Wake Forest Report: Not Too Bad!

We just this second walked in the door, and I'm blitzing out this report as fast as possible, so you'll know what we know.

I'll probably add detail later.

Basically, we handed over the CD of the CT scan from January, which showed 2 new liver lesions, then the CD from April, which showed 3 liver lesions, and which said that two of the lesions had grown. That's what we were so worried about.

Basically, Dr. Torti said he couldn't get the CDs to work on their system, but they could get someone to make that work later, so all Dr. Torti had to go on was the typed-out opinion of the radiologist in Boone, which typed copy I also brought for Dr. T.

But Dr. T said that based on what the Boone radiologist wrote, it appears that Bill is very blessed indeed not to have any metastases showing up anywhere but potentially the liver again.

So Dr. T said he's going to have his radiologist, who, said Dr. T., is "world renowned" (seems like a suspiciously large number of doctors are claimed to be world-renowned), look at the CDs himself (once their tech people make that possible).

Then, if the lesions are tumors, Dr. T said not to worry. They will study the locations and technicalities, and then they will use a variety of methods to REMOVE the tumors, even if it requires another surgery. But he said radio ablation needle is an option, radiation is an option, even if they have to treat all the tumors differently.

Then once there are no more tumors, Bill will pick up with his last two rounds of chemo to catch any wandering cells. That would all occur, of course, while Bill is not teaching. So the timing is great.

Well, after Dr. T was talking like I've written here, it sounded to me like he was thinking these are definitely tumors. So I thought I could get him to give me a straight answer. So I asked. "Do you THINK they're tumors, then?" (which it seemed he did, basing it on what he had just said).

UP went the Medical Information Berlin Wall.

"I cannot say for sure that they are tumors. I don't want to say they are, without even seeing the CDs, and then have it turn out that they're water-filled cysts or something."

At this point, Bill, who was behind Dr. T. starting making a signal to me, drawing his finger across his neck, like, "Beth, shut up." hahahaha

So I gave up my questioning and accepted the fact that I must further dwell in the frustration of Not Being Sure. But Bill loves Not Being Sure, and it's his body, so I think he gets to decide when Beth should stop badgering the witness. hahahaha (I did get in trouble for that once in court, when I was an attorney representing a little girl against a very bad father. I intentionally badgered the dad to try to get his temper to blow in the courtroom so everyone could see, but the judge said, "Counsel? Step back from the witness box, please, and change the tone of your questioning."

Well, I NEVER! (hahaha).

So anyway, except for the major digression in that last paragraph, that's the story of today.

In the middle of next week, Dr T's assistant doctor will call us and tell us what the Galaxy's Greatest Radiologist thinks of the CT scans, and I will post that to you immediately!

In general, Bill feels great delight and relief in the hope that (a) they're not cancer; (b) they're removable even if they are cancer; and (c) the happiness of hearing that it could have been SO much worse. He and I both THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND LOVE!

Thank you for following and for caring and for praying and wishing us the best!

Love to all!

B&B