Husband bleeding ulcer biopsy showed cancer

Jan Trinks
Jan Trinks Member Posts: 477
edited March 2014 in Stomach Cancer #1
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

Comments

  • caregiver4all
    caregiver4all Member Posts: 26
    #2
    Found cancer in stomach from bleeding ulcer
    Hi

    I am sorry to hear about your husband. I am relatively new to this board as well. My brother had two bleeding ulcers in March. On a follow up endoscope they found signet ring cell in the stomach lining. Bellevue Hospital in NY did not tell my brother till June 17th that he had cancer.

    From what I have learn that if caught early you can beat the stomach cancer. It sounds like it was caught early. All the best and keep praying.

    Ellen
  • hayden0902
    hayden0902 Member Posts: 4
    #3
    My dad has stage 4 stomach cancer
    I am just curious, are they saying that he has "new" cancer or has his neck & head cancer spread? Either way...my dad had had ulcers early on in his life, he had surgery approx 30 years ago for one. Last July he went in for an endoscopy due to some problems he had been having with vomiting after eating, back pain etc. That is when they diagnosed him, they did a PET scan which revealed it had spread to the lymphnodes in his stomach and neck. They started him on an aggressive from of chemo in August 2009 and he has done soooo well on it. We had such fears of him being sick, losing his hair, etc. and none of that has happened, thank God! He had his last PET scan about a month ago and it showed the cancer in the lymp nodes was gone and the tumor in his stomach had drastically decreased in size! We are so thankful and blessed with his outcome. After we had found out he had cancer, I did a lot of research and it showed that many people that have had surgery for ulcers develop stomach cancer...very scary. That is why they no longer do that many surgeries, they treat it by medication. Did your husband have any surgery for his ulcers? I noticed that you said you have faith in God, I truly believe that that is why my dad has done so well, and to be honest, why he is still alive to this day. God wants him to be here and we owe all our thanks to Him. I hope you receive good news from your dr's and everything goes smoothly.

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