Willie's cancer

Ready or not, here we go.  Cherry season picking for our orchard starts on 6/29 this year.  Ready or not, here we go... or maybe not.  Pablo says he only has 6 pickers this year vs. the usual 15 to 18.  Maybe we won't pick.  That's not enough to get the cherries off the trees.  Neighbors have no pickers to spare.  If we have enough pickers we can finish picking Lapins in 3 days.  Then wait a week and on to Sweethearts which would only take 2 days to get them off the trees.  So, if we have enough pickers we could be though the pick by 7/10 or 7/11.   Ready of not, here we go.  We met with the oncologist yesterday, Dr. Voshtina.  She laid out the plan for Willie's treatment to attack his esophageal cancer.  Good news is it hasn't spread.  Bad news is it's agressive and spreads fast so must be attacked quickly.  We are on the calendar for surgery to install a port for the week of 7/7, right in the middle of cherry p...

Today was PET Scam day for Willie. He went in at 7:30 am for the 45 minute scan. He had to get an injection and lay around and wait for it to take effect. Then he got scanned. It will take a couple days for the results. The doctors can look at that along with the EUS and the CT and make a determination for treatment and staging the cancer. I’m hoping like heck it’s only in esophagus. That way, we can worry less. Monday we meet with the surgeon and Tuesday the oncologist. We did have a bit of a scare yesterday. Willie got a call from the scheduler at 3:30 that they needed to cancel the PET because they couldn’t get authorization from our insurance. He called me and I told him hurry and call back and tell them we’ll just pay for it. So he did and they got him back in the books. Cost of this procedure is $8-$10,000. I called my insurance and they were closed due to the federal holiday, Juneteenth. So my bet is that they didn’t get clearance to do it before the holiday. The thing is, the d...

Though we just found out a week ago, much has happened. He was immediately scheduled for a CT scan on 6/12 just two days after the endoscopy that found the tumor in his lower esophagus. Results of the CT sounded scary at first; spot on lungs, spread to 3 lymph nodes nearby. Friday the 13th opened the floodgates on a series of phone calls from the hospital scheduling EUS (endoscopic ultrasound - advanced procedure at the hospital by Dr Jorgensen) on Monday at 2, Tuesday meeting with Dr Fain the radiologist (today), Friday 20th is PET scan, and next weeks meetings with Dr Loewen the surgeon and Dr Voshtina the oncologist. So far we are both impressed with the team and with the sense of urgency. Although, we don’t want to start chemo, radiation, or surgery until after cherry season is over but it sure seems like the timing is going to work out by the time we get through all the staging and doctor consults. Holy moly it already seems so much longer than a week!

 Here we go again. Round 2. The time Willie found out. One week ago, last Tuesday, 6/10.2025, he went in for an endoscopy. He had been having issues with swallowing food for awhile, a couple months. So he threw a fit and got in to this appointment super quick. He was losing weight, 10 -12 pounds. After the procedure, the doctor came in and said those words and she didn't drag it out, "I'm sorry. You have cancer." And, so it begins..... again. This time for Willie.