Bill felt TERRIBLE, but is improving...and almost done with chemo!

Hi all! Thank you for your beautiful replies to the Saint and the Bird post, both in comments and to me privately in emails. One person suggested that it might have been a real angel who brought the birdseed. I'm not arguing. ;) That birdseed blessed not only all the folks here who needed it, but so many people in different parts of the country who read about it. The whole incident just seemed to us to be completely amazing.

Bill is Better!
Bill is finally starting to feel a little better, and we expect him to be a little better every day now. He is FINISHED with Cisplatin! And he only has two more Gemzar drips, and then he is done!

We asked if he might need chemo after the surgery, but his Oncologist in Boone (now, this isn't from his Duke Bladder Dude, but his chemo doctor) says she bets he won't have any more after the surgery.

In what were very encouraging words, she said that as she sees his CT scan and pathology reports from before he started chemo, it was HER impression that his tumor seemed to be growing ALONG the inside of the bladder but not penetrating the wall at all. Therefore, saith she (from her lips to God's ear!), she doesn't think he would get chemo after surgery.

The only hesitancy Bill and I have about being elated by that is that we BOTH sat with the first doctor and looked carefully for a long time at the CT scan photos, and we BOTH clearly saw the tumor penetrating the bladder wall and almost out of the bladder, if not actually out. Yesterday, we even tested each other and independently drew a picture of what we thought we had seen on the CT scan regarding the tumor position. Without looking at each other's drawings until we were both done, we both drew the identical picture of the tumor growing through the wall.

But we are open to a miracle! And if the tumor hasn't penetrated the wall, then it is only a stage 1, which is considered completely curable! Even stage 3 and 4 can be curable. And with Dr. Walther at Duke using the most conservative and pre-emptive strikes for treatment, we feel even more encouraged.

Bill's Worst Reaction Yet to Chemo (but now it's over)
But Bill had his worst reaction yet to the last Cisplatin and only today is beginning to feel better. Turns out the chemo has a layering effect, and by the 4th round, all the previous rounds are still in there working, so you get sickest at the end. He had so many new troubles: stayed within an inch of throwing up, for days, got a sore in his mouth, mucous membranes shut down throughout his body, profusely bleeding sinuses, exhaustion, extreme metal taste, aching, bone pain from Neupogen shots, tooth pain, hip pain, severe insomnia and so forth.

But for every one of those reactions, he had LESS of a reaction than most people! So we actually feel deeply grateful and blessed!

We expect him to feel better every day now, and after the last Gemzar shot, two weeks from now, he will get a full month of rest, and the surgery will be scheduled at Duke.

One of our astonishingly generous and loving friends, called us to say that she had found a friend in Durham who would let me stay with her while I am with Bill for the 12 days after his surgery, instead of me staying at a hotel. But I have terrible issues--no kidding, REALLY bad issues--with worrying about imposing on people, so I had to turn that down, as I would worry so much about imposing that the whole gift would negate itself. [Here are the normal people; here's me.] :)

But now I'm looking to see if Duke has a McDonald's house or something like that for extended stay patients.

Thank you for traveling with us on this rocky road. I plan to keep posting, at least once a week thru the rest of chemo.

OH! And remember this: DURING the surgery, I plan to post constantly that day (it's 8 hours long!), so you will feel like you are in the waiting room with me, if you want, and on each day following surgery, while he is in ICU, I hope to post many times a day, and very frequently throughout the hospital stay, God willing my computer works there.

So don't drift away just yet.

Thank you for your love. It means everything.

Bethie and BillyBob