On August 23rd, my dad, Gary, went to the hospital with stomach pain. They admitted him for pancreatitis. On August 24th, they completed some scans and found out that he had a few spots on his lung, liver, and brain. His sodium levels were critically low, and he almost went to the ICU. Fortunately, he was able to raise them by one point, which kept him out of the ICU. On August 26th, he had a biopsy completed. Results came back sooner than expected, and he was diagnosed with stage four metastatic small cell carcinoma. On August 28th, he was transferred to another hospital to complete emergency chemotherapy. He had treatments for three days, then was finally discharged home! He’s continuing his chemotherapy to treat the tumors on his lung and liver, then will begin the radiation on his brain to treat those tumors.

He has remained positive throughout this time and is so happy to be home. He has an amazing support system who checks in on him and visits him.