From Kaye

T. he day after surgery has been up and down. Will has had quite a bit of pain, but the MDA staff seems to have it under control now. Overall I am very pleased with the staff here at MD Anderson. I know Will has been very frustrated with "feeling like a number, not a person", but their experience and organization are the best. He has gotten very personal attention since his surgery.
His most difficult issue (other than the pain & all of the tubes in his body) is not being able to swallow anything! he can suck on a sponge on a stick, but he must spit out whatever little moisture he gets. He said a big glass of ice water sounds like heaven!
They have him up and walking 3 times a day and he takes it like a trooper! Our daughter and I trade off staying with him, and it is great having her here. Our son and his family left today for KC and I will certainly miss their help..
Thanks for your prayers & thoughts -- we are both anxious to get back home amoung our friends!

Surgery Update (from Will Jr.)

Thank you for everyone's thoughts and prayers; they all meant a great deal to Mom and Dad. The surgery was a success, dad was in surgery roughly 6 hours and came out as well as can be expected. They believe they got all the cancer and did several biopsies to confirm it, we will know next week. Now the tough part begins, the initial rehab is tough and painful but as you all know Dad is pretty tough. For the next 3 weeks he is not supposed to swallow any liquids whatsoever.

Hopefully if all goes well he will leave the hospital early next week.

Again thank you for all the warm wishes.

P.S. Thanks to all the Texas Cleaver's who have opened their homes and hearts to our family.

Willie & Christy

December 28th 2008

Sunday, Houston, Texas. Finally, we are set for surgery at 7:30 a.m. Monday 12-29. The surgery will take four to 6 hours. The surgeon said that he would remove 1/2 of my stomach, and 2/3 s of my esophegas. I will be in the hospital 5-7 days and then he wants me to remain in Houston area for an additional 3-5 days so with any luck at all we will be on our way back to Kansas on the 11th or 12th of January. I will be on a feeding tube for the next month and then return to Houston for a barium test to make sure there is not leakage. If that proves to be the case then they will remove the feeding tube and I should be able to eat solid foods.
If my luck holds then they will continue to monitor the situation. I am feeling very good today I think the anxiety of sitting around and waiting has been very tough on Kaye and I know it has been on me.
We have had so much support from my brother and his family. Parties and Christmas gatherings have kept us busy. My son and his wife and 4 kids were able to join us for Christmas and they will stay until after the surgery and my daughter is coming in today to be here with Kaye during the surgery.
Thank all of you for your support, phone calls, letters and cards. I doubt that I will feel much like blogging until the middle of the week---thank you for your prayers and positive thoughts---keep them up---I am looking forward to boring you with more organ reports. Have a Happy New Year---
Will

December 22 Monday

The little kids are excited, the teenagers are acting cool and the adults are emeshed in the memories of the past. My family is so fortunate that Christmas is a time for gathering togeather and laughing and remembering Shirley, or Nanny, or Mom whose nom de christmas was Shitly Cranberries. My mother grew up hard, with her Dad dying under mysterious circumstances while loading cattle for shippmemt to Oklahoma one blizzardly day in 1908. After he and his partner each inspected each side of the loaded cattle car his partner borded the train. Albert Cross was not seen again until 2 weeks later when his body was discovered in the snow under a railroad trestle. Shirley was 8 years old. Shirleys Mother was left with a farm and children ranging from toddlers to adults and an Oklahoma farm. When Shirley was 14 some one mistakenly put gas in a kerosene can and when her mother attempted to start the fire it exploded and the burns resulted in her mother's death. Shirley was farmed out with and older sister. Shirley married Dad at 19, her first son died, and in 1946 she was divorced with 4 children, working as a cook in a resteraunt, sold brassieres door to door and cleaned houses. Dad had hit the road following the wheatharvest, and picking fruit in the northwest.
The story of Shitley began with a letter addressed to Shitley Cleaver and the Cranberry appellation resulted from a trip to the store to purchase Christmas dinner. Shirley couldnt find Cranberries. When she wrote the check for groceries the clerk said "that is an appropriate name for this time of year" Shirley said "Cleaver" and the clerk said no "Cranberries". Mother had signed the check "Shirley Cranberries". So of course she became "Shitley Cranberries" or to all of us Mother Christmas. She has been gone for many years but Shirley is always with us this time of year. Years after her death my wife said I will always remember our Christmas at your Mothers filled with laughter. May all of your Christmas be filled with laughter and love---I do not remember the presents, but I remember the ornriness, the jokes, and the laughter. May you Christmas' be filled with the same. AND MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM SHITLEY CRANBERRIES AND THE CRANBERRY KIDS.

