Sunday, April 05, 2009

Superman?

There comes a time when a son (or daughter for that matter) realizes that their dad is not Superman. It came pretty early in my family, about 25 years ago my father was diagnosed with cancer in the colon, small intestine, spleen, stomach, and a few other organs in the surrounding area. The doctors had given him a 20% chance of survival...he did - but it was the first time I saw him vulnerable (went back diving with catheter - for chemo- in chest).

8 years ago he had thyroid cancer...he survived (Back diving in 3 months)

6 years ago - heart stent procedure (went back diving after 3 months)

5 years ago he had a love bite from a reefie....he survived (after 3 hours working on him feverishly to stop the bleeding - went back diving with the same sharks 3 months later)

Now...he is fighting stomach cancer - while the operation in itself went well, this morning he had a collapse and had to be induced into a sleep (not coma). His heart was irregular, lungs taking on some water - he has been stabilized. Turns out now he may have an infection, so he is now receiving new antibiotics. He will likely be in this sleep for a few days, the Doctor says he is critical but stable. We need to wait a few days while he remains in this sleep recovering - may be a good thing, when he was awake he was stressing and nervous.

So you see - my father is anything but Superman, survivor and fighter yes - he did promised me that we would be diving in Tiger Beach this June (or November considering the recovery)...I also think he has some other work that he need to finish...



During section where we are filming ourselves notice we interrupt as the first Tiger came

4 comments:

Jeff Schreiber said...

Felix,
Our thoughts and hearts are with Wolf, you and the rest of your family. You are very correct, your father has much more work to do... Always remember that those that do amazing things start with their amazing triumphs in themselves.

I am sure he just needed a way to relax his mind and dream about his (other) babies while he can't be with them!

Hanli Prinsloo said...

Felix, please tell Wolf I am thinking of him every day as I dive here in the Blue Hole in Dahab. We spoke about it once and we still have dreams to freedive together, tell him I'm holding on to every one!
So much love...

Unknown said...

Hanli - I will send your comment to my mom and she will read it to him...when are we going to freedive?

the One called "Bitey"... said...

All the very best to you - I can't wait until I can actually dive with you and your dad.
Wolf may not be Superman, but he sounds a little like Indiana Jones or John McLean - life can pound on them but they'll always stand up and bite back. Way cooler than Superman.
:)