Visit with the Neurosurgeon

I took Wally to the neurosurgeon on Friday afternoon. After reviewing the lab results and MRIs, the neurosurgeon said that there was nothing he could do. The nerve pain that has been afflicting Wally since the beginning of the year appears to be caused by the same cancer that created the tumor on his spine. The neurosurgeon cannot operate on them. He insisted that Wally had to see an oncologist a.s.a.p., that same day. He picked up the phone and called one in the hospital next door, and asked him to see Wally immediately. The oncologist agreed, so I wheeled Wally over to the hospital's cancer treatment center.

After the oncologist reviewed the data and met with my Dad, he gave us the grim news. The doctor suspects lung cancer, and it appears to be aggressively malignant. He noticed that it's not just a tumor on his spine: he saw other spots behind his left shoulder and on his skull, so it has probably already spread to his brain. He said that Wally has only a few more months to live, at best.

He also said that most treatment options would be pointless, as they'd probably kill him just as quickly. However, the doctor is concerned that the tumor on his spine could paralyze him, so he thinks that a round of radiation treatment might be good to halt the progress of the tumor before that happens. But there are no guarantees. And Wally has the option to decline the radiation treatment, if he doesn't want to go through with it. The oncologist is trying to get him a biopsy on Monday morning, so we can nail down the diagnosis and consider the options.

Although suffering with great pain (the cancer is eating at the nerves in his back -- that's how the symptoms started), Dad is at peace with his fate. He says that he's lived a good life, he cannot complain, so he's ready to go. All we can do now is try to ease the pain and make him comfortable.

Bill, Leanne, and their boys came to visit Dad this weekend. They'll be going back to Maryland on Tuesday.