Fixing Frank Fraser

Back in mid-June they discovered a tumor in Frank's bladder, which they figured was a low grade tumor that just needed to be scraped out. On July 5th, 2018 he had minor surgery to remove the tumor. Unfortunately, the pathology report came back stating the tumor was "muscle invasive", and was classified as either stage 2 or stage 3 cancer. This means two things for sure: the bladder, prostate, and nearby lymph nodes have to be removed, and we need to treat the whole body as if the cancer got out of the bladder, meaning chemotherapy.  Chemotherapy will be done here in Boise, and insurance will cover most of that treatment, especially since the surgery in July took care of the deductible for the year. The surgery, which entails building a new bladder, or orthotopic neobladder, is being performed by Dr. Mark Tyson at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, AZ. He's an expert in this complex surgery and will give Frank a very good shot at a "normal" life after cancer. Insurance will cover the surgery and aftercare as well, but what it won't cover is the cost of transporting Frank to, and lodging him in, Scottsdale during high season. He will need to be there about a month before he is able to return to Boise. Erin hopes to be in AZ for the surgery, as well as visit on the weekends Frank is down there.