Dylan Morgan
02/12/2013
English 1A
The Change of Life
When it was
getting closer to graduation time I realized I need to start thinking of what I
am going to do after high school. My mom pushing me to figure it out
immediately but telling me had to be college had to be the focus no matter
what. Graduation came around and my girlfriend Karlee and I realized that we needed
to move out and do college on our own but together. Immediately my dad that I
haven’t lived in the same house with for almost five years, but do talk to
regularly said “why don’t you guys move in with me, I need the help with cash
and I will treat you two just like roommates”. Taking it into consideration and
after talking about it for a couple of days we realized this will be the best
option, it’s like were on our own, but we will have somebody there to keep us
in line and focused and the cost won’t be too bad. Moving day came around, so I packed up all my
things at my mom’s house picked up my girlfriend and headed to Roseville where
my dad stayed in his two bedroom apartment.
After about
two months into living with my dad, my girlfriend Karlee and I, started our
college life at Sierra College in Rocklin, everything seemed to be going right
or as good as it could be being broke college students. I started to run out of
my scholarship money and realized I needed a job and Karlee agreed that we both
do. Karlee and I, both were hired at Starbucks right next to our school.
Shortly after we started the job is when things seemed to be going downhill and
quickly at that. Every day I came home from work or school I walked in to a
house that smelt like marijuana and cigarettes. I knew my dad smoked weed and
cigarettes but for the most part he did it outside so that I wouldn’t be
overwhelmed with the smell and so that Karlee wouldn’t want to leave because
she couldn’t breathe in the apartment. I talked with him every now and then
about not doing it in the apartment and he did stop for a couple days and then
went back to the same routine shortly after. I realized I might not have any
say in this, because we’re not doing father son story any more were doing roommate
story and how that goes is both people have equal say as long as rent is split
in an equal way.
Months go by
in this same routine; wake up at five in the morning go to work, go to school
after work and come home to a house that is dark and full of smoke. Karlee and
I didn’t have enough hours at work because we were going to school which meant we
couldn’t pay as much for rent. This is when me and my dad’s relationship took a
dive in the deep end and really took on the role as just roommates. Money does
truly make some average situations ugly. Well life goes on as it did and soon I
realized that my dad has become something that I’ve never seen, or thought that
could become out of someone you knew so well your own father. He never left his
room and at all times of the day there was always a large cloud of smoke
swallowing the two bedroom apartment. Anytime that my dad did step out his room
for food or to catch some air he would be strung out on drugs and stumbling to
wherever he was trying to get. Besides the weed and cigarettes, I knew my dad
was on painkillers and had been for about 20 years for back pain but I didn’t
realize the extent of the medication he was taking and what is was doing to him.
A couple
weeks pass and my dad still isn’t making any changes or progress, actually he’s
getting worst. We started to realize that he went from bad to worse, every time
my dad ate any kind of food he would regurgitate it right away, but he didn’t
want to think anything of it being the stubborn male that he is, and kept
refusing to go get it checked out by a doctor. The vomiting after his meals
does not stop after some time has passed he looked as if he dropped about 50
lbs. and completely pale. I force my dad to go to the doctor just to make sure everything
is alright even though I knew otherwise. The next day I get home from school
and he’s sitting there on the couch with a sort of smirk on his face, I knew
something was wrong because there was no smell of the weed or tobacco in the
apartment. My dad made me sit down to tell me the doctors see a mass in his
esophagus and believe it is cancer related, which created his esophagus to
close up, which explained the throwing up after meals, the food had nowhere to
go but back up. My dad was still in a phase of shock and high on painkillers so
I don’t think it hit him as much as it did to me. The news of anyone close to
you having cancer is one of the worst things you can hear it shocking, it’s scary,
and the one thought that I couldn’t get out of my mind was that I am going to lose
my father.
More tests were taken on my dad and the doctors
concluded that he without a doubt had esophageal cancer and on top of that from
vomiting after everything he ate, he was completely malnourished. Not wasting
anytime they wanted to go into surgery right away to prevent it from spreading.
The doctors were going to need to completely take out his esophagus and create
a new one from scratch. This was a very different kind of surgery and the
doctor that was going to replace his esophagus had only done this operation
once before, but was sure my dad could recover from it and work well with the
makeshift esophagus.
The surgery went well and my dad was
recovering slowly but surely. The doctors knew he was on strong painkillers for
the past 20 years of life and knew that the next couple of days of recovering
from the surgery are going to be very hard and painful for my dad, not just
from the surgery but from the withdrawals that he is going to face from the
drugs he has been on. Recovery showed to
be very difficult for him and he always seemed in pain but the doctors did not
want to give him any of the heavy medication he was on before so he had to deal
with the light pain medication. After about a week and a half my dad was
released from the hospital because he was healed as much as he needed to be
from the surgery. I’ll never forget my grandma and grandpa coming in to the
apartment where me, my dad, and my girlfriend lived and said, “we need your
help”, so I followed them directly to my dad’s room and opened his medicine
cabinets, they took every prescription medication from it and threw them all in
a bag and said he will never see these again. I thought it was the best thing
they have ever done for him.
After all
this mess and with my dad fully recovered, Karlee and I realize it’s time to
move back in with our own parents because this way of living was not the way it
should be and even though this made my dad change some of his ways we need a
fresh start ourselves. I called my dad into the room to tell him and he agreed
one hundred percent, he said it was time for him to actually live his life and
make up for the lost time. Some time passes and me and my dad are talking
regularly and my dad tells me he is planning on moving to Redding immediately,
besides family he said there was nothing else for him here.
As soon as his treatment for the
cancer had ended my dad did move into a comfortable, relaxful cabin just a few
miles past Redding, out in the woods and right on the lake. After settling down
in the new house for a few months my dad went in for an annual biopsy to make
sure the cancer hasn’t returned. The doctor told my dad the cancer has returned
but it is contained in some tissue that was connected to the old esophagus and
now the new one. The doctor told my dad that no doubt it will be containable
and hopefully can make it go away for good with a little heavier treatment than
he had before.
As of right
now my dad is living out his life to the best of his ability. He has not
touched a single drug since the day he went to the hospital for surgery. My dad
still is getting chemo and recently lost all the hair on his whole body for the
first time, but he isn’t taking it as a punishment or taking it out on God or
anybody else, he’s taking this whole situation as a blessing in disguise like
something that completely changed his life for the better and I couldn’t agree
more. This is the one time I would ever say cancer actually saved my dad’s
life. God truly does work in mysterious ways.
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