I've been blogging about my Dad and the trials and joys and ups and downs of dealing with cancer. My husband and I both lost our mothers and grandmothers to cancer. When we heard the c-word in February this year, we braced ourselves for the worst. 

God in his mercy opened doors, answered prayers, and helped us so much this year.  My Dad was diagnosed with a squamous cell carcinoma that his local doctors described as rare, agreesive, and probably fatal before Christmas this year.  But God allowed us to go to a different facility--the Vanderbilt Medical Center--to meet with an incredible surgeon and his team.

In May, Dad was told he needed to go on hospice. Two weeks later, I was at Vandy with him for a fourteen hour marathon surgery that removed his right ear, part of his jawbone and skull, many lymph nodes, his facial nerves on the right side, and a massive graft from his right leg [knee to thigh.]  At nine o'clock on June 10, his surgical team met us in the lounge and gave the good news: they got all the tumor.

He began more chemo and 37 radiation treatments. After finishing those six weeks ago, it was time for tests to see if, indeed, they got it all. And his scans came back clean--we just got the news yesterday!

Now we have some reconstructive surgeries to get done. It's the fairy tale ending to a cancer story that you dream of, but are almost afraid to hope for it.  We aren't sure how long this will last, but then again, none of us are promised tomorrow.  We give praise and honor to God, thanks to some local doctors that were glad to acknowledge they needed help, and  are grateful to have such a world-class, top notch facility in Tennessee like Vanderbilt Medical Center and Dr. Netterville.

God is SOOOO good!