Oh its such a heartbraking time, but keep looking in his eyes, hes still there, just the body looks different .. make the most of every day, ask things you would like to know, maybe he would love to talk and tell you things in his life ... hold his hand ... and dont be scared to admit your scared and most of all tell him how much you love him .. share hugs, share tears, and leave nothing unsaid ...

There's no easy way round ... so many of us have been where you are now ... it's the price we pay to have been blessed to have loved so deeply ... many will never know that love ... your Dr may be able to help short term, with sleep ... sending you a big hug .... Chrissie xx 

Chrissie is right; we are so fortunate to have people we love so much in our lives but the downside is the pain that we feel when something like this happens.  Please take care of yourself; share what you are going through with friends and wider family.  Come and post here if you cannot sleep; tell us how you feel.  There is no easy path but take what help is available.  Many people here take medicines to cope with anxiety and lack of sleep; in these circumstances it is the sensible thing to do.  Be kind to yourself.

Hi gigi and welcome to the forum

I’m sorry to hear about your dad and believe me these early days of diagnosis are the hardest to take in

one of the best ways to get through this process is to understand the type of cancer your dad has .... I know initially with mine, when I was told I had cancer, we all thought it was an immediate death sentence, but as we began to learn about the process of treatment, side effects and they type of cancer I had ... a level of understanding and awareness kicks in and things become clearer, a plan is born and you begin to deal with things in a much better way

my Cancer is totally different to your dads ... I had throat cancer

a good tip on gaining specific help and information from this website is to perhaps put up another post mentioning your dads specific cancer in the title. This will alert those that have knowledge of this specific cancer to reply to you

let us know how you and your dad get on but believe me education on the type of cancer your dad has, goes a long way to deconstructing the enormity of what you are all now dealing with

I hope things start to pick up for you all

vatch

I'm sorry to hear about your dad Gigi96, 

I know there are probably no words that can make you feel better right now, but try not to put all the responsibility of supporting yourself and your family on yourself. Everyone needs to try to support each other, and be there for each other. I think one of the most difficult things is the differing view points we all seem to have in what is the best thing to do, or the things we need to know, or who we should turn to. Try to find others you can talk to, and it does also help when you know other people have been through it, or are going through it as well. It makes the process not feel so lonely, as you knwo you have someone that you can relate to. 

At this point, you may not be getting much sleep. I remember when my dad was first diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, I wasn't able to eat or sleep properly for a couple weeks. Your life has been flipped upside down, and sometimes it can take our minds and our bodies some time to adjust to this new normal that we must live. 

I hope all the best for you and your family. 

Thank you for taking time to read this, it has been a hard month and it's a big struggle and just getting hard. My Dad has come off his experimental drug and is now choosing to live out his life with family around him. The cancer acts so fast that he has 6-18 months and only 4 others have had this cancer in Scotland and no one has survived and no one knows anything about it so we all feel quite helpless