A photo of Dad was sent to us through Facebook and I thought I would share this with everyone. Its a selfie of dad with Shar Lepard at work on July 9th. Dad loved the people he worked with at Continental / United. I love his smile in this photo. Little know fact: for many years, we would sit at the dinner table and ask dad “So Dad, what did you do today?” He would then tell us all the stuff that happened at work.
There has been couple people that has asked Jennifer and I if we will be shutting down dad’s blog. ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!! One of the best ways to keep Dad’s spirit alive is to have a spot to write about our lives. We will continue to post updates about the Cunningham family among other things. On a personal note, I know the photo section is currently out of date, but over the next month or two, I am planning on importing pictures to bring it up-to-date.
So, please continue looking at the blog to continue honoring dad and all who fight cancer. Feel free to write comments on the blog as well through Facebook.
Taken on July 9th, 2014
We celebrated dad’s life the last two days. I am so humbled and honored to see the love that has poured out for my dad,mom, my brother and I. Family and Friends came from all over the country to show the love and honor to my dad. Though we were not ready to have dad as an angel, I know he is protecting us as he did here on earth.
From the mist of our souls, the Cunningham family wants to say THANK YOU for loving us and blessing us with the support. I kept walking out to the living room waiting for him to be in his chair with one of the dogs on his lap. However, I have a peace knowing he is free of cancer and is rejoicing with God. I have no doubt he is eating blackberry pies, playing cards with Gloria, Cliff, Aunt Betty and Uncle John and running around playing with the dogs. I am sure he has already had long conversations with my Uncle Charles about planes.
His love here on earth is demonstrated by all the people who he touched. My dad was a man of honor – to his God, his family/friends and to his country. We love you daddy. XOXO
Dad’s obituary is now available on Scott’s Funeral Home website. Please click the following URL to view it: http://goo.gl/xBzB4d. It will also be printed in the papers.
The viewing will be held at Scott’s Funeral Home in Alvin on Thursday, July 31, 2014 from 5pm – 8pm. The funeral will be held at First United Methodist Church – Alvin on Friday, August 1, 2014 starting at 10am, followed by the Confederate Cemetery burial.
The addresses are listed below:
Scott’s Funeral Home
1421 E. Highway 6
Alvin, Texas 77511
First United Methodist Church
611 W South St.
Alvin, TX 77511
Confederate Cemetery
1277 Dickinson Rd (at the corner of SH 35 and Dickinson Rd)
Alvin, TX 77511
After looking at several different cemeteries in the area, we finally picked Confederate Cemetery in Alvin. It’s a small, well maintain, very peaceful cemetery. Mom, Jennifer, and I feels this cemetery is within my Dad’s wishes.
Confederate Cemetery
1277 Dickinson Rd (at the corner of SH 35 and Dickinson Rd)
Alvin, TX 77511
Besides purchasing a plot for my Dad and Mom, Jennifer and I purchase a plot for each of us so that we will be right next to our parents. Mom said that if we get married and would like a different area, she understood completely. However for now, the four of us will be together in spirit and in body.
The plots will be next to the road so my mom will be able to get to it easily with her wheelchair. Today, we met with the caretaker who is really nice and down to Earth.
It has been a rough couple days here at the house not seeing Dad sitting in his chair, but we are taking one day at a time. We have family and friends coming in from out of state.
The viewing will be held at Scott’s Funeral Home in Alvin on Thursday, July 31, 2014 from 5pm – 8pm. The funeral will be held at First United Methodist Church – Alvin on Friday, August 1, 2014 starting at 10am, followed by the cemetery burial.
At the current time, we are still deciding on the cemetery. We will let you know as soon as we have picked a cemetery.
The address are listed below:
Scott’s Funeral Home
1421 E. Highway 6
Alvin, Texas 77511
First United Methodist Church
611 W South St.
Alvin, TX 77511
Dear friends and family,
On Saturday, July 26, 2014, Dad passed away at 8:51pm CST. Jennifer or I will write more details tomorrow. For now, please just pray for the Cunningham family.
