The Unexpected Exit from Childhood
It's an illness that can have a massive, gigantic impact on everyone. There are many people who devote their lives to fighting or finding a treatment for this disease. However, many people succumb to the condition because it is treatable. It's a deadly disease.
In the summer of 2011, my father's tonsil had become infected with cancer. For a while, we were all under the impression that the growing tumor on his neck was nothing more than a bloated gland. It grew in size during the course of the summer and began to cause agony. He refused to go to the doctor since he is a stubborn man. For the first time in a long time, he went to the doctor in March. He was given antibiotics by the doctors. For a few months, he was on medication. It did not, however, have the desired effect. In order to rule out malignancy, doctors performed a needle biopsy and an X-ray, both of which were clear. Initially, this doctor suspected that the cyst was congenital. We received the life-altering news after a series of diagnostic procedures. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience. Tongue cancer has taken hold of you."
Tonsils are two oval-shaped pads located in the back of the mouth that are part of the body's germ-fighting immune system. ' Swallowing problems and a sense of having something stuck in one's throat are common symptoms of tonsil cancer. First, the doctor had to remove the damaged tonsil from the patient. Tonsillectomy is the medical term for this treatment. At the age of forty-nine, undergoing such a treatment was incredibly taxing. Daddy's throat collapsed during the procedure because of the anesthesia. One other tonsil in his throat needed to be removed after the one that was infected had been removed by the doctors. When Daddy's throat had collapsed, doctors medically immobilized him so they could intubate him. Nevertheless, they were unwilling to risk removing his remaining tonsil.
Following chemotherapy and radiation, the next phase in the treatment process was to begin. I saw my father lose his hair, weight, muscular mass, strength, and his self-confidence as he underwent treatment. "Chair-bound" Daddy was hospitalized for three months. Rather than lying down, he had to sit up on the chair because the strain on his throat was too intense. Except for travels to and from the doctors, he spent most of his time in that chair. Daddy was unable to swallow due to the discomfort of his throat being so sore from the chemo and radiation treatments. A feeding tube had to be inserted into his stomach. That allowed the meal to enter the stomach directly. A liquid substance was the only item that would fit in this feeding tube. Each of my siblings and my mother would take a turn filling his feeding tube eight times a day. However, whether we were at school or at work, Daddy had to do the cooking and cleaning. One hundred pounds was lost because he lied about filling his feeding tube.
A power port was then installed in the patient's chest after the feeding tube was inserted into his stomach. This port was used to administer his chemotherapy treatments. Two life-changing surgeries had taken place during the same doctor's visit. Daddy was in excruciating discomfort the entire time. His raw neck skin burned from the radiation, but the cancer also contributed to the discomfort. Oxycontin and Morphine were among the painkillers Daddy took in order to deal with the discomfort. Daddy would be unconscious for days on end as a result of the agony and the drugs. The only way to try to get any relief from the suffering was to go to bed.
For a full year, cancer was a threat to everyone in my family. Pain for a year and a half. Cancer pierced my father's life, but it also had a profound effect on me. At a young age, I realized that life is not a rainbow and butterflies kind of place, but rather a place of anguish and sorrow. A extended period of time spent in the presence of such a calamitous event can cause a person to go insane. It was time for me to escape. I didn't want to witness the man I admired for his strength and bravery deteriorate before my eyes. But I was stuck with nowhere to go. "Mikey and I had nowhere to go, in our own neighborhood or out of it," she writes in her autobiographical story, "The Chase," about fleeing for her life. She was being pursued by an enraged man. He followed her everywhere she went, never letting up on his pursuit. When I was diagnosed with cancer, it was as if I was being pursued by an angry guy. Whatever I did, it would follow me everywhere. It stayed with me for a long time.
