Friday, August 21, 2009

August 21, 2009

My father took his last breath at 1:07 on August 17th. He went peacefully and pain free with us by his side.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

August 13th, 2009

Every time I ask my dad how he is doing... he replies with OK. We have also managed to understand a few swears out of my dad's whispers, so he's definitely getting better. He gets physical, occupational and speech therapy at the house and they have all been pleased with his progress and are excited to keep working with him. He's making more facial expressions and trying harder to communicate with us. His expressions are priceless and haven't changed a bit.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Aug 3, 2009

Jan has been home for a week now and he has been getting stronger everyday. It was a great weekend for him... Saturday afternoon his cousin Bobby Wald came to visit with my uncle Ronnie, while my dad relaxed in his new recliner. Yesterday his cousins Jack and Diane from California, Ronnie and Wendy came over to visit and my dad got pretty excited about that. Although we are still waiting for him to get his voice back his smile says it all.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

July 26th, 2009

Jan was discharged from the ICU this morning around 9am. We all decided it would be best for his recovery to be at home. The doctors all tell us, and we agree that it is just going to take time. He has been improving daily and through everything still has his strong spirit.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

July 16th, 2009

As my mom and I walked towards my fathers room today, he waved at us. He started speaking more than he has the last few weeks. He keeps reaffirming us that he is okay. Looks like the doctors were right again... it's just going to take time.

Friday, July 10, 2009

July 10th, 2009

My mother and I left last night after 5 1/2 hours while my father slept, only to hear him say okay when we walked out the door. Today when we got here he had already been up in the chair for 3 hours and is now randomly waking up and talking a little bit. With all good things it takes time… with Jan it takes even longer…

Thursday, July 9, 2009

July 9th, 2009

As some of you know, when Jan was in his late twenties they wrote an article about him in the journal sentinel with the caption reading "Jan Jan the Ice Cream Man." After spending some time with the nurses on the oncology floor, they coined the nickname "Jan the Man" for him. Needless to say not much has changed about Jan's spirit after all he has been through.

Since this is our first post we will start from the beginning....

Sept. of 2007 Jan went to the doctor for a cough and was walking out the door with a prescription for antibiotics to treat him for pneumonia when he tripped over his feet. After the doctor saw this he decided to bring Jan back in the room and order an MRI. The MRI suggested he didn't have pneumonia after all. He was directly admitted to the Neuro-ICU and we were informed that he was fighting Stage 4 Lung Cancer. Upon his diagnosis he spent some time in the ICU until he started out-patient radiation as well as chemotherapy. He completed his full round of radiation and completed his cycles of chemo. October of 2008 Jan got an itch to take a family vacation, so we all packed our suitcases and headed to Barcelona for a week. In April he was doing well, but a little unsteady on his feet. The doctors collectively agreed to remove a lesion in his brain. About a week after the surgery he had a minor heart attack, which was caught within minutes and later treated by placing a stent. We brought Jan home in the middle of May, where we rearranged the family room to be his new bedroom. After about six weeks we felt like he was sleeping too much so we decided to bring him back in for some scans. These scans showed he needed a shunt put in to relieve some of the pressure in his head. So here we are in the hospital, waiting for him to wake up and start selling the doctors pens again.