During this hiatus, we spent a wonderful week in Nags Head with a beautiful house on the beach. Other than the nasty overwhelming vampire-like mosquitoes we enjoyed every moment. The mosquitoes were brought in from hurricane Irene that although left little damage to Nags Head, she left major damage to Hatteras Island and permantly washing out Highway 12 in several spots south of Nags Head. There was also much damage from the return waves on the sound side of the island which caused flooding to the residents and some local restaurants.
We spent an amazingly beautiful day exploring Festival Park and seeing the first Jamestown Settlement. The girls captured most of our pictures with their own cameras, so we have a varied view of all of our adventures. Here they were repairing the ropes on the ship. The staff told us that they ship actually stayed anchored in place rather than being brought in for the hurricane. The girls thought that was amazing and captured photos of it being repaired.
We spent another couple days exploring the Wright Brothers Memorial and the Aquarium. The rest of the time we spent wandering the beach and collecting shells. The girls brought home four overflowing buckets of shells. We are not sure what they will do with them, but shells are slowly taking over our garage. Maybe we will make a shell garden out back by their play set.
We returned home to find my father not doing so well. He had been battling metastatic colon cancer since his diagnosis in July, but little did we know that this time his battle would be harder than ever. He suffered multiple complications from the chemo treatments and with each cycle we hoped that no new side effects would appear. When we returned he was battling increasing abdominal pains and after a month of doctor appointments and narcotics to control the unknown cause of the pain, he was hospitalized. The next five weeks or so were chaotic and we spent many hours going to and from the hospital and as much time as we could with my father. Thank goodness for a wonderful group of friends who stepped up and spent time with my children so I could spend time helping my parents deal with what would become the hardest task in our lives.
After an extensive exploratory surgery, it was determined that his lymphatic system was draining into his abdominal cavity. We were soon to learn that his type of colon cancer was considered "mutant" and also extremely aggressive. As the doctors explained to us, when there is an extremely aggressive cancer the chemo seems to work much better than normal. In a young healthy person, this can be a great thing. For my father in his already weakened state, the death of so many of the lymph nodes at once caused a chain reaction and essentially the necrotic cells formed clumps (tumors of dead cells) blocking off the lymphatic ducts and causing fluid to back up into his abdominal and chest cavities.
Unknown to us at the onset of this latest diagnosis, we were actually looking at the beginning of the end. It breaks my heart now to sift through the chaos of tests and procedures that he endured hoping to find a solution to his situation. Each test and procedure further weakened him. Sadly at 1:05 am on Wednesday, November 16, 2011 my father took his final breath in his battle. He was a courageous man and continued to think of his family until the very end. I'm thankful my mother could be at his side for those final moments and am thankful that the Lord has brought him home and that he is in a better place, free of pain, free of medical treatments and forever a guardian angel to me and my girls. I love you Daddy!
This picture was actually taken by one of my father's friends on his last visit to Milwaukee. It represents the silly-side my dad didn't often show, but his daughters and grand-daughters saw often. It also represents the last time he was feeling decent as this was about a month before his diagnosis.
I was undecided on whether to post about my dad's passing on my school page, but looking back, I see that his sickness and death has impacted not only our lives but also our schooling. My children have learned first hand how something so small can cause so much pain. They have learned about compassion, prayers, friends helping friends, and so much more. My father's cancer and chemo treatments opened up discussions on how the body works and how medical treatments can change the outcomes (for better or worse). My girls have seen how love grows stronger in times of need and how love has no end. His impending death brought on many discussions with my eldest regarding God, Jesus, death, heaven and other philosophical questions on life. I know this ordeal has changed (and aged) me as I am sure it has done the same to all three of my daughters. You grow up faster than you expect during a time like this.
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With the start of the holiday season upon us, posting will likely be on hold until we get back to our normal routines in January. For December we will be finishing up our first semester and preparing for February testing. It is hard to believe we are almost half done with our school year.
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