The not-so-great but not immediately dire kind. They won't know until they operate.
My father goes and says to me cryptically last Saturday, over a plunger full of coffee (so, a mere four minutes from plunger set, through description - with photos! huzzah! of the inside of my father's intestinal tract! - to coffee poured), "Well, it's cancer basically." He was quick to say, "But we don't say that. We say.... "It's a non-paying lodger and it has to go."
Oooookay. That's what we say, then, dear Pa-pa.
Apart from this, he never actually said that's what it was. He just called it "this thing". I asked him straight out, So is it malignant then? And he pulls out this printed brochure he received from his specialist (the one whom he says told him, "It doesn't look benign to me,") and says, "So it's basically like this..." and proceeds to point to this diagram of a colon. And the description of a stage II malignant tumour. And I'm all, like, it's cool. Maybe it's still not cancer. He's not saying it is.
But...... it is. Another email to us last night held quoted information (he's such a happy Googler) about survival rates and so forth. Alarming stat's that I'd rather not entertain right now, frankly. I also think what he's trying to say is, he's extremely lucky. It looks like it's been caught "in time". It's normally the kind of thing that spreads silently, insidiously, until it's far too late. He caught the one sign/symptom, the only one, and they were telling him a week ago that it's got to come out within the next couple of weeks or it starts getting serious. His surgery at that time was 3-4 teeth-gnashing weeks away! He thinks it's a "good sign" that when he tried to move it forward, he was informed his surgeon would be in Port Douglas, so it can't be that dire.... er, yeah, OR the surgeon doesn't want to miss his winter souljourn and waste those non-refundable plane tickets, is all!! *grimace*
I think I'm a little bit wetting in my pants about it all now :( Despite trying to keep the characteristic cool which I have inherited from the very parent who's facing his next big health challenge in these retirement years.
I'm glad we went and visited him on Saturday. This is the most crap-quality mobile phone video footage (facing in the entirely wrong direction) you're likely to see. But it's priceless to me.
Here comes the galloping Majooooooor! from Lolly Lovers on Vimeo.
