Cancer Survivors Network

Hi everyone:

I'm new to this strand as my husband was diagnosed with Stage IV head and neck cancer in Nov. 2008. Successfully completed chemo/radiation treatment April of 2009. Checkins with onc. and rad. onc. have been good and followup pet scan Sept. of 2009 was great! In April of this year he started getting more tired than he had been and rbc started to drop a little. He had cataract surgery in May and then about the 1st of June started having bad headaches and just really tired. Long story short had the blood work; he was doing some internal bleeding; he's been seeing the onc. weekly since June 17; received two units of blood on June 18 and saw the gastro doc. and had an endoscopy done June 24. We found out that from biospy on bleeding ulcer (marginally bleeding) on July 1 (last Thurs.) that it was cancer. He also has had bad lower back pain and is scheduled for an abdominal cat scan and lower lumber mri tomorrow and we see his oncologist on Thurs. to see where we go from here. The oncologist (who is super duper) does know about the new cancer and said go ahead with the tests tomorrow (which he ordered) and we'd sit down and talk about everything Thurs. morning. He said we had some time and some wiggle room so I'm hoping and praying this has been caught very early. Gastro doc. said it was about 1cm x 2cm. I am a nervous wreck and refer to myself as basketcase wife! We have been married 35 years with no children and the thought of losing him simply terrifies me. He has a great attitude and positive outlook. And we have faith in God. We have chosen not to say anything to family and friends just yet about the new cancer as we don't know what the game plan will be. That all being said we were just wondering if anybody out there has experienced cancer from ulcer. He's taking 40mg Nexium twice a day for the ulcer and is supposed to have a repeat endoscopy in eight weeks. Don't know if that will change pending results from tests tomorrow. Endoscopy shows it's kinda of at top of his stomach and as far as we know the esophagus is fine. Appreciate any comments and of course your prayers as y'all certainly have ours. Thanks.

Jan and Charlie