My mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer at age 80, and while it had not gone beyond the stomach wall - a decision was made to remove the stomach (just a small area near the esophagus was left), but luckily as it was caught early enough - no chemo was necessary.
Dr. Vivienne Strong, from Memorial Sloan Kettering in NY performed the surgery - which took approx 4 hours because she did the procedure laproscopically. My mother was walking the day after surgery, and out of the hospital in one week's time. By day 3 she was no longer taking pain medication stronger than Advil. She adjusted to her new eating routine relatively well - but found that certain foods were very disagreeable (mainly anything with sugar - which include Ensure). The procedure was in December of 2009 (Christmas week), and she has her 2nd follow up with her surgeon on May 11th. She says she feels weaker now that she did 3 weeks after the surgery when she went for her first follow up. She's eating more, but has lost a total of 22 pounds - Went from 120 to 98. Has anybody had an experience like this? Could it be that the weakness comes from lack of strength in the core? Physical therapy doesn't seem to be top on the list of recommendations. Any advice is helpful
Joined: Nov 2009
Hi Sophia,
Welcome. First I would like to congratulate your mom on a succesful surgery and recovery! Now on to the weakness and weight loss. This could have many reasons. I advise the best thing to do is contact her dr. It could be because she is dehydrated, a reaction to any kind of medication, these are also symptoms of diabetes. I am not a dr, so these are just my thoughts. The dr would be the one who could help you the most. Keep in touch.
Tina
Joined: Jun 2010
Hello Sophie: I had 90% of my stomach removed in 2001, no chemo or radiation because they
took as much as they could to make sure it cancer was contained. I went home without any
medications or instructions that made sense.