endoscopic ultrasound

Getting to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Lebanon takes about an hour and a half, a beautiful drive up the Connecticut River valley. Since my appointment was for 7:00 a.m. we missed the beauty, but I'm sure we'll have plenty of opportunity to appreciate it in the future.
The procedure went smoothly once they'd found my veins. Jerry and I talked with the doctor and got a handout including pictures of my ductwork. Think of photos of a tornado taken from above.
Basically, what Dr. Gordon said was that the esophagus, stomach, and duodenum were "endoscopically normal," but that there is a mass in the pancreatic neck. Further tissue samples were taken for more cytology. My case will be presented at the GI Tumor Board, and they'll consider "chemoradiotherapy to try and downstage the tumor for potential resection." Apparently it isn't clear whether this is a bile duct cancer involving the pancreas or a pancreatic cancer involving the bile duct; but the treatment options are the same in either case.
The Tumor Board meets on Tuesdays.
I slept all the way home and most of the afternoon, but feel fine today, and glad not to be going up to Lebanon through today's snowstorm.
I used to laugh at academic articles which always ended up "however, further research is needed to elucidate and validate these data." Now I feel like I'm living them.

Next test tomorrow

The next test that I'll be having is the endoscopic ultrasound. http://gi.ucsf.edu/proc_eus.html has a good basic description of it. At first they told us they couldn't fit me in until March 11. I said I'd take any cancellation and please try to get me in sooner, because I couldn't imagine waiting two weeks more. As you know, it's the waiting that's hardest.
Anya (daughter-in-law) offered to call D-H every hour on the hour until they got me in earlier, but fortunately they found me a slot tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. Fortunately for them, because she'd have done it -- a one-person phone-jamming system.
The procedure, including finding my veins for the IV and the recovery, takes several hours. We don't expect any answers immediately, especially because Dr. Sutton will present these results plus everything else to the Oncology Board, which meets once a week and brings in expertise from all areas to determine the most effective treatments. He didn't say which day they meet.
By the way, several people have mentioned that according to the research, this form of cancer is typical of Southeast Asian men. How am I going to break the news to Jerry?