Update on my dad, Gene

As some of you may know, my dad was diagnosed in March with squamous cell carcinoma - basically cancer in his urethra. Apparently this is a pretty rare kind of cancer to have, and his doctor in Peoria set us up with a second opinion at the University of Iowa. Squamous cell was described to us as similar to skin cancer, where it's more of a surgical disease vs. one that would be treated with chemo/radiation.

He is scheduled to have surgery tomorrow, May 1, in Iowa City (about 2.5 hours from our house). The initial plan is to remove his urethra, bladder, prostate, and the lymph nodes in that area that look questionable on his PET scan. His doctor seems very good and plans to check everything out to ensure all of that does in fact need removed before doing so, which means there is a small chance he will be able to keep his bladder. The initial plan hopes to remove all cancerous tissue - if that happens he may not need any additional treatment.

The surgery will take approximately 6-8 hours, all depending on how he handles it and how much the cancer has spread. Once he is out of recovery/possible ICU, he will be in the hospital for 5-10 days (depending on how drastic the surgery is.) Once he is able to return to Peoria he will come to Jay and I's house to stay until he's able to drive and live on his own again - our initial estimate is one month.

Lee flew in from California and Jay and I will be in Iowa City for his surgery. Lee plans to fly home on Thursday and Jay will return to Peoria as well. I will stay in Iowa City as much as possible so he is not alone and am off of work all next week.

I will send out updates when possible on Facebook / Email but feel free to text me if you have any questions. Obviously if anyone wants to visit him in Iowa City that's more than welcome and would be a huge help to me, but I know it's pretty far away. More than anything we could use prayers, good thoughts, and fingers crossed that the cancer is removed, he recovers well, and that he remains in good spirits. Overall he seems to have accepted this but is obviously scared.

Thanks - please forward this if you know anyone who cares about him and would like to know. If you would like updates via text, please send me your cell # and I will add you to a group.

309-370-6686