time to be something of this magnitude as well.  He has made me very proud for the way he's handled all this.  Very proud!!  Also, my mother-in-law, my wife, and my brother-in-law, have handled this very well, too.  I'm so proud of each of them!!  They've never seen Dad down, or in even a similar situation, and this has been hard on them also, to see him this way.  But, they have done a tremendous job of being positive, and being encouraging to Dad.  I call him Dad, you see.  They call me their second son, not their son-in-law.  Means the world to me.  Dad's taught me everything I know about repairing things around the house, building stuff, etc. and I look forward to continuing learning from him, once he's recooped, and now that he's cancer-free!!  Just a tremendous man, and the center and patriarch of this family.  Love you, Dad!  You're the man!!  Should be about next Tuesday when he gets to go home from the hospital, and Tina and I will be here until he and Mom can come home with us.  Thank you to everyone for their prayers, thoughts, well-wishes, and support.  Will post here or my G+ page, or both, in the next few days, on Dad's progress.

God bless and geek on!