www.takingcareofyourparents.com

This blog documents a family’s struggle with a diagnosis of inoperable stomach cancer for their father and their process of dealing with the health care system.

The father has since passed away and the blog is now documentating their story with their aging mother that they moved out to California from Philadelphia.

This is the first blog entry and it can be found at www.takingcareofyourparents.com/page/6.

The worst day of my life

Today I’m flying back to Philadelphia to see my father who was diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer. The cancer has spread rapidly and it’s too late to do anything…we think. The problem is that we’re not getting any information from the doctor. Very vague, quick passing comments but no frank discussion about my father’s condition. It’s frustrating to see my father suffering and we don’t have the facts to know if we can help him.

Today is going to be the worst day of my life when I see my father at the hospital. My father wants to go home so badly that they’ve had to strap him into a chair. He’s frustrated and weak. We know he’s very sick but the doctor isn’t giving us enough information. Should we line up hospice now? Does he have a week, a month or a year left? We need to know what’s going on.

I know millions of people are going through these same frustrations every day because of our broken health care system. Very vague communication and no details. I’m going to use this blog to document the rest of my father’s life and share our process so maybe we can get our politicians to fix our broken health care system.