Hello, my dad (59) was diagnosed with bowel cancer last week and it was a complete shock to everyone, although it hasn't been staged yet, he has surgery to remove the tumour where the surgeon said he saw a little on a node but couldn't get to it and that chemo should get it. He said he saw what looked like a few patches on his liver from a CT scan but said they don't concern him. Based on the fact it's been seen elsewhere an I right assuming this is classed as stage 4? 

My dad's recovered from the surgery really well and is almost back to his normal self. Obviously like everyone does I then went immediately to Dr Google to find out how long I have with him and came across some very disheartening statistics. I now understand statistics are not very reliable as there are many factors taken into consideration with them. 

So, I'm still getting over the shock of the diagnosis, my dad is my world, my mum died suddenly 10 years ago and he's been my foundation and rock ever since. I've found myself grieving, I found this out today to be called anticipatory grieving. I think of memories, good times, holidays and all the things he's done for me and I get so down and often begin to cry. But the problem is, my dad is fine right now and hasn't even had the cancer staged or started chemo. Is this normal? I want to snap out of it and be happy he's actually still here and doesn't have a terminal diagnosis, is there anything I can do?