Jake Owen‘s father Steve starts radiation treatment Wednesday at the Mayo Clinic after being diagnosed with cancer two months ago. Jake is in contact with his dad every day trying to keep his spirits high, though Steve tries to brush off his cancer diagnosis as no big deal.
Jake says, “I remind him sometimes, whether he wants to hear it or not, ‘What you’re going through is not easy, but I’m here for you. Mom’s there for you.'”
Steve’s treatments will take place five days a week for six-and-a-half weeks, and the side effects will be pretty intense. Since his cancer started at the back of his tongue, the radiation will be targeted towards his throat, and he’ll be left with a very sore throat and an inability to taste anything for about a year.
“If you think about sore throat and you can’t taste anything, it’s kind of hard to eat and keep stuff like that,” Jake says. “So, that’s gonna be tough on him.”
In order to ease the burden, Jake and his family got Steve a new friend to keep him company for the next few weeks. Steve is especially close with the family’s German shepherd back home in Florida, but that pooch couldn’t make the trip up to the Mayo Clinic because it’s so big.
Says Jake, “I started telling him, ‘Dad, you need a dog. Like, let’s get you a dog.’ So, we got him a little dog that doesn’t shed or anything.”
Going forward, Jake maintains a positive attitude about his father’s prognosis saying, “He’ll beat it. He’ll be good, and I want to maintain that as well, you know, that mindset.”
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio
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The Kansas Senate on Wednesday approved a bill prohibiting doctors from terminating a pregnancy solely because a woman doesn’t want a baby of a certain gender.
