My Amazing Daddy.

I've talked vaguely about my dad's battle with cancer on my blog, but I wanted to talk a little bit more about it... with my daddy's permission of course :)

I remember clearly hearing about my dad's cancer diagnosis for the first time, it was August 2012. Prostate cancer. One of the least serious of all the cancer diagnosis you can get. I remember everyone telling me that most people don't even know they have prostate cancer because it's so benign and they die from old age never knowing they even had it. It's not aggressive. It's not scary. But I was terrified. Cancer not being scary? Yeah right.

He went in for a biopsy and got the results back in September. I feel bad now, because when my mom called to tell me that it was in fact cancer, I lost it. I can't even type this now without crying, remembering how hard it was to hear that my dad was sick. I am too young to have a sick dad. He's too young to be sick.

A few months after his diagnosis, he had surgery to remove the cancer on October 29, 2012. Surgery will definitely get rid of ALL the cancer and he'll be just fine, says everyone... His doctor was confident he would be cured.

Well, of course the cancer was still there, even after the surgery. Because it's cancer. And cancer sucks. Instead of being at a level of 0.0, the cancer was at .7. Low, but still there. Not cured.

Well if the surgery couldn't get rid of it, surely weeks and weeks of radiation treatment would get rid of anything that was leftover. There's no way this wouldn't work...

For 13 weeks my dad went in for 5 treatments a week. That's a lot of treatment!

But you guessed it, there was STILL cancer left. It had now been over a year since my dad's surgery and radiation treatment. He was told by doctors at this point that his cancer was incurable. Basically, there was no stopping it.

But it was such a small amount, there was no need to worry. It was progressing so slowly, that it would be years and years and years until my dad needed more treatment (hormone therapy, chemo, etc).

Well it progressed slowly...until it didn't anymore. Because my dad's cancer was not benign. It wasn't nice. I mean, it's cancer after all. And it was aggressive.

My dad had to go to the doctor every 3 months to see how his numbers were progressing, and when they started to progress more quickly he had to go in every month. Every month in Oregon I dreaded the call from my mom telling me his cancer had progressed faster than they thought. It was SO hard to be away from my family and away from my dad. I can't imagine the stress he was under, always waiting for his next appointment to see what his fate would be.

The way the numbers for his cancer work is as soon as my dad got to 10 they would start treatments. The problem with treatments, is each treatment only works for a certain amount of time before the cancer gets smart enough to learn how to grow. So then you switch to a new treatment, and the cancer figures that one out too. So basically once you start treatment, your clock is ticking. There is no stopping the cancer, just trying to slow it. Pretty grim right? On top of that, treatments are just no fun and would make my dad very tired/sick.

So watching my dad's numbers make a huge jump from August to September (4.9 to 6.7) we knew that in the next few months my dad would have to start treatment, and also start the clock for how long he could battle cancer.

But my dad is awesome and decided to make some HUGE changes to his diet. He cut out most animal products/meat and tried his best to eat a vegan diet. He would occasionally sneak some cheese or eat organic chicken or fish, but overall he was eating vegan.

So in one month, my dad's levels jumped by 1.8. That means we'd expect September to October to look something like 6.7 to 8.5. Which means that by November he'd most likely be to 10 and be starting treatments.

But guess what? For the first time in over three years since his cancer diagnosis he got good news. His numbers only went up .3! So from 6.7 to 7!!

And guess what else? From October to November his numbers WENT DOWN! From 7 to 6.6!!!!!!

Can you believe it? His numbers went DOWN without any kind of treatment, just changing his diet! I couldn't be happier or more proud of my dad!

Here's a look at the chart my dad made to track his numbers. You can see how slow they were, how fast they jumped up, and then miraculously went down.

He will still go in every month to check on his levels, but we are all feeling so hopeful that with his lifestyle changes, the numbers will continue to go down or at least stop going up so fast. It's really amazing to see how much eating healthy helped my dad's cancer levels. It seriously makes me re-think the food I'm putting into my mouth and he definitely inspires me to be better!

Another amazing thing about my dad is his attitude throughout this whole thing. He has kept his faith and trust in God and even though I know there have been times where he's been scared or upset, he doesn't let that take over. He has been SO strong and so brave. I am so incredibly proud of him!!!

We are all SO proud of you daddy! Way to kick cancers butt!!!