Finally A Diagnosis!

It has been about a month that we have been waiting for the "official" diagnosis of Pa's conditon. Friday Pa went in to meet with the Oncologist. The final diagnosious is Stage 4 Renal Cell Carcinoma, in short Kidney cancer. It has spread to his liver and lungs and when he goes in on Wensday to start kemo they will do a scan of his brain to see if it is in his brain at all. Like I said with the diagnosis they also come to an agreement on how to respond. For this particular kind of cancer there is no cure and so at this point it's just slowing it down and keeping it from growing and spreading. The consensus was chemo. They will do chemo once a week for 4 months and then they will reevaluate where they are and how Pa has responded to the chemo and if they should keep going with that treatment or change things up.
Pa has seemed to take this well. I don't know if that he is finally really starting to feel better after his surgeries (lost 25 lbs) or if that now he knows the plan of attack that has seemed to lift his spirts.
I know that this has been so hard for all of us and I just watch my amazing husband and him having to do and talk about things he really doesn't want to talk about.
I know we have all felt the mercies that our merciful God has given to us. I see them everyday. I know that there will be many more amazing blessing that we will see and that along with that will come many more really hard days for Pa, Kris, Becky, and the rest of the family, but the one thing that I have learned is that the Lord knows us. He knows the deepest desires of our hearts. He has been though all of this and this is what the atonement is all about. The Atonement is not just so that we can repent (that is an amazing part of it) but so that our Savior will "know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." Alma 7:12 I know this. I have felt it in some of the lowest point of my life. I know that the Savior is very awair of Pa, and of the family at this time and that it is not going to be easy, but that we can always turn to someone that truly "KNOWS" us. And there is where we can find peace and comfort. No matter the out come.
We have had some great times with Pa and love him dearly and can't even picture life without him. I think of him and how great he has been to me and how interested and supportive he has been about some of the things I have done in my life. I think of the amazing man my husband is and I know much of that has come from his mother and his father. I think of all of the fun, and maybe not so fun things that Kris and Pa do together and how they enjoy that time and being together. I think of my children and the great Pa he has been to them. The way he puts up with the loud craziness and how he always loves to here their funny stories. Pa is amazing and is a huge part of our lives. Our prayer is that we have many more years with him, to build many more memories.