Update: December 29, 2009

For those who do not know or have not heard, my father was diagnosed with cancer about three weeks ago and underwent a major surgery last Monday. He has spent the last eight days at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas recovering from a surgery called The Whipple Procedure. The results of the procedure were conclusive that dad has Pancreatic Cancer (Stage II-B). The cancer is classified as "R1" which means that the cancerous mass was fully resected during the surgery and that there are signs of microscopic cancer cells which will be treated with chemotherapy doses of Gemcitabine(pronunciation: jem-SITE-a-been). They were able to get all of the cancer mass and all of the lymph nodes in the area out. His chemotherapy will be administered once per week for six months starting in late January after his body has healed from the surgery.

Dad came home from the hospital today and is now resting in the comfort of his own home without the interuption of nurses and doctors every thirty minutes. I was there at lunch and he's up watching TV in the living room and even walking around the house a bit. He is still very sore (as you can imagine) and is looking forward to a speedy recovery. He's determined to have his body in the best possible shape before starting chemo.

The most important part of this entire situation is that dad is both full of optimism and faith in God. He has relied on our Lord throughout this entire process and we will all continue to lean on the comforting presence of God as this continues. Dad is a positive God-fearing man and is determined to look this thing in the face and defeat it. We, as a family, are very trusting that God's will is in effect and will prevail. Dad, the doctors, our family, and wonderful friends have formed a team that will work together to stay positive and beat cancer.

If you have messages that you'd like to relay to my dad, please feel free to e-mail me directly at ja.holland@yahoo.com. In addition, if you are currently directly impacted by the effects of cancer (i.e. yourself, family member, or friend). Please tell me about it. I would like to include everyone on the Cancer Sucks Blog; because the power of prayer is awesome. Our God is awesome and the more people that read this will pray. So please, tell me about prayer requests you have as well in your own lives.

My first prayer request is for A.J. Wells, who is the little brother of one of my greatest friends in the world, Richard Wells, Jr. A.J., who is 3 years old, is currently undergoing some serious doses of chemotheraphy to treat Luekemia. He is fighting hard and I ask everyone to place him on your prayer list so that this brave little boy can beat Luekemia.