Meeting more doctors

This is an excerpt from an email that my mom wrote out to us kids and other family members after they met with a couple more doctors.. I couldn't say anything better than she says it here...

We met with Bill's surgeon. We really liked him. He is the Head of the Department. So this makes two department heads on our team. Bill won't actually have surgery until sometime between May and July, but he did go over the actual surgery. He really didn't give us any new information. When they remove the section of the esophagus, they will also remove part of his stomach (he gets a free bypass with this). He will probably never have to worry about his weight again.

We also met with his radiation doctor. Again, we really liked him. Don't know if he is department head or not, but he is good looking, so that makes him okay in my book! Bill will either start Chemo and Radiation on 2/16 or if we get the clinical trial we are hoping to get, then he will just start chemo alone on 2/9 and the chemo/radiation combo will be held off for two months. We will know on Thursday if he gets the clinical trial or not. I guess the biggest question we were left with at this appointment is whether they will use proton or photon radiation depending on what our insurance will cover. Either is good, one is just a bit better at protecting the heart since the esophagus sits right behind the heart. Other then having to go down every day for six weeks, it sounded like this is all going to be bearable. The good news we got from this appointment is that we get free parking during radiation days! We thought we might have to take out a second mortgage on the house to pay for parking at this place! If they aren't making money on the medicine, they are making a ton on the parking!!

Our next step is on Thursday. He will have an EKG, a pulmonary test and see the oncologist again. At that appointment we will learn which treatment option we will have and he will finalize the orders for the upcoming weeks.