the surgery

Although the biopsy won't be ready for a week or so, it's almost certain, from the sonogram and CAT scan, that enrique will need surgery and that he'll need to be on the hormone replacement drugs for the rest of his life.

Everyone keeps saying this isn't as bad as it sounds. We're beginning to believe them.

Here's what will happen:

• If the biopsy is back in time Enrique will have surgery on Thursday August 24
• If not, it'll likely be Thursday, Augst 31
• He'll spend one night in the hospital
  
• Afterwards, he'll need a week to recover, at home
• Then he'll need a radio-iodine treatment

That last treatment is a radiation treatment to clean up any remaining cancerous cells that the surgery leaves behind. During those three days he'll be radioactive - literally. The surgeon said 'You won't be glowing, but you'll need to stay away from children." Not just children, he'll be confined to home.

After that, it's just a matter of find the right level of medications, working with an edocrinologist (who we'll meet in a few days). Everyone agrees UCSF is a great place to be treated generally and for this ailment in particular.