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Well, we made it though Christmas, which was a miracle, in and of itself. Ken was able to eat a little, here and there, and we were sustaining his weight with the tube feedings. The first round of chemo ended sometime in February. Then they had to re-run all of the original tests to see how that mean old nasty disease had responded.

The test results were, in light of Ken’s initial diagnosis, positive. While the chemo had not shrunk the cancer any (they never expected that it would), the cancer had not grown any and didn’t appear to have spread to any other organs. Dr. Schlabach referred us back to Dr. Valle to talk about the possibility of surgery. “Possible stomach resection”, he said. (Didn’t know at that moment that “resection” is another word for “take the whole thing out”!) So, back to Dr. Valle’s office we went.

Dr. Valle said, “Since Ken did so well through the chemo, Dr. Schlabach and I believe that we should consider surgery now. He continued, “Once we remove his stomach we might be able to do radiation”. “WHAT?!!!”, I blurted, “You’re going to REMOVE his stomach–his WHOLE stomach?!” I had no idea that a person could live without a stomach! But I guess it made sense. Ken’s stomach didn’t work anymore and his nutrition was going directly into his intestines now, so I guess he didn’t need that diseased old stomach any more. Several years later, after Ken had died and we had moved to Alabama, Jesse got into an argument at school about this. His teacher was teaching about “vital organs”, you know, the ones you can’t live without– heart, lungs, liver, stomach, etc. Jesse made the comment that his dad had lived for two years without a stomach. Several of his classmates accused him of making it up. He had to educate them. Anyway, yes, you CAN live without a stomach. Who knew?

Dr. Valle wanted to schedule the surgery for early March. It would be an 8 to 12 hour surgery, so he would have to have Debbie find a day when she could rearrange his schedule. He would also have to schedule a Thoracic Surgeon (does surgery in the chest area) to be on call that day in case he had to go up into the chest cavity to get Ken’s stomach loose. We should expect at least two weeks in the hospital following the surgery. Debbie would call soon and let us know when the surgery would be. We went home again with huge question marks looming.