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Esophageal Cancer

For Daisylin, LeeInLondon, Chemosmoker
Chantal, Lee and Eric, I have been intending to write this for a few days. MrsBotch's thread made me realize the time is right. I have seen all of you exemplify grace, courage, and faith from what you relate in your posts. Your experiences have brought true meaning to these words for me. I have followed Chantal posts and…
Nikimo - Thinking of you both as you near surgery hour
Niki & Jeff, Be calm and know all is as good in your world as it can be as you, Jeff, undergo surgery tomorrow. We pray for an easy and successful surgery, and a good pathology report following. May your path to recovery be speedy and smooth. Niki - you have my mobile number still, I believe. Call if your nerves get to be…
Haven't been on in about two years but all is good
Hello all I haven't been on in a couple of years, but definately have been reading everyones posts. Jeff is doing great and is in remission of this ugly disease it was 2 years July 22, anyone have the ivor Lewis this is what he had surgery wise. Jeff still goes to doctors every six months but all in all is doing great! For…
William are you out there
Hi William and Miss Loretta I know things have been rough for you both, what with the weather and Miss Loretta's Mum, just worried about you both, hoping you are all ok, love to hear from you and know you are ok. Ann
Niki & Jeff-Thinking of you both!
Niki, Thinking about you and Jeff tonight and sending positive energy your way! What time is surgery tomorrow? I hope that you will be able to post and let us know how Jeff (and you) is doing. John does not have his surgery until Friday so if you need to talk to someone I sent my cell phone number to you in private e-mail.…
What caused your EC?
I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on what they believe might have "caused" their EC. We've all asked ourselves this question a million times, and struggled with faith, and guilt and everything in between; Obviously medical history and lifestyle can be strong predictors of future illness, and this group would be a…
EC back
Sorry to say that Don's EC is back. He has a tumor that came up on his Clavicle bone. Had a biopsy and it is Stage 4. He will have a Petscan Tuesday to see if it is anywhere else in his body. Will find out on Wednesday. If it is, there will be nothing they can do and he does not want to go through anymore Chemo and I'm not…
Recent diagnosis - Stage 1
I was diagnosed with EC a month ago from the biopsies after a routine surveillance endoscopy. I got lucky and had an endoscopic ultrasound a week later, which confirmed the diagnosis and showed that the lesion is growing into the wall of my esophagus. But it also showed that it was very small and only into the 1st mucous…
1st post
Guess I'll start by saying Hi and thank you all for sharing. Today is day 3 of chemo for my husband, finally, as he was dx in mid june! Laproscopy shows esophageal tumor quite long and involves upper portion of stomach and 3 lymph nodes.No staging was mentioned. Will be sure to get info on the 19th. Plan: chemo, radiation,…
Pain between the shoulder blades
How long prior to diagnosis did the pain between the shoulder blades show up? Anyone remember? I do remember my husband complaining for a long time about pain between his shoulder blades before diagnosis, but he just thought it was our bed . . . I can't remember how long before though . .
OK ...some levity...
We took off on Thursday to spend labor day weekend at a hotel in Fort Lauderdale in advance of my surgery on the 8th. My 15 year old son had his nose buried in a book for the whole plane ride. He was reading "Presumed Innocent". I was very impressed, because he is not usually a reader. In any case, today I started asking…
esophageal cancer
This is my first time writing. I was diagnosed with stage 1 esophageal cancer. They removed my entire esophas and 26 lymph nodes Jan 11, 2010 and I've never been the same person since. I'm grateful to God that they feel they got all the cancer but its beeen such a long journey. They had to stretch my new esophagus 4 times…
yet another feeding tube question....
Just a simple question here, but for some reason we are getting mixed answers from our visiting nurses and our oncologists. Do you permanently need to keep the feeing tube covered with the gauze, tape and padding? Our nurse says it ALWAYS will have to be covered and cleaned on a regular basis. Our doctor said that although…
WE DO GET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To Whitney and all the others who are on this journey. Sometimes I felt like Vince and I were on an island all by ourselves(one very sick) and one healthy (physically, not emotionally) . We would float around not ever knowing what would happen next. I read Lee in London's post and He sounds so much like my Vince. After…
For our Stage IVs questioning treatment
All, Below is a reprint of a rather lengthy Mayo Clinic article - it is very thoughtful and discusses the difficult decisions many Stage IV patients face during treatment. I share this since there are so many new folks on the Board who may not have seen this article in the past. When a patient and a family face these…
