keep on keepin' on: my dad

(These shirts were his racing merchandise from years ago!)

This will be short, as this is the internet, and I'm not comfortable sharing all the details with the world. The main reason I am posting this is because I want to have a place to share the video I made for family and friends who were unable to see it at our visitation.

VIDEO HERE

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Dad was diagnosed with terminal esophageal cancer July 26th. I found out on rounds in the ICU when he texted me the photos from his upper GI scope in Fairbury. He was in and out of the hospital a few weeks with episodes of sepsis. The one day I took him to chemotherapy he went into anaphylactic shock in the infusion center after receiving only a couple milliliters of his chemotherapy. He called my name and started seizing, became unresponsive, and had extremely low blood pressure and diffuse bronchoconstriction in his lungs. Decided to use my personal Epi-pen on him that day and he was ok. So far, that was the scariest patient I've ever had to take care of (as I was the only doctor around for the first few minutes of decision making). After a few more ins and outs of the hospital and complications, he decided he wanted to go home on hospice. While on hospice care at home, that was the best he'd been since his diagnosis. During hospice care he gained control that he had lost with his cancer diagnosis. He was able to do what he wanted when he wanted and control his symptoms how he wanted. We celebrated his birthday, family and friends visited him during the day, and he was free to live his remaining life however he wanted. He died suddenly in the night on November 17th, almost four months after his diagnosis.

We were all blessed to have him in our lives, and I think this video does well encapsulating what a fun time we all had with him. Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers, especially during the holiday season.