Rest in Peace Dennis Allen Cunningham
October 24, 1955 – July 26, 2014
Age: 58
Dad’s condition has greatly deteriorated just since last night. He is alive, but non-responsive. Hospice is out here and they are now putting him on 24/7 critical care hospice. He is showing signs of his body shutting down… it’s just the matter of time.
Please pray that he is not in pain
As each day goes by, Dad is getting weaker and weaker. For those that want to visit dad, please call the house or mom’s cell and see if that’s a good time or not. According to hospice, its not good for him to have to many people visiting him at the same time…. it needs to be staggered and the visitation needs to be minimal. To many people can get him anxiety attacks, which will flare up his breathing.
Dad breathing pretty good today but is having a hard time tonight. He is really weak. He can talk but not real well. His oxygen level is now a 7 (on an oxygen tank) and he can no longer get up on his own. Today, as dad was going in and out, we had conversations about his job. I tell him I love him and give him hugs as many times as I can.
Today was an emotional day for us as I called the couple funeral homes that my parents talked about.My parents discussed on Tuesday a couple places they want to be buried. The plan was for them to visit together but my dad is too weak to go. So mom and I will be looking at it together. We are all lending on each other for support.
I am so touched by the love from everyone. The calls, visits, messages and kind words. Thank you for praying for my family. It is not easy to see someone you love grow weak. Dad has always been the breadwinner and taken care of us. I am not sure how long God is giving us with him but I pray that we can spend much more time together. Today, I started to think about all the 1st that our family will have to experience without my dad. It became really emotional for me and I just broke down and cried.
Dad is still fighting and we believe in miracles. Will keep you updated.
What a curve ball. Life is a curve ball. A little over a week ago, dad was working full time. Now, we have a hospital bed and oxygen in the living room, hospice and trying to get a thousand questions answered and spend every moment with dad. Lord give me strength. Give my mom and brother strength. Give those who love us strength.
Today, July 24, 2014 is my parents 38th wedding anniversary. This day in 1976, my parents (high school sweethearts) said I do. Many ups and downs but their love is real. My parents have been together since my mom was 14 and my dad was 15 years old. They met at church and have been together ever since. Mom and dad – I love you so much and you have shown me that love can bring two people together. Happy anniversary.
Dad is now home from the hospital. Before dad left the hospital, MD Anderson gave him some meds which is knocking him out, but at the same time, he is semi alert on whats going on.
Hospice is currently here getting everything taken care of. She is doing all the paperwork that she needs. The dogs were extremely excited to see dad. However, they know something is up. You can just tell by there face expressions.
More updates to come later…
On Sunday, July 20th, we had our associate pastor and five church members come up to the hospital to visit Dad. Today, July 22nd, a friend from Dad’s work and our senior pastor come and visited or at least attempted to visit Dad (our senior pastor came, but Dad was at a procedure and had to leave before Dad got back). To all who has visited dad, I personally want to thank you for coming. I also want to thank you for all the prayers that everyone has wrote in through the blog and Facebook. It means a lot to Dad and family.
On a side note, while Dad was at his procedure today, hospice showed up. So, Mom, Jennifer, and I talked to hospice and I believe we are going to go with this one company that was recommended by the church and a friend of the family. I will be honest with you, the word hospice scares me. But, they are there to help us out in this difficult time. I am still processing that my Dad is going to pass away within 6 months from this stupid cancer.
While Dad has been in the hospital, he has not adjusted very well to the feeding formula that he now has to take through his feeding tube. He gets very nausea and gets the dry heaves. Furthermore, he was getting the diarrhea within an hour time frame of his feeding.
Yesterday evening, they did a test on him to see if the feeding tube itself has moved. Well, the test results came back inclusive. So today, they took him down to the people who placed the feeding tube in him and adjusted the feeding tube. For now, they are going to put dad on a feeding pump. Basically, he will have a machine pump food slowly in to his stomach 24/7 automatically just so his body can start getting nutrition. If he tolerates that, MD Anderson will consider him going back to the other way by putting food in a bag and allowing gravity push the food into his stomach.
