A Little Bit of New Info on Bill's Tumor

Wake Forest finally called. Well, the Urology Dept. called to apologize for the OTHER department's huge mistake in forgetting to tell us Bill had a biopsy, until an hour after the biopsy should have happened.

I think this was a Dr. or Physician's Asst semi-doctor I talked to. D.S., her name.

I used the phone call to push her to the edge of what she could say as to whether they believe this fast-growing thing near his heart is malignant. She did the expected "dance" with me: "We're not allowed to say it is, till the pathology report confirms the radiologist's opinion."

Me (something to this effect): "But the radiologist has never been wrong before on our case, right? If he thought he saw a swollen node, it turned out to be a swollen node. If he thought he saw cancer, it turned out to be cancer."

DS:"Yes."

Me: "So, I understand that legally you can't say it's definitely cancer, as the radiologist report said, but I'm operating completely under the assumption that is IS a cancerous tumor, and I'm wondering, is that reasonable of me?"

DS: "Very reasonable."

See how that works? Remember that and you can get a lot of information early that way. Only I hope you never have to know it.

So here's what's happening. He goes in (email me for dates, don't wanna post publicly) on a certain day soon for tests. We spend the night at a hotel in Winston. Next day, he goes in for biopsy.

The Dr. doing the biopsy is named Dr. Childs. Childs was the one who looked at the reports and said he refused to do a hot needle radio-frequency ablation to just blow up the tumor, because of where the tumor is, near the heart or heart aorta (unclear to me).

But Dr. Childs said he WOULD be willing to do a small needle biopsy, needle in, needle out, then you wait 7 days (ugh I HATE THAT WAITING PART!) for the results.

I said to DS: "Results? Maybe to see if it's benign, or is it more to see what kind of cancer cells we're dealing with and if it's indicative of other cancers, specifically gastro cancers?" (Since it's a sentinal node in the gastro area, not the urological area any more ("sentinal" node means a node that announces (sentinal) other cancers nearby).

She said, "B."

(Remember, Bill had both stage 4 bladder cancer AND stage 2 prostate cancer, which are unrelated! So technically, it could be either bladder or prostate cancer cells making up the tumor--or (worst case scenario) a whole new kind of cancer. So they need to know that.

DS said, "Once they know what kind of cells they are, then Dr. Thomas will be your new Oncologist, because they've moved Bill's whole case to Gastroenterology now, and it is no longer in the Urology Cancer Dept now. Dr. Thomas will decide the treatment plan, once the path report is back."

She added: "Nothing to eat or drink past midnight before the biopsy."

Now. Um. That makes me think he's going under total anesthesia, because otherwise, if it was just like novocaine, local, it wouldn't matter if he ate or drank.

Well, getting total anesthesia, I know from much experience now, means we probably have to show up at 5:30 a.m. in the operating dept. and stand in line for an hour with a hundred other people (him with no food, water, coffee, a very miserable hour).

I just sighed, writing this. Here we go again. Poor, poor cowboy. He never complains. But I do.

Okay, if I think of anything I forgot, I'll post again. If I get lots of emails from my and his friends, (we do get a LOT of emails about this) here's what to remember: WE LOVE EACH WORD OF EACH ONE, and it's the only thing that gets us through: that love. But there are so many emails at times that we can't always answer them all. So please please never think we don't love the emails. And if you don't even WANT or expect a reply, then if you could add "No reply needed" to your message, then we will know that we can just enjoy your love and you didn't have any questions you needed answering, and didn't expect to hear back. It's good, either way. Your love is our lifeline. If you're ever in this situation, and I hope you're not, and if you remember that we said that (your love is our lifeline), you'll go, "Wow. Now I know what she meant. That love coming in from friends really is the lifeline."

Okay, rodeo partners. Till the next time!

Love to you, so much love to you.

God is great.