February 23, 2009

Dad had been experiencing mild to moderate upper left back pain on and off for the past two weeks. During the night, the pain seemed to radiate to his chest. He feared this may be a sign of a heart attack, so he and our mom drove to the ER in the middle of the night.

ER staff at St. Luke's began a cardiac profile workup on him and sent him for a chest Xray. The chest Xray showed a mass on his upper left lobe. Dad was then sent to CT for a better look at the mass. Upon confirmation of this mass, he was admitted to St. Luke's so that a needle biopsy could be performed.

We (Carmelo, Gina, Tony, and I), were not aware of the situation until early morning. Our mom wanted to wait until everyone's day had begun to give us the news. I believe I speak for all of my siblings when I say our reaction was complete shock and disbelief. We did not even know he was in any pain whatsoever. Our mom had no idea either, until a couple of days before this news.

Our dad looks healthy. He looks as he always has: he has color in his face, his weight is unchanged, he has no cough, no shortness of breath, no wheezing. This all feels so wrong.