Our day in Philly

Thank you, Pat, for taking time to add yesterday's update. Good job!

A very long, tiring day.... but a good day. Earl was so very tired when we finally got back home around 9:15 last night. Barely made it into the house.

Dr Watson was very informative. Using a large wall chart, he explained EVERYTHING. We now have a very clear understanding of the whys.... mainly why it may be inoperable. At least, now we will understand what is going on and why things may or may not go well down the road.

The critical thing right now is for Dr Watson to see the CT scan (with contrast) from 3/23. IF the tumor is wrapped around the blood supply that runs thru the head of the pancreas..... then there are major problems. The CT scan done at St. Mary's was done without contrast, so does not show the detail needed.

Another problem is that the stents used at St. Mary's are metal mesh. They cannot be removed and will be a problem during surgery and with them creating a raw area for Earl's body to deal with. There are plastic stents now, similar to drinking straws, that can be removed.

Some stats stated were that out of 15 patients with this cancer, only six will be candidates for surgery. Out of six, four will be resectioned and after a couple of years, only four will have survived.

We're very glad we made this trip. We learned a lot. We still have hope that Earl may be a candidate for surgery at some point.

If you've never traveled thru Philly International Airport.... the place is HUGE. They actually had several large buses, like K-Trans, that were transporting people from one terminal to another. This was after we cleared security.

By the way, you might have known :-), I did take a few photos of the hospital complex and will add a few....

Oh yes, about to forget... Dr. Watson said all the chemo for this cancer is made in NJ, so it makes no difference where it is administered. So chemo and radiation can be done here in Knoxville, which will clear up some of our insurance problems!!

Thank you for all your prayers.
Lillian