V. Le

About V. Le

My father retired and moved to a foreign country. The plan was for him to come back once a year for a health screening. 2013 he was going to skip the trip back for whatever reason. I was finishing my college bachelors after an extended break. Even though I wasn’t planning on walking, I used my graduation as an excuse to force my father to come home for a health screening. I will never regret that move. He came home during my last quarter at the school and I was balancing full time work, full time school, care for my mom with multiple health issues and taking dad to his medical visits.

My dad’s results came back abnormal so the next step was a biopsy. Dad wasn’t worried and went on his own. When the results came back, his nurse called me to book an appointment. Dad was ready to head back to his retirement getaway. The nurse broke the news that I should cancel dad’s flight but wouldn’t tell me more. The day after I completed my finals; we found out dad had prostrate cancer. The year after I completed school, my focus went from full time work/full time school to taking care of dad. We were lucky, surgery did it’s job and saved him. Dad’s been in remission for 6 years.

My siblings called me selfish for forcing my dad to come back to watch me graduate. I’m happy I did. My selfish demands might have saved my dad’s life.

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