Update on my dad. He came back down to MDA and met with the surgeon, oncologist, and PA. If you recall upthread, he has a rare form of cancer called spinal chordoma. It's literally 1 in a million as 300 people are diagnosed with it every year in the US.
They gave him three options:
1. Have part of his spine cord cut out as they can't remove the entire thing without also putting out a portion of his spinal cord. This would involve him having to wear a colostomy bag and have a catheter the rest of his life (he's 73 by the way). The lower sections of the spinal cord control bladder and bowels and he would lose that ability to control himself. My dad literally said "fuck that, next".
2. Treat with high-dose radiation therapy. With this therapy, there is a risk that he would also lose control of his bladder and bowels.
3. Monitor with MRIs/CT scans for the remainder of his life. My dad's thoughts here were that this has been showing up on CT scans since his last round of treatment for something unrelated to the chordoma. My mom and I both think this is what he'll end up doing. However, this runs the risk that the tumor can grow to the point where he can no longer control his bladder and bowels. Or it could spread to his lungs. He has a history of smoking and obesity so I would imagine it will likely move up to his lungs but I'm not a doctor.
They came down for another MRI last week and got on a plane to Scandinavia to get on a cruise ship for 2 weeks. I think he'll decide over there.