Everyone has a hero in their lives. My hero as been my hero for a long time. My hero is my dad. He is one of the strongest people I know. If you really know me then you know that I am a daddy's girl. I always have been and always will. Now, my dad has not saved anyone from a burning building, discovered a cure for a disease, created the latest fad that has changed lives. My dad simply has survived. He has had Chron's Disease for a big chunk of my life. There were times when my dad could not come out and play or come to family functions because he was having a flare up that made him extremely sick or in pain. I do have memories of him before the Chron's and he loved to shoot hoops with me. Then, when I was in middle/high school, he got a deadly flesh eating bacteria from a business trip to France. He spent weeks in the hospital having surgery daily to clean out the infection. Then he had to have a skin graph to close up the damaged area. He got a break for a little while. He never told us but all during the "good times" his Chron's was getting worse. To look at him you would never know the immense pain he was dealing with. Then came the May flood of 2010. My parents lost their condo. It devastated both of them. They lost their whole downstairs and all the memories. A couple of weeks after that, my dad's health took a turn for the worst. He had to have a colostomy bag done and knew that it could not be reversed. He was fine with that. 3 days later he ended up back in the hospital with pneumonia and an infection that was all in is abdomen and bottom area. He dealt with that for a couple of months. He was on a tons of medications to kill the infection only to find that they were really not making a difference. It was decided that he needed to have his rectum removed since most of the infection was set up in there. I remember getting the call that this was going to happen and being devastated. The doctors did not honestly know if this would work but it had to be done or the infection was going to start shutting down his organs. Saying our goodbyes before surgery was horrible. He was scared and really clung to me. My dad is not am emotional person. He never really shares his feelings and keeps to himself. I am just like him so it was extremely hard to hear him tell me how scared he was. He gave mom and my brother a hug and when it was my turn, he squeezed me so tight and whispered, "Don't worry. I know you won't tell me you are worrying but I know you are." He hit it right on the head. I am a worrier. I may not show my emotions, but rest assured, I am worrying on the inside. He made it through surgery and started the healing process. After an extended stay in the hospital, he finally came home. Mom takes great care of him changing his dressing and cleaning his wound. She has been through just as much and handles it like a champ. I don't know of many people who would stick with someone that requires all this care, but she is amazing too! Now we are dealing with the big C. He is almost done with treatments and the kind he has responds really well to chemo and radiation. My dad is only 120 pounds and looks like a skeleton. I hate seeing him like this because that is not my dad. Don't get me wrong, I am glad that I can still see him but it just is not the same. I don't think that I could ever go through this much. That is why he is my hero! He is a fighter and extremely strong.
