Well, this has been a busy, good day. Joe had his barium swallow...no problems, then had appoingment with surgeon who'll do the surgery. He's from Michigan orginally...studied under the guy who invented the surgery Joe'll have. So, he should know what he's doing. Said he's done 80+ of these surgeries...one of only a few surgeons who've done this type of surgery.

Surgeon agreed with doing the chemo and radiation before the surgery, so, now we see the onocologist in Waterloo tomorrow, then if we want to have Iowa City do the chemo and radiology, we can go to them as a 2nd opinion...insurance hoops to jump through.

Doc said if we don't do anything, no chemo, radiaition and surgery, Joe has 1 1/2 -2 years to live. Surgery will possibly occur around the 1st of the year.. Radiation/chemo before that, then 2-3 months recoup after the surgery.

I didn't get a name for this surgery, but it's cutting the esophagus near the mouth area and cutting off the top of the stomach, and joining those 2 pieces. It'll make it so he can only eat small meals several times a day. There'll be two incisions. One from bellybutton to just below the breast bone. The other will be in his neck vertically about 3 inches where they'll pull the remaining stomach up to meet what's left of the esophagus. Doc said they had to take that much of the area to be sure the tumor hasn't spread. This type of cancer doesn't spread to other organs but can travel the length of the esophagus.

Joe's very optimisitic, so am I. God in control. He's been leading our steps thus far and preparing the way before us.

Thank all of you who're before the Lord in prayer about Joe, he's a good man and needed for a lot of years to come.

Janice