November 17th

(Warning: this one is a bit graphic)
This was the day my Dad went in for his upper and lower GI at USF Health with Dr. Mamel. The day before he had to drink just the cleansing liquid. I drove him and my Mom to his appointment at 7:30 a.m. It was going to take four hours to complete the set up, procedure and recovery from anesthesia. My Mom called me at 11:30 a.m. telling me she needed me and to get to USF. I was under the impression that they were ready to go. Well, I get there and come to find out, the lower GI went great but not the upper. As they went down the esophagus for the upper GI they actually discovered rotten food, mostly meat lodged in his esophagus. They proceeded to pull this out, which they said smelled like death, until they got to a point where it was no longer meat/food. The said it could've been tissue grown over food, a stricture or a tumor, but they thought it was a removable mass. So, they proceeded to admit him to surgery but at Tampa General Hospital. Surgery was to occur at 7:30 a.m. the next day. They discharged him from USF and off to Tampa General we went. They did some blood work, ran some scans and a biopsy on the mass discovered in his esophagus. No results that day. My sisters and I went home for the night and my Mom spent the night at the hospital with Daddy.