In this post I mentioned that May started out wonderful, but by the end of the month it had put our lives in a bit of a downward spiral...well read on and you shall see what I meant.
On May 13th (I only remember the day because it was Ailey's birthday) we had Ailey's birthday party planned. It was a Sunday and on the way home Eric mentioned that his parents wouldn't be able to come to the party because his Dad was in the hospital. When I asked Eric why his Dad was in the hospital, he said that they thought it was problem with his liver as his Mom noticed that his Dad was quite jaundiced. They had run some tests, but didn't have answers yet.
Within the next few days something that we thought to be quite minor actually turned out to be quite major. After a bunch of tests had been ran and things investigated more in depth, the real issue was discovered. On May 23, we found out that Eric's dad has pancreatic cancer. It's a fairly bad case as well as his tumor covered about 4 inches on a 6 inch organ. The other issue with this tumor is that it's wrapped around or extremely close to an artery, so surgery immediately was out.
The following Saturday, Eric spent the whole day at his parents working out their sprinklers with his uncle. The kids and I went Saturday night to spend just a couple hours with them. Because they had missed Ailey's birthday party - they wanted to give her their gift. Eric's brother and his wife and son had taken a marathon drive from Washington the day before and arrived Saturday night.
Memorial Day came around and Eric went to his parents to finish the sprinklers and in the evening he took the boys and went to a movie with his Dad, brothers and our nephew. Tuesday of that week it was time to meet with the Dr.'s.
Eric went with his parents and brothers to the consult. It was an interesting day for Eric and though he planned to go to work after the consult, he ended up just going back to his parents house and he spent the day there. He was alone with his parents and brothers for the first time in years - so he had the idea it might be nice to have a neighbor take a quick snapshot of their little family. Well, that idea snowballed into something a bit bigger.
Eric's mom wanted more professional-type pictures. Luckily, Eric's brother, Ken and his wife knew of a photographer and even luckier yet, she was available on short notice. So it was decided that the next day, Wednesday, would be family picture day. The plan was to just get some family pictures, but that's not quite what happened.
Because I wasn't paying for the pictures (My awesome brother in law and his wife graciously did so) and because in the scheme of things it wasn't really my place to order any pictures taken, I didn't say a word. I had the thought it'd be nice to have pictures of each of the kids with Grandpa and I mentioned it to Eric, but that's where it ended. Thankfully this photographer was thinking on the same wave length as me and made sure to get those photos. She also made sure to take separate family photos and even individual pictures of my kids. Though my brother in law had only paid for the 1 hour photo session, this great photographer stayed almost an hour longer and took photos of the boys playing baseball in the front yard. Baseball has always been big in the Hardy family and it was appreciated by all that the photographer stayed and took those photos of her own accord.
Anyway, for so many different reasons we just recently got the photos back. Gotta say - it's one of the best photo sessions our 'little' family has had and I was pleased with almost every single photo. In total the photographer had 400 and something photos on the disc. Half of them are the b&w/sepia toned photos, but there was still a bucket load of photos on the disc. I am only sharing my faves and because there are still quite a bit, I of course, set it to a video instead of trying to put them all in one post.
The photographer was Holly of Holly's Hobby's Photography and she was amazing to work with. And yes, this video's music is going to take you back to all of the fun, good sitcoms from the 80's - deal with it.
Now, back to Eric's Dad. I wish there was better news.
For a few weeks the guy had to go to radiation 5 times a week and had chemotherapy pills he had to take multiple times a day. As soon as he had a week or so of 'off' time, he planned a quick get-away to Colorado to see the Cubs play. Though it was a rough trip for him and he thinks he rushed it a bit, he was glad to get away for just a short while.
But then a few weeks ago, the poor guy was rushed to the hospital once again and had to have his gallbladder taken out. Which was a slightly risky surgery given the position of the gallbladder in relation to the pancreas. Thankfully, the surgery went well and his gallbladder was removed.
This past Monday he had to have some scans to see how the cancer was looking. We were hoping for good news, but that's not really what we got. Though the Dr.'s haven't met with Dad yet, he was able to pull his scan records up yesterday morning and we found out that the cancer hasn't shrunk, which means they still can't remove the tumor. There's also a few things that have cropped up that weren't previously there. Like I said, because they haven't met with the Dr. yet, we're not exactly sure what to expect next.
It's been a long, rocky road and it appears that the road's not going to smooth out anytime soon. Please keep Eric's Dad in your prayers.
Eric's Dad has always been accepting of me and I really couldn't ask for a better father in law. He's just like a Dad to me and he's always been supportive of us. He's a great Grandpa and the kids all love him so much.
This is really a hard thing to watch and I feel so helpless. It's really taught Eric and I to be thankful for the little things in life and to cherish the memories we have and we are doing our best to make as many good and happy memories for right now as we can.
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