Part 7, Stomach Cancer
3 min readI never knew much about the stomach because I never needed to know as long as it was functioning. I had a bit of a stomach issue early in life, which forced me to change my diet quite a bit. That’s when I stopped eating red meat and pork.
One of the things that I learned while my father was battling stomach cancer is how essential it is to not only existing but living a quality life. If you think about all of the functions that the stomach handles, you can begin to get an idea of how horrible stomach cancer is for those living through it.
In Part 5, No Chemo my father had decided NOT to go with traditional cancer treatments. Instead, he opted for taking a holistic approach to fighting this battle. I don’t know that this was the right choice, but the alternative was equally horrific. I think with stomach cancer, the right choice is whatever choice will give the patient the quality of life they are seeking. At least in our situation, that was the route my father opted to take.
So, the stomach is such an essential part of the body. I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know how the stomach functions on a medical level. I am aware that it is a necessary part of living because I’ve witnessed what happens when there’s interference in this area.
Before my father arrived at my house, he discussed how a lot of foods made him vomit. It was upsetting because I hate to think of anyone dealing with that. However, once he arrived, I fully understood the vomiting thing. What he was dealing with, suffering through stomach cancer was not vomiting like most are familiar with as it would be with traditional flu or a stomach bug. No, this was an entirely different thing.
I mentioned previously that the stomach was an essential function of the body. Cancer disrupted this for my dad in a way that I’d never seen before. He couldn’t eat a lot of types of foods, and he couldn’t eat a high quantity of food. Also, there was a lot of trial and error in regard to food selection. There were times when he could digest some foods, somewhat and other times when he couldn’t. Stomach cancer disrupted the entire eating, digesting and eliminating, norm of the body function.
In addition to this, my dad vomited all day and every day. If he ate certain foods, he vomited. If he was to lie down flat, he vomited. If he moved to fast, he vomited. Often he was just dry heave vomiting due to contractions in the stomach. Either way, it was horrible.
All of this was horrible, but the options for treating the cancer were worse. So, I’m not sure if he selected the lesser of two evils or one evil equivalent to a different evil option.
As time moved on with the vomiting, bladder failure, and additional issues, I realized rather quickly that all of this was 100% beyond my expertise. So, it was time to discuss other options with my father.
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