My Father's Battle

Cancer is a word I ever thought would ever touch my life or anyone in it. There is no other word a person could say that has affected my life more. I never thought it would happen to me, like every other adolescent, I was naive. When my father was diagnosed with cancer my sophomore year, there were no signs or warnings. He was a healthy 50 year old. To me my father was invincible, but last year I found out how fragile life really is for everyone.
My father is the kind of man that people are drawn to. He is the sun in a "solar system" of a community. I’ve never met a person who didn't like my dad, or didn't think he was a superb human being. He always goes out of his way to make sure everyone in his life is okay before making sure he himself, is. There was never a time when my father wasn’t there for me. He’s supported me in everything I’ve done. We have always been really close and I’ve always been a "daddy's girl." When my mother said no, my father never failed to say yes. There was not a doubt in my mind that my father loved me and there was no doubt that I loved my father.
One night last year, after eating dinner with my family, my parents told my brother and I they needed to talk to us. We stood in the kitchen as my father stood there hesitating to what he was about to say. Dave and I, had no idea what was about to be said but there wasn’t even a hint in my mind about what was about to come. "It’s not for sure yet," he said as tears started to fill my mom’s eyes, “But doctors say I probably have cancer.” The kitchen went quite and I had started to cry. I had the biggest lump in the back of my throat; like I had dry swallowed a pill the size of a quarter. I felt like this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. “How bad is it?” I managed to choke out. “We don’t know.” My mother said. I looked up at my dad as I pictured my life without him. Who would I go to talk to when I needed help? Who would walk me down the aisle at my wedding? How is a daughter supposed to grow up and live a good life without her father?
That night I cried more than I had in my whole life put together. I didn’t know what was going to happen or if I was going to lose one of the most important people in my life. All I knew was that it was prostate cancer. One in six men will get it in their lifetime. I didn’t know if my father would win this inner battle or if I would lose him forever.
Three months later, my father went into surgery to try to remove the cancerous cells. They were using new technology, surgery by robot which was extremely accurate and successful. This procedure and gotten rid of 90 percent of patients cancer completely and we were hoping it would do the same for my father. I missed two finals to wait in the hospital while my father was under the knife. My mom, brother, and I waited five hours and then an hour more while he was in recovery before we could see him. Doctors told us the surgery went well and after he was healed, they would run tests to confirm the cancer was terminated. My father spent the night in the hospital and then a week in bed. We did whatever we could to make him feel better but we could tell the pain was unbearable.
One week later, my dad went back to the hospital and the doctors ran tests. We got the results and found out the surgery did not remove the cancer completely. My heart was broken, that was the hardest thing to hear. Not only did my father still have cancer, but it had spread to nodes around the area. The only thing worse than cancer, is hearing that cancer has spread. I spent most of my time with my family that summer while my father started hormone therapy and radiation treatment. It felt like almost every day my father was in and out of the hospital. But even throughout the painful treatments and therapy, my father was the same funny, smart, and heroic man he had always been.
In the fall I started school. My father was still undergoing treatment. August and September came and went, and my father was due for another test to check the progress of the treatments. In late October my parents sat my brother and I down again for another talk. My father was finally cancer free. I felt a huge wave of happiness and relief crash over and overcome me. This was the happiest moment for me and my whole family. I wasn’t going to lose my father, he was here to stay.