Its never easy when you are forced to face a loved ones mortality. There are plenty of patients who have been diagnosed late who have survived. OC is a horrible disease that causes most patients to have pretty bad side effects that affect basic life necessities.

Take it day by day and try your very best to avoid the "what if..." type thinking. At this point you dont have much info so its pretty easy to think negatively of the worst possible outcome. The unknown is always scary but with practice you can manage it. If you cant stop from doing that then when you catch yourself "going there" simply give yourself a few minutes to think about it. After those minutes are up, physically get up and "change the channel". Walk to another room and force yourself to do something positive. Anything that is positive and keeps your attention will help you to avoid worrying too much. All worrying does is get you upset and cloud your clear thinking. Its is unproductive and can literally steal your time away from you. All that time you spend worrying could be spent making memories with your sisters or father. I used to clean out my closets and boy when the time came for me to start treatments, I had one spotless house.

Your sisters are old enough to understand your fathers illness. It would be a good idea to get some family counseling which should be available wherever your father gets treated. Some patients need more one on one therapy and many will take anxiety meds to get thru it. The stress of this affects caregivers too and many will get anxiety meds as well. Its not anything to be ashamed of, its just another tool used to get thru this rough patch.

I would guess that 5-10% of those diagnosed with OC are patients who have no known cause. If your fathers cancer is located in the base of his tongue or tonsil area it could be caused could be HPV+. Its a virus that most of the population gets but their bodies clear it without any bad consequences, but a few have one of the bad strains turn into a disease. This is something that we now have vaccinations to prevent. Your siblings are the perfect ages to start the 3 shot course of Guardisil. The Guardisil shots are effective against the strains of HPV 16 and 18. Those are the types the cause cervical cancer, anal cancer, gentile warts, penile cancer and oral cancer. Both boys and girls can get this up until age 26 but recommended to get early before they would ever think of becoming sexually active. I could go on and on about this but it may not be relevant to your fathers illness. Heres more info if you want to read about it...

CDC--- HPV

Sorry to get off topic. Hang in there. Reading about the disease can help to make you a strong advocate for your father. We know what you are going thru and its horrible!!!! Its ok to lean on us. We understand and are here to help you and your family.