#KeepingUpWithTheClarks

I'd love to say the fam and I were starting this blog to entertain you all with our exciting and ever changing lives - alas that's not why we're here.

Dad has been served up a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma (ad·e·no·car·ci·no·ma) with a side of perigastric lymph node involvement. And because that meant absolutely nothing to me besides, "Your Dad has Cancer," here is what trusty Google has to say about it:

Adenocarcinoma is a type of cancer that forms in mucus-secreting glands that line the inside of one of your organs (in our case, we're talking stomach) And as far as perigastric goes - it is essentially a pretentious medical word for "around the stomach."

How'd we get here? Well. Dad was either on track to becoming a weight loss guru or something was not going quite right. He has lost 75+ pounds since about late September. A quick 4 months. With some added difficulties keeping food down, Mom sent his ass in for a full body check up. What was supposed to be a breezy early morning CT scan on Jan. 25th, turned into an immediate endoscopic biopsy. Well... as immediate as one can be after waiting for a post CT cinnamon roll to pass. (Are you shocked? No, neither was I). Post biopsy we were informed that whatever we were looking at was not great. They suggested Dad eat baby food until we had some concrete answers..  and I hope you all find the thought of that as humorous as I did.

After a few days we were rang by the Docs and given the concrete information that no one ever wants. We don't know much yet. Surgery consultation is scheduled for next Monday. Feb.5th. This will let us know what stage we are at, the prognosis and our treatment plan. Surgery will follow sometime within the following 2 weeks.

Please don't feel offended that you are reading this instead of hearing it. Saying this out loud once is hard enough, saying it repeatedly to all the people we love and who love my Dad - sounds heartbreaking.

Nevertheless, Spencer or I are happy to chat via phone if you feel you need more. Per my mother and fathers wishes I will be posting periodically with updates, photos and any news for you all. Please feel free to comment any questions or well wishes. Dad will be frequenting the blog as well and be able to write back, etc.

Sending love to you all.
XO, Mad & Spencer