Sometime in January, my Dad started having a pain in his right shoulder.  He took ibuprofen and that seemed to keep the pain at bay.  While he was in San Francisco in February, his friend Wayne said he shouldn’t ignore it and took him to the VA at Palo Alto to get registered.  He had to go home to Hawaii before his first appointment, and then after getting home got the news that his mother died, and he went to MA for her funeral.  After returning to Hawaii (big island), he went in to get registered at the VA there, and didn’t get an appointment until late March.  After a bunch of bullshit, he finally got an x-ray of his shoulder.  The doc called him and said “well, you have cancer in your shoulder.”  The VA in Hilo was absolutely horrible, and my brother (Robin), after trying to get them to work with him, was convinced that they were going to politely watch him die.  Robin bought him a ticket to San Fran and he went to the Palo Alto VA.   I went out there and stayed with him at Wayne's place for a month, and during that time they found cancer in his liver and bones (arm, hips, and lower spine), but they say it has metastasized from somewhere else, and they can’t find the primary cancer.  After I left, Tony (my brother) went out for the weekend to stay with him.  During a PET/CT scan, they broke his cancer-weakened arm.  After that, Tony got him admitted to the hospital before he left, since he was unable to care for himself due to the broken arm.  He had surgery for the arm on June 19th, but his radiation and chemo treatments had to be delayed.  He is now in hospice (or I think he called it a nursing home – he said it was mostly WWII vets in there with him) at menlo Park, and started radiation treatments on July 7th.  He will continue radiation every day (except weekends) until July 20th, and then will have a couple weeks before starting chemo on July 31st.

I spoke with him yesterday, and he says that he has a large lump on either side of his neck.  I'm not sure a doctor has looked at this development yet, but as far as he's concerned, he's hearing the death knell...

I am going back to Palo Alto tomorrow and will stay for at least 2-3 weeks.  Anyone who wants to visit him or call him please let me know and I will give you his contact information.

His rapid deterioration has been hard to stomach, since he has always been so vibrant.  Less than a year ago he hiked the Grand Canyon!