Next Step

[Gypsy1946]

Well it is to be a busy week this week coming up, Surgeon on Monday to get results of biopsies,and endoscopy. Hopefully we will be more aware of how the tumor is progressing and if it has spread further.Then Thursday to his local Doctor to update him on where we are at, the on Friday to The Cancer Care Unit at Nepean Hospital to meet with team and discuss I presume Chemo etc. At the moment Les is still eating soft foods and Sustagen,weet-bix is OK as long as covered by lots of milk to soften.I blend up a lot of ordinary meals as well and even though he does not have the texture at least there is the taste. It is really hard to see the active strong man that he was become weaker, it is not fair when he never smoked in his life, loved a couple of beers at night after work, was very active and an outdoors person. But I guess not much in life is fair. Even though I consider myself pretty strong and can do a lot of things,it is surprising that I now have to find myself not relying on him to fix something for me that I took for granted.He was a motor mechanic by trade and I have never had to take a car we have owned into a service station or auto dealers except for petrol and tyres,as he did everything himself.It is hard for the grandchildren as well as they were used to saying "Pop, can you fix this or do that" he certainly tries but something that took him minutes to fix before now takes a lot longer because of the pain in his shoulder or general weakness. I don't know if this is all part of it or not but he is getting a lot weaker. He is also forgetful,an example is that he took a call the other day from the Surgeon's receptionist about his appt.at the Cancer Care unit and within minutes had forgotten who he was supposed to see there and what time, lucky I had written it all down and checked by phone on all the appts.I think ideally it would be better if I took all the calls, however at this stage I do not want to take everything from him, we (our daughter)look for small jobs that he can do for us around her house, and our grandson (Jack)who is 9 just drags him off to do what they always did. It has been hard on both our daughter (who is my greatest support ever) and our son who lives 3000klms away to see their strong Dad become weaker, the three grandkids are great, the oldest Tash who is 15 feels it a lot more, but we have encouraged her to ask as many questions as she wants and we will try and answer them for her,the second granddaughter Alanah(Larnie)11 years,is more laid back and just goes about things as usual(A lot like me is Larnie)and Jack our previously mentioned grandson just focuses on what they need to do today, God bless them all they are great.. Well we all have to stay positive and see where this journey is going to take us,and hopefully in the near future we can get back on the road again to keep exploring this great country.