2nd round of chemo - what to expect
My husband is going for his second round on Monday. He tolerated 1st round really well. I am wondering when do the effects of chemo really start to take its toll. Jackie
Hope for those about to face surgery
As I looked at the calendar today, I noticed that it was two months ago today that I had the MIE in Pittsburgh. My diet is back to normal pretty much but just less. I still have some problems with sugar and dairy but as long as I watch my intake of those two, it's fine. One nice side effect of the surgery is I seem to have…
en-bloc esophajectomy....has anyone had this or heard of it?
Hi all, In doing some research today I found a few articles about en-bloc esophajectomies, in this procedure they are able to remove a higher number of lymph nodes than in the THE surgery. The articles stated that the en-bloc has higher 5 year survival rates because more nodes are removed. Has anyone had this en-bloc type…
diet problems after surgergy
I had my surgergy 7/15/11. Was cleared to go home 10 days later. All cancer is gone . No after surgery chemo was recommended. However, I have gone from 151# at discharge from hospital to 138#. I am having differculty finding things that I can eat that don't bother me. I can't drink ENSURE or nutrition drinks. Has anyone…
nausea/hair loss question
Hi everybody; I've had a very rough few days, and have a question. Lately I've been getting a lot of nausea, mainly in the mornings. I'm sure you can relate to the temperature issue, I'm either boiling or freezing and no happy medium. I'll get relatively comfortable in bed, and then suddenly break out in sweats, the nausea…
My mom has stage IIIb
I have been following stories on here for a couple months now and thought this may be a great place for advice. My Mom is almost 59 and was diagnosed with EC Stage IIIb T3 N2 MO squoamos cell in March. Since then we went to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN where she had several tests. Her final PET scan showed her tumor was…
Hi everyone - newbie here...
Hello dear readers – I am new to the board, but not this site, in fact, I have been “lurking” for the past month, reading endless posts about your journeys with this terrible disease known as EC. I decided it was about time to actually join the board, hoping I may be able to contribute to some of the threads with any type…
Surgery.... :)
Hi friends, So it has been a little under two weeks since Jeff had his PET/CT scan, we all know the unfortunate freakout I had in the doctor's office when informed of the suspicious nodes. The oncologist told me to calm down that he didn't think they were anything to worry about, and that he was pretty sure they were in…
Update on Luis - roller coaster ride
Luis is doing well. He has been moved out of the ICU and onto the regular surgical floor where the nurses are less attentive. That means that both he and I have to be more vigilant to make sure that he is getting everything looked after and getting all the meds he is supposed to get. He had another rough night. He started…
Need Survival Stories
Hi, My mom (56) went in last friday to stretch out her sphinter ring (huge difficulty/painful swallowing) and instead found out that she had tumor near the bottom of the esophagous. Biopsy came back today and it's the squamous cell. Cat scan shows swollen lymph nodes but no biopsy on the lymph nodes yet. She had difficulty…
My family says I am addicted . .
Good morning to all my new, stranger friends whom I feel closer than my best friend, Since my husband's diagnosis on 11/01/2010, I have felt horrifically alone. As though nobody could possible imagine whay my world was like. What my day to day has looked like, how I get through each day and how we continue to function…
Laura23, believe surgery was yesterday...in our thoughts
Hi Laura, I believe Luis's surgery was yesterday, just wanted to let you know you are both in our thoughts. When you can, please let us know how you are doing. Positive thoughts heading your way! Niki wife of Jeff T2N1M0
Chemo on thursday, really scared
Well chemo starts again in 2 days and part of me wants to catch the next train to Barcelona. This goddamn survival instinct keeps kicking in when what I really want is to end this horrible nightmare. I'm a logical person and I don't know why Im bothering with chemo. It blows Waking up each day gives me no hope and little…
This just stinks
I have been on here almost daily - just reading. Today, I feel compelled to write. I just sent my two children to 2nd grade and 6th grade not knowing what this year will hold for them. It makes me very emotional. I could not help but feel worried that my husband will not see them get on the bus their last day of school . .…
radiation directly to liver
It seems my husband wouldn't be a canidate for this type of procedure as he has multiple leisons, one being by the something portal vein (sorry I am not to good with correct scientfic names). So, now I hope he responds as well as he is doing right now with chemo and we get some more time and a miracle. He also has a leison…

Esophageal Cancer

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