"I was curled up in my childhood bedroom in Tampa, Florida, home for the holidays and staring at the walls of the same room where I'd slept each Christmas Eve from ages 6 to 18. Back then, I'd drifted off to sleep anticipating the rituals of Christmas morning. That night, however, there were no presents under the tree, and my dad had gone to bed sullen and uncharacteristically withdrawn."
"An MRI revealed fluid buildup in his brain - not unexpected, given that he'd had surgeries two years in a row to remove brain metastases, followed by multiple rounds of targeted radiation. We initially held onto hope that these symptoms were side effects from previous treatments. But after meeting with his neuro-oncological team, we learned that stubborn cancer cells were still present in his brain tissue."
On Christmas Eve 2023, the narrator returned home to Tampa and faced profound grief as her father, long treated for esophageal adenocarcinoma, received a terminal prognosis. He arrived at the emergency room with severe weakness and imbalance; imaging revealed fluid buildup in his brain after prior surgeries and radiation for metastases. Neuro-oncological evaluation confirmed persistent cancer cells, leaving two fraught choices: a risky aggressive surgery with high potential for permanent immobility and cognitive loss, or drug therapy to slow progression. The father declined further surgery and chose medication; the family feared this might be their last Christmas together, and the narrator struggled with sorrow and envy while seeing others' holiday celebrations online.
Read at BuzzFeed
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]