It has not been smooth. The preliminary test indicated that my liver was inflamed and caused concern that the cancer had It spread. So last Monday they did a liver biopsy. I did not get the results until Thursday and then the doctor was an hour late. Since the liver involvment would significantly reduce my chances of survival from 80 per cent to less than 30 per cent you might accurately conclude I was somewhat apprehensive and quite irritated that the doctor dwaddled around for over and hour before he finally walked in and said "good news". Talk about conflicted, I was torn between strangling him and hugging him but settled for "thank you" while muttering under my breath "asshole". We are now back on the surgery tract and I am sceduled for surgery Dec 29th, assuming something else doesnt fall off the truck. We are staying with my brother at his place on Lake Conroe. It is a very shallow lake so we took is pontoon boat out for and ride and we managed to bottom out and kill the engine. So yesterday we sat out on the lake, the weather was fine, and we managed to contact someone who said then would come out and tow us. We messsed with the engine for 20 to 30 minutes when it occurred to me that may be the kill switch was not holding. Sure enough once we held that in the boat started and we churned our way out of the mud and back to the dock.
We will celebrate Christmas here in Houston with my brother and his family. My son is going to bring his family down for Christmas and my daughter will be down right after Christmas for the surgery.
So now I am back to worrying about the surgery rather than whehther or not the cancer has spread.

I am hoping to be in San Carlos around the middle of Feburary. It will all depend on how well I surge back from the cutting.
Have a good Holiday and we will look forward to lacerating the waters around SC in Feb.
The weather here is damp but warm. We will try the lake again and tonight we are going over to my niece and nephews for the office Christmas party. My brother is exicited because I can be his designated driver---and me I am excitied to be anywhere.
Will

December 18th 2008

GOOD NEWS! The liver biopsy was negative so I am back on the surgery track. We are currently trying to get that sceduled. Thank you all for your support. It has been a very tough week but it sure as hell had a good ending. JUST got a call from the surgeon and it is my understanding that we are back on the surgery scedule for the 29th of December. So, not that I have any control over the damned schedule, I am assuming that we will proceed at that time.
Later,
Will

Monday December 16 2008

MD is a big efficient machine with each portion set up to do it's job efficiently. You get the distinct impression that you are whatever test they are conducting and if it indicates something that is not in their department then they dont seem to have a lot of interest. The surgeon's reaction when he saw the hot spot on the liver was "Im done here and there is not much to say to you until we find out whether surgery is an option so you need to move on". I only hang in here because those who seem to know say they are the best at assessing and composing the treatment protocol.
The liver biopsy will take place this morning and will take about 4 hours. They will stick a needle in to the liver and start withdrawing tissue until the pathologists determines if they have enough to make the diagnosis. We have an appointment Thursday with the Oncologists who, I assume will tell us the results and the next course of action. I will ask this morning if we can get some idea of the results before Thursday but I have the feeling they are going to say "Not my deparment we just do the test and those that talk about the test will talk about the test.
We had a very pleasant week-end celebrating my brother's birthday with his ornery family. Then we went to the lake. Saturday night we watched "Johnny Carson's compilation of 30 years of the Tonight Show". It was great fun to watch and we laughed all evening. What a great flood of memories. Sunday Kaye and I came back to Pearland and we are now waiting to leave for the hospital. Of course I can't eat or drink anything so here I sit at the computer boring all of you with the munutia of my week end.
So 50 years after joining the military I am putting to use what I was taught in the service. "Hurry up and Wait".
So it goes

Friday

The pet scan at MD indicated a problems with the liver. They are going to do a liver biopsy we think Monday. They think it is just the radiation but if the liver is involved they will not perform surgery and I will have to pursue other avenues of treatment. Right now we are hoping that the liver indication is related to radiation and not spreading of the cancer. I would have to say I am not particularly impressed with MD and I may leave here and return to Olathe. I feel like I am caught up in a big impersonal machine here and that is not a good feeling.

December 9th 2008

We left Olathe around noon Saturday Dec 6th and spent the night with my sister in Wichita. Woke up early Sunday morning and was on the road by 4:30 am and arrived in Pearland, Texas around 4 p.m.. Our kids and my brother Ron and June's kids had decoratated the house for Christmans and in almost every rood there were family pictures of our kids, grandkids and Ron and Junes kids and grandkids. What a neat and wonderful idea. Ron of course is regaling us with the state of he nation, politics and the economy. Kaye has take my traditional place in the arguments so all I do is sit and listen to the wisdom that pores forth from those 2---June and I just eat food and watch.
Monday the did the nuclear cardio vascular testing and the nuclear PET. It was a long and arudous day. At least they kept me bust and uncomfortable, poor Kaye just sat and waited. Today they are going to do the Endoscopic Ultrasound (the basically put you under and then scope the throat and perform ultra sound to "re-state the cancer". We meet with the surgeon and anestitisist(sp) on Wed and then they deciced the next step which will proably be surgery.
If they perform the surgery Thursday thet indicate 6-8 hrs. Then I will be in ICU and on a feeding tube for 2-3 days and after that they try to get me back on solid food. As soon as I can tolerate solid food they will allow me to go home. They anticipate that will be 7-10 days. We will remain here in Texas until after Christmas to deal with any complications (a common one is leaking around where they re-attach the stomach to the esophagus) assuming no leaks we should be back in Olather around the first.
We have a mailing address but it is at my brothers lake hosue 13030 Wood Harbor, Montgomery, Tx 77356.
Our email seems to work okay so just email us and we will try to respond.
Will And Kaye