Grandpa Winegar

Elder Brown,
I hope you will forgive me. But I am going to post part of your letter I wrote you, into my blog. Because I think it best describes what is going on with Grandpa. I think it is important to journel the hard times as well as the good. Because the Lords hand is in all things.
Grandpa Winegar has had a problem swallowing for about a month now. He really struggles to eat and drink anything. So Grandma made an appointment for him to see the doctor. They went in last week and did a scope of his throat and took a piece of it so that they could biopsy it. The results came back as throat cancer. It is a very fast growing cancer. On Friday he went to Boise and had a Pet Scan done. This will show if it is any other organs or part of his body. His cancer is in the bottom portion of his esophagus, next to his stomach. However, the doctor didn't see anything in his stomach. But this scan will show his stomach, lungs, liver all those areas. We will have a better idea then how long he has. And what can be done for him. Grandpa is Grandpa though. He is a fighter. And he plans on fighting this. He just tells everyone that he wants it out. I am not sure with his age and his congestive heart failure what they are going to be able to do. He basically has 2 options if he is going to fight it. He can have surgery and take the cancer out. Or he can have radiation. Both of those options are very painful and have risk involved. Since the cancer is in his throat and fast growing every time they cut into that it spawns new cells and grows even faster. So the doctor is very hesitant to do that. And the radiation will burn really bad. It is very painful. But it could shrink the cancer, helping him to eat again. We will get the results back from that scan in another week or two. And then he will sit down with his doctor, the oncologist (cancer doctor) and the surgeon to decide what the best options will be. I will definitely keep you posted. But for now, Grandpa is in good spirits. He still has his sense of humor. The day the nurse called to give him instructions about his Pet scan, she told Grandma that he had to dress warm and not wear any metal for the scan. When Grandma told Grandpa that he said, "That means I can't wear my pocket knife?" Grandma said, "No you can't wear your pocket knife!" Grandpa said, "Well, how am I supposed to protect myself?" He is so funny! I love his dry sense of humor. It used to be that Grandma would sit on one side of the couch and Grandpa would sit on the other. Now everytime they are together they are sitting right next to each other, holding hands. They are so sweet. They have been married for 64 years. Grandma keeps saying she doesn't know how to live without Grandpa. He is her whole life. From the moment she wakes up every morning, until she goes to sleep at night, she takes care of Grandpas every need. So this is very hard for Grandma. I am just so glad that I am there with them every day. That I can spend that one on one time with them and help them as much as I can. That is a big blessing in my life. I think I have gone through just about every emotion with this. But I know that it is in the Lords hands. It is his will. It is just so hard to let them go. Grandpa and Grandma have been a huge part of my life. I don't think there will ever be a good time for them to leave this earth. But I know that I have a mother on the other side that is anxiously awaiting their arrival. That gives me alot of comfort having that knowledge. Yesterday Jeron and Heather and Amberly and Tyler came down to see them. So all 5 of us got together for lunch at Grandma and Grandpas. We spent the afternoon visiting. I think Grandpa really enjoyed that. We took a picture together. That is something that never happens. It is definitely one that I will cherish.