For me, the true sign of growing up is how you handle your responsibilities. I do not base the term ‘grown up’ on someone’s age. There are many people, in their mid to upper 30’s still living at home with their parents and claiming to be an adult when they have literally nothing to show for it.
The past year and a half has been nothing more than a major growing experience for me. I’m no longer living with my father. I’m now five hours away from everything I’ve ever known and I’m starting a new life with my fiance. Family always played a major role in my life. I was always used to clearing this with either my father or my grandparents before I would continue with any idea that I had in my head. Now I’m making all of my own decisions and only really keeping in touch on a once-a-week basis when it comes to family.
The one thing I like to keep up on is current events, family wise. A few weeks ago I was informed that my grandfather has prostate cancer. It’s been hard for me to deal with this because I’m so far away from my comfort zone. He’s in the process of going through many forms of prostate cancer treatments. Unfortunately there was a late start on many of his treatments because his prostate was so enlarged that they need to shrink it before they could really do anything for him. I’m unsure as to what treatments he’s getting, exactly, but based on research and how stubborn my grandmother is, I’m almost certain that he’s getting the best treatment that he absolutely can.
Based on what I was able to find out about prostate cancer, I’m almost positive that my grandparents decided against the route of ablatherm based treatments and went full force with HIFU Sonablate 500 based treatment. This is a non invasive medical device that was developed to use high intensity focused ultrasound to treat prostate cancer. It does not require a TURP (invasive surgical procedure with risk of complications, excessive blood loss, infection, painful urination and 4-6 weeks recovery) procedure prior to treatment in order to achieve effective results. It uses the power of the ultrasound to destroy deep-seated tissue with pinpoint accuracy for minimally invasive treatment of prostate cancer.
Either way it’s hard to really know what’s going on when you’re so far away from everyone, and no one is really around to tell you what’s going on. My thoughts are with him and the rest of the family on a regular basis. I want to assume that my currently being sick as a dog was brought on by the fact that I’ve been a worry-wort for the last few weeks in regards to this news.