Surgery will be in March

We made contact with our revered and beloved Urological Oncologist at Duke University today, the Grande Master Kahuna of Bladders, Dr. Walthers.

Dr. Walthers is on the EXTREME opposite end of the intellectual and professional spectrum from the guy in our last post, Dokter Gomer Pyle, the Ear, Nose, Throat cretin in Boone. Early on in this blog I've listed Dr. Walthers' creds and they really are monumental, so I won't repost them now.

But just to let you know about when Bill's big surgery will be:

On the last day of Bill's 4th and final round of chemo (that's about one month from tomorrow), we then count 30 days, and that's about exactly when the surgery will happen at Duke. It looks like that will be the 2nd week of March, but we won't have the operating room reserved with an exact date until the chemo is finished. That's when the clock starts tickin'.

In other words, he has one more round of chemo starting next week, which round will take a month. Then Dr. W has him wait for 30 days after that round ends so as to rebuild his strength for the surgery. Then the 8 hour operation happens in Durham. Then he's in ICU for a few days, then a couple weeks in the hospital.

Tomorrow he has his last Gemzar drip of round 3. We don't EXPECT any weird developments to prevent that, but one never knows.

Love to you, and I'll be catching up on emails and cards tomorrow, I think. You've all been unbelievably loving to us. We are both basically stunned at how you've all cared about the situation. I'm not kidding.

Loves,

Bethie Wethie