If you haven't read the previous parts, you may want to do so first. See:
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Endoscopic Surgery
The next step was to check for a problem with the bile duct. We went to the Scott and White Hospital in Temple, Texas, on April 11, 2008, and had one of the only two doctors in the area who could go examine and fix the bile duct if needed using endoscopic surgery.
After the procedure, the doctor came to talk to us. He may be a super specialist and tops in his field, but his bedside manner was lacking. He said she had inoperable pancreatic cancer. Wham! Just like that, without any preparation we went from bile duct to terminal illness. He'd put in a stent and said we should talk to a surgeon to get another opinion.
We cancelled the trip to the Holy Land and found the best pancreatic surgeon in the area.
Lois had the Whipple surgery from one of the best surgeons around, and then another surgery to repair the liver. But she never recovered enough for treatment and the cancer came back quickly. She was in and out of hospitals for eight months and I was with her nearly every day and night. She had a fear of being alone in the hospital, so I slept where I could, sometimes beds and sometimes chairs, to be with her. I got a few breaks along the way when others offered to stay overnight.
White Rose Publishing wrote back on May 13, 2008.
They loved the book, but said there were too many subplots. If I wanted to delete this and that, they'd take another look at it. I said okay, not knowing when I would be able to write again.
Lois encouraged me to make the changes to the book, but I don't think she realized I couldn't think about fiction with all that we were dealing with. Besides, when I had enough time to write, I chose to take a shower or take a nap.
In the next post, I describe what happened next.
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