Bill's procedure went well--mixed outcome...

I'm in the hotel, and I finally got to speak to bill (i had to call the nurse's station to find out why he wasn't answering his phone. OH! they forgot to put a phone in his room? THAT'S why.... Hmmmm.). He had completed his post-operation interview with Dr. Walther by 6:30 this evening.

It seems Dr. Walther shrewdly surmised that Bill wanted very little information while I wanted massive landfills piled full of facts--narratives containing every atomic detail.

So Bill got an interview which mostly comprised the phrase, "It's all speculation at this point. let's wait until we have the pathology report." Whereas I got a 20-minute tete-a-tete when I was in the consult room alone with Dr. W after the procedure--a debriefing so filled with facts that I could probably publish an article on bladder cancer in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The procedure was supposed to take one hour but took two. Part of that was some kind of problem with Bill's throat vis-a-vis anesthesia, to the point that they had to put some kind of gadget into his throat and hold it open so the air tubes could go in successfully. "Huge problems with intubation!" exclaimed Dr. W. to me, him being lucky that I have done nothing for the last 2 weeks but memorize medical jargon, so I could speak his foreign language. otherwise it would have been, from me, a big, "Say WHAT, dude?"

Bill's body handled the whole procedure like a very healthy adult, with no problems, yet having HUGE pain afterward, which took 55 minutes to get down to a "3" level on the famous 1 to 10 scale. As soon as he awoke from general anesthesia, bill told them his pain was EASILY an 11, until they found a drug mixture that helped him. Poor boy!

RESULTS
Not so great, but could have been worse. While I can't put every detail in a blog, as it wouldn't be, well, circumspect, since the blog is open to the public and bill probably doesn't want his personal details open to the public--I can say that it is confirmed that he had cancer, a large necrotic malignant tumor, and some baby cancers springing up all around it. But so far, no evidence that it has metastisized!

Good news: it was NOT adenocarcinoma! And it did NOT involve the urachal remnant (tube from bellybutton to bladder which remains from umbilical cord). Right there, our statistics went up 20 thousand leagues.

Bad news: he's got some serious cancer in there, and it was only SCRAPED OUT PARTIALLY today--NOT removed! So it's all still in there doing its thing.

He has: TCC -- transitional cell carcinoma--PROBABLY--altho the surgeon can't say definitively without the pathology report, of course, for legal reasons. He also has CIS--carcinoma in situ--sprinkled around.

They didn't take any of his bladder out today. they just used an electric current that is like a hot knife going thru butter (surgeon's metaphor) to scrape off the big tumor and take scrape biopsies of the little ones.

WHEN WILL WE KNOW THE ACTUAL FACTS?
In about 7 days, we will have a pathologist report and an appointment will be scheduled within 10 days from now at Dr. Walther's office in Durham (another trip down) for a face-to-face "counseling session" in which bill is presented with the facts, the options, the choices.

Thereafter, there may be another surgery. We can't know until the report comes back.

RELEASE TO GO HOME
Bill should almost 100 percent certainly be released tomorrow before noon, and I will drive him back up the mountain. He plans to lie in the back seat all the way home.

Not sure what effect this will have on his work schedule. I want him to take the rest of the semester off, but he is anguishing about wanting to keep teaching this semester.
Several of the key players, like his daughter and myself, think his energy would be better spent in healing himself than enlightening 19-year-olds as to the wonders of Hamlet. But we'll see.

Email me or email bill or call or whatever you want, if you need more info. Bill is THRILLED BEYOND MEASURE about every single person who cares about him. He just can't get over it--finding out how many folks really do love the ol' curmudgeon!

I'll post again as soon as we have any new facts--maybe even tomorrow.

thank you thank you thank you for caring. you can't imagine how much it means!!!!

love,
Beth