we don't know much...

...but i guess you are all waiting to hear "something" so i will tell you what we do know.

the endoscopy went off without a hitch...unfortunately they were unable to stretch the esophagus because it was such a "blistery mess" in there and they were afraid that it would rupture. they did not find any obvious tumors on the ultrasound but they did take multiple biopsies.

the doctor that did the endoscopy is the department head and has been doing this for 25 years...he told us that his "best guess" is that tim has something called "pemphigus". in his 25 years of doing scopes he has only seen it 4-5 times. (does that really surprise anyone??)

what is pemphigus?? it is an autoimmune issue that is occasionally found in some cancer patients. we will not be certain that this is what we are dealing with until the biopsies come back (probably on friday) but if it is they will most likely treat with steroids...tims favorite.

in addition to the esophagus being all messed up tim is dealing with another problem...the tumor on his left arm has decided to pay him a visit again. when he had the relapse a few months back he was growing tumors in his chest and on his arm...the chemo shrunk them and they went away but it looks like we are going to have to address this one more time. we see the oncologist on wednesday late afternoon and we are going to hash all this mess out...but for tonight...we make christmas cookies!!!!! tim is a cookie making machine tonight.

i wish there was some good news to tell...it might not be all bad...we will just have to wait and see what the boss says tomorrow.

we will be in touch...good or bad.

thanks for checking in.

tim and tammy