11.14.2008

This man must know that he is a miracle,

That since the beginning of the world there has not been

And until the end of the world there will not be another man like him.

When I spoke with dad this morning he informed me that Dr. Clark had his mask delivered to UVRMC so that dad could receive his final radiation treatment this morning. It is nothing short of miraculous that our father has handled his treatments so well; it is hard to believe that dad has completed all 30 sessions of his radiation treatments and now has only three more doses of chemo. A celebration is in order. Dad made the following statement when telling me about his excitement over completing radiation:

"If you can't bring the mountain to Mohammad

Take Mohammad to the mountain"

We know that Dr. Clark was inspired to correlate with UVRMC dad's final radiation treatment; he knew how much it meant for dad to complete the task 100 percent and we knew our father would never settle for 99.9.

Dad was released from the hospital this afternoon and is getting settled at home. He and mom stopped at Parker's Drive-In on their way home from Provo. Michele and I had planned a Radiation Celebration for this evening but due the kids getting sick they will not be able to participate.


Dave and I took a celebration of balloons, sparkling cider, and lemon bars to join mom and dad in acknowledgement of dad's great feat of accomplishment. Dad is happy to be home yet very weak and physically exhausted. We had a wonderful evening of visiting, dad was not hungry or thirsty so the lemon bars and bubbly will be put on ice for a later date.

Dad received a certificate of completion from the Radiation Oncology Team. We are so grateful to Dr. Clark and his incredible staff who have provided encouragement, support, love, and immeasurable knowledge.

Above is the mesh mask that dad would wear for each of his radiation treatments; dad would be positioned on the table and this mask was placed over his face and snapped to the table. The mask prevented dad from moving and assured that the beams of radiation were directed to the correct sites. I was amazed at how tight this was on dad's face and head; after each treatment dad had two indentations on the back of his head from the snaps. Our father truly is a man of courage, great faith, humility, strength, and resilient; he is one of a kind.