Bill Shott

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated so Crystal can free up some time for Bill. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most. On March 14th, Bill was found unconscious on a job site in Mesa, Arizona.  Because he had an irregular heartbeat and he hit his head, they transported him to Gilbert hospital were he was diagnosised with a 3 - 4 cm brain tumor located in the right front temporal lobe. He was then airvacked to Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.  Bill underwent additional testing and his surgeon Dr. Randall Porter decided to schedule surgery after he built a team of providers to provide the best surgery for Bill.  Bill's surgery was on March 22nd.  It took five and a half hours and they were able to remove 90% of the tumor.  After removing the tumor they did not know what type it was because it had characteristics of being benign and malignant.  They said it would take two days for the pathologists to come back with the findings (which turned into two weeks).  He now has titanium plates in his head and no he will not have any problems at the airport when he travels; a question we get often.  Bill's recovery was a speedy one, he had the surgery on a Tuesday was home on Friday.  On April 5th Bill had his post-op appointment with the Neuro Surgeon and was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Gilosarcoma phenotype grade IV. Which is a rare malignant brain tumor at stage 4.  The plan of action was to start radiation treatment and chemotherapy.  Also the tumor was sent to Caris Molecular Intelligence for tumor profiling to fight the tumor on a molecular level specifically from his DNA.  On April 15th Bill had an MRI and CT for tumor mapping and to make his radiation mask.  On April 18th Dr. Porter's office called to let us know that after reviewing the MRI and CT scan, it showed that the tumor had grown and they decided to do surgery again on Wednesday, April 20th.  Bill is to have a more aggressive surgery this time because they have the tumor mapping to follow and know the tumor type tumor.  Please add messages, photos and well wishes to Bill, Crystal and the family.  Thank you and B Positive!