The nurses here are telling us as long as everything goes well, Dad should be discharged from the hospital either late tomorrow evening to Thursday morning.
Today had not gone the way we had hoped. We were told that a group of 12 different drs looked at my dad’s case. They felt that there was no clinical trial that would help my dad. They also looked to see if it would help my dad to be put on some chemo to maybe help prolong life but they feel it would do more harm than good.
My dad would like to come home and spend as much time as God will allow with family. Before he comes home, we have to get things prepared such as hospice. We are going to look at some alternative things that may help prolong some time. However, we know it is up to God on this journey.
I have not fully “digested” that my daddy is dying. The last two years, I have never allowed myself to think that we would be at this point. My family is going to cherish every moment we can together. I ask that you pray for us. Our hearts is so broken.
Dad’s results came in today… just since the PETScan / CT of last week and the CT Scan of yesterday; the doctors have determined that the cancer has gotten bigger in his lungs. I would venture to say that’s probably the reason why his breathing is getting worst.
Dad is no longer allowed to eat or drank through the mouth. Everything has to go through his feeding tube including his meds. The reasoning, if Dad gets sick, there is a possibility the food / liquid can go in his trachea which can go into his lungs.
Lastly, the following is the worst news that Dad has received since him being diagnose with cancer in October 2012.
Dad has a blood clot in his right arm. Furthermore, his right arm was extremely cold this morning. So, they took his PIC out that was in his right arm and are now giving him blood thinners to treat the blood clot. Due this nature, the clinical trial people have confirmed that he is getting kicked off the current clinical trial program. They said unless they can find a clinical trial that allows blood thinners, there is nothing else MD Anderson can do. All other options have been exhausted.
Before Dad started his clinical trial, they force him to go off his blood thinner for his heart. The reasoning because the blood thinner interfere with the clinical trial chemo. We got the approval from his heart doctor to take him off his blood thinner.
Due to his recently breathing complications throughout his 1st week of clinical trial, MD Anderson is putting Dad back on a blood thinner. We don’t know whats going to happen as far as the 2nd week of the clinical trial. Its possible that Dad will get kicked out of this particular clinical trail. 🙁
=====
In addition to what I wrote, here is what Jennifer wrote:
Dad had lots of test and drs looking at him today. They are really concern about his breathing and his heart. Since he has history of blood clots, that is a concern especially since he is a little swollen. The clinical trial drs felt he needed to be on a blood thinner meds again. We are not sure what that means for the trial as he was not suppose to be on that type of meds.
Dad is really emotional down and we tried to pump him up with some laughs but as you can guess, he is really upset and frustrated. He is no longer allow to have any food by mouth and will be using his feeding tube 100%. They also really do not want him to drink liquids until they find out what is causing all of the issues. To say the least, we are all concern that his chemo treatments will stop so please continue to lift us up.
Dad is in the hospital (at MD Anderson). He started his clinical trial (phase one) on Monday. As far as the trial, things are going good. He has a pump that is pumping chemo into the body 24/7 from Monday -Friday. However, his breathing issue has increased. After some test, the drs believe he has pneumonia and has admitted him into the hospital late Thursday/Friday morning.
They are running additional test to try to find out the cause of the whizzing and other issues he is having. At this time, he will continue to stay on the clinical trial. I ask for prayer as we go through this and ask for prayer that God will lift dad’s emotions up as he is emotionally down. We know we have to climb the mountain before we see the view but my dad was really upset that he did not get to come home last night. We have complete faith in God and know He is healing my dad as we speak.
We will continue to update everyone through Facebook and dad’s web site, www.dac24.com
As of 6:25pm: Dad is being admitted into the hospital. After running test, the drs are puzzled. They think he may have pneumonia but not sure. We are not sure what this means for the clinical trial – on rather he will be allowed to continue. Please pray that he will be able to continue.