our short story...

[jamie]

My dad has smoked since he was 14. He smoked when I ws a baby, a child and finally as a teen. About 10 years ago he quit. A New Years resolution. It worked. Quit for 5 years. When I was 15, my Mom starting asking me and my brother if we were smoking...(we were). We couldnt figure out how she knew! She then started asking us where we got the nerve to smoke in our bathroom. (we didnt). My dad stepped up after a few days (after we had been grounded, mind you) and admitted that 5 years to the day from when he quit, he had started back up. New Years Eve, 5 years later. He's been smoking since then for 11 years more.

This past February, my Dad complained of a cough. Quit smoking for good cause he could tell it wasnt just "smokers cough". He refused to go see the Dr. of course... A few days later while at work (a railroad car man), he was walking a train and coughing so hard he threw up, and fell down. Almost passing out, he went home and called our Dr.

In for a chest x-ray, and told him to come back in 2 days for the results. The very next day they called. Told him to come in now. My husband drove him to the hospital,and Dad said he knew something was wrong.

We got the news that night. LC. Not knowing what stage, I began to surf the net. Told my Dad all of what I had found. In turn, got the nickname Dr. Doom. Once we found out it was stage 3B... i felt foolish for giving him all the info I had found. I was sure it was just stage 1 or 2.

Then I found this site! Thank god. I finally had real expierences to share with my Dad. And it helped... alot.

My dad had 8 weeks of chemo and radiation, in for tests, told he was a canidate for surgery, then not, then is, then probably not, and now is currently scheduled for surgery at the end of this month.

Things are looking brighter for us, and if all goes well, I am hoping my dad will beat out all of these dumb statistics. We still wonder if things would have turned out differently if he wouldn't have started back up and cut 11 years off his smoking time...who can say?

A look back on this journey, and I can say that I was at a VERY scary point when I first posted here. Now, only 5 short months later... I am proud to say that I am more edjucated, not so scared, and proud that my Dad has handled things so well this far.

I will be posting in this section again. I vow to do it when my Dad has his 1 year survival anniversary. I dont know what kind of mental state I would be in if not for you guys... and for that I thank you.

Jamie