New and so many questions

Celia 268
Celia 268 Member Posts: 3
edited March 2014 in Esophageal Cancer #1
My husband, Alan was diagnosed with gastric/esophageal cancer in May 2009. Since that time he has had 5 weeks of daily radiation and two week-long chemotherapy treatments as an inpatient. Following that, he went to Stanford hospital to have surgery to remove parts of his stomach and esophagus. It was a very difficult surgery and he was there five weeks with fluid accumulation and infections. He survived that (after losing 50 pounds)and returned home in mid-November. We just learned two weeks ago that the cancer has returned in a lymph node on his neck (he had it removed) and he is currently hospitalized with fluid on his left lung which they say also contains cancer cells. Has anyone else had anything like this history? They say the cancer is now in advanced stage. What does this mean in terms of treatment? I know he is not curable. Does this mean there is no hope? His oncologist is telling us that he will have more chemo. Anyone else out there who has had their cancer spread? I have a pit in my stomach every minute of every day. Alan is 64 and was in excellent health before all this.

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  • Ellie_E
    Ellie_E Member Posts: 50
    #4
    Hi Celia,
    My husband, Jim,
    Hi Celia,
    My husband, Jim, was diagnosed with stage IVb at the end of Sept. 09 with mets to the liver and numerous lymph nodes. He has had 6 rounds of chemo so far. He says he feels better now then before he was dx. Jim has been fortunate in that he has had almost no side effects from the chemo. He has maintained his weight and went back to work just last week. However, we know that there is no cure for stage IV, so we live every day with this sword over our heads and pray for a miracle. When we asked our doctor what the prognosis was, she told us there was no cure but that she saw miracles every day. We hold onto that thought. Our prayers are with you and your husband.

    Ellie

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