My Dad...

I don't know how many of you who read this know my dad, but I will write this anyway. So, back on Mother's Day my dad had a sore throat, was feeling really sleepy and tired all day and had sore swollen lymph nodes. Basically the beginnings of a cold. By the middle of last week this had developed into pnuemonia type symptoms: difficulty breathing and stuff like that. My mom took him to the dr. last Wednesday(I think) to get a chest x-ray to check for viral pnuemonia. The dr. took a look at his color and checked his breathing and then called an ambulance. She didn't want my mom driving him to the hospital in case she had to pull over to give him CPR. Yeah, so very scary, especially for my mom. They get to the hospital and run some tests. They noticed that his white blood cell count was very high. He was later diagnosed with Leukemia. They think he has had it for about 6 months or so. So, they got his white blood cell count down and started him on the chemo. Friday night he had so much trouble breathing (they think he had pnuemonia after all) that he had to be intibated. He is under heavy sedation and is still on a ventilator. The type of Leukemia he has is fast moving, usually attacks men 50 and over. The good thing is that they hope to cure him of it and if it hasn't come back in two years, then he is basically cured. So, pray for him. This has been hard on my whole family, especially my mom, who is trying to pull off my brother's wedding by tomorrow(Friday). She was already a busy woman before all this, still having two children at home, being Relief Society President of her ward and just having her life filled up with caring for others(as she has always done). There have been some very sweet people from the ward that have been helpful. Their home teachers came and finished up some of the yard work that Mark had been working on while we were out there. I think my dad will be touched by how many people care about him and love him when he hears and sees what they have done when he wakes up.