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Hey gents! Long time, no talk! As stated- 2019 was, for lack of better words, rough... Everything went south bound to hell Jan.3. My dad had just retired, pulled his entire 401k, left my mom (finally-they'd been divorced for 10 years and she mooched off him), bought a place on Lake Okeechobee, and was living it up. He called me one afternoon complaining that he thought he had cellulitis on his toe. Him being a diabetic, I recommended that he immediately go to the hospital, but, alas, he was stubborn. He called the next day and told me that his toe was black and green (knew immediately what I was) and was headed to the ER. Come to find out, not only was he going to lose the toe, but he had become septic. They removed the toe and started him on an antibiotic that's 10k per bag; consequently, this shut down his kidneys. So now he was minus a toe and on dialysis. They ended up taking the toe next to the one that was removed as he had developed osteomyelitis (diabetic bone infection). Eventually he headed home with wound care and a wound vaccuum. Well... after a month of the wounds not healing, they (surgeon) went in and cleaned out more infection,but ended up taking some foot bones that were infected. He again returned home only to have his gallbladder rupture and return to the hospital. During the gallbladder removal...they found cancer. Really rare cancer. A carcenoid tumor. They run through all the tests and put him on a waiting list for the surgery because he still had an infection. His kidneys finally restart at this point and I have power of attorney over everything. I speak to the surgeon on one of the 15+ trips down and ask if he would remove my fathers leg below the knee... to me, it made sense because they couldn't get ahead of the infection. The surgeon agreed and his leg was removed the following week. Three weeks after (December 17) he finally had the cancer removed from his small intestine and lost half his stomach. Not kidding- between all the major things I spoke about here, there were probably 10 other smaller surgeries and procedures happen. He is finally home and recovering. Has a prosthetic leg and losing weight he should have lost 20 years ago....and hes cancer free! On top of this, found out my and I are having trouble conceiving, but military insurance doesnt pay for those treatments...and man is it expensive! All this going on and I'm still in school working to finish my degree... The year was absolutely horrendous. It was not without the goo though. I bought a brand new Tracker 170 Pro and quit smoking (8 months now). This year is much better...thank God! Nice and smooth with school, dads doing great, wife is happy, and I woke up this morning! Back into tying too! Just finished a set of 50 classic trout flies for a friend of mine in PA. Nice to switch from synthetics to traditional materials and techniques. I need to get out and swing the buggy whip before too long!