When My Dad Had Cancer

When I was 6, my father went to the doctor about some pain that he had been having in his arm. The doctor did some tests and concluded that it was just a pulled muscle, nothing serious.
On his way out of the room, something occured to my dad. He asked the doctor to take a look at a mole on his back that he thought was getting bigger.
That's the moment that changed all of our lives. Immediately, my dad was told to go home, gather his things, and go to the hospital to be admitted. A biopsy was done and it was determined that he had melanoma, a deadly form of cancer. My dad was in stage 4 and there are 5 stages of melanoma. His doctor said that if he had waited 2 more weeks to come in, it would have been too late.
My memories of that time are not all that bad. I was 6 and thought the hospital was lots of fun. During my dad's stay in the hospital, I got to stay with our preacher's family. I was an only child and the preacher had 6 kids, so I was in hog heaven. Later, as my dad recovered, I got to go to physical therapy with him and play on all the cool machines. I also thought it was neat that my dad had his arm in a sling for 4 months.
When I was 14, my dad was asked to come to my school (a private school) and speak in chapel about overcoming obstacles. I sat in rapt attention along with my fellow schoolmates as my dad told the story of his battle with cancer. He told about how he felt when he found out and what he went through mentally being told that he was probably going to die. He spoke of the countless days of pain that he endured and how sick he was from the chemo and radiation. He explained how the limph nodes in his arm and back had to be removed and how he had to learn to use his arm all over again. Thus the many trips to physical therapy that I remembered. He told of how he used to sit and watch me play, all the while scared that it would be the last time that he would ever see me.
I remember sitting in that chapel service with tears running down my face as I realized for the first time how close I had come so long ago to losing him. That was the day that I began to truly appreciate my dad and his role in my life.
Thankfully, my dad made a full recovery and next year he will celebrate 25 years of being cancer free.
He has always and will always be a source of great inspiration to me. I love you daddy!