Dr. Rock's Medical Battles

The day before Thanksgiving my dad called me at 6 am from the ER explaining that he had called the ambulance because he could hardly breathe or move. My mom was out of town so my brother and I arrived at the ER and quickly knew something was very wrong. He had excruciating pain in his upper abdomen and a CT scan showed air bubbles in his stomach indicating a perforation in the small intestine. He had emergency Billroth II surgery to fix the hole. My dad has had several complications, two additional surgeries, several ER visits and six hospital stays (in Minot). We have spent Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's in the hospital.

And that is only half of the story.

After his first procedure, tissue was sent to pathology and it revealed that he had MALT Lymphoma. This is a fairly treatable cancer with targeted chemotherapy. He was scheduled to start this upcoming Wednesday but my dad took a turn for the worse on Friday. His latest CT scan showed that there is another hole in his small intestine, he was septic, his lungs were filling with fluid, his kidneys were shutting down, and he has a UTI and an enlarged spleen.

The decision was made to go to the University of Minnesota to see a specialist. Saturday night he was airlifted to Minneapolis. We have a very long road ahead of us and my parents will be in Minneapolis for several weeks, if not months. I will update in the next post about his surgery on the morning of 1/23/23. We are working on getting my mom a place to stay and a vehicle, but any donation would be so helpful. My parents have been frugal their whole lives, so unplanned medical expenses on a fixed retirement income is the last thing that I want to cause them more stress.

Both of my parents were hesitant to ask for help but I reminded them of all the times they’ve helped others and it is ok to rely on those around you. Prayers and encouraging words for us all are very much appreciated.