Thank you everyone for your kind words and support. I'm currently trying to tie things together here so that I can go down to San Francisco (about 2 hours away) to be with him when he needs me. I'm working in a temp job that I've been hoping would be full time but they haven't yet had the approval to take me on permanently. I had the suprise of my life when the second in command in the company approached me to tell me that he had heard about what was happening in my life and that I could take off as much time as I needed to... with pay. This new news has taken such a weight of my shoulders because now I can be there for my father when he needs me without the worry of not having money coming in. It's made me more optimistic that I'll be able to handle this and stay strong enough to help my father through this.

I had a couple questions for you all:

1) have any of you consulted with a nutritionist to help prepare a diet that would not only be something you are able to eat after surgery and such, but also a diet rich in antioxidants? I know that diet can play a large role in all of this.

2) How common is it to get a second opinion? I've been thinking of speaking with my dad about going to a cancer center. He's in San Francisco so UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center is an option. I don't want him to think that I doubt his doctors or anything like that, but I want him also to consider all of his options and not feel like he needs to rush into whatever the first doctor tells him.

3) What can I expect? What will my role be? So far, the doctor has told him that he will most likely have surgery followed up with IMRT. I will be speaking with the doctor about this, but I wanted to get an idea of how much help my dad will need with the day to day activities. This is probably something that varies greatly from person to person and case by case but I was hoping to get a general idea of what's next.

Sorry to go off on a little monologue here, but I suppose I'm just the type of person who hates the unknown and wants to know what's going to be around the next bend. Some people thrive on excitement and the unknown but I feel so out of control and quite simply, afraid when I don't know what to expect next.

Again, I am so glad to have found you guys and thank you very very much for listening (hmn... reading?) to me and I appreciate all the insight you've given me so far.