Linda's husband home from hospital AGAIN!

linda1120

Jim is home from the hospital, feeling better, weaker, thinner, but his counts are up!
The Pro-time is back to normal and for now he is off of his Coumadin. We have our appointments set up for Portland for Oregon Health & Science University Hospital. We go the 29th of this month and he will have his after chemo/radiation pet/catscan, consultation with the cardiologists about his valvolplasty for his aortic stenosis, possible EUS with needle aspiration depending on the finding of the petscan, pre-op appointment for MIE, and hopefully heart procedure. We will be out of town for approximately ten days. The surgery if all goes as planned will be the first week in January. The committee of physicians have met and decided at this point an EUS will not give true staging since treatment is completed, and will only do it if they want a fine needle aspiration. That makes sense to me too. The end result will be the same, but it would have been good to know the actual staging in the beginning. What we do know is there are three nodes, including the celiac node, a large tumor in the esophagus and Barrett's disease. I am anxious and nervous all at the same time to get the results.

We have been told by the local oncologist if there is no change in the cancer on the pet and cat scans surgery is not advised. Is this what all of you were told as well?

I do want to tell everyone as I read each and every post on this site I spend much time in prayer. We all are dealing with such difficult times in our lives. My thoughts are with you all.

God Bless,

Linda

Unknown

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BMGky

Is your husband to have surgery or not
I don't know very much about all of the options and am a little confused as to what I read. I took your post to say that you are to have an MIE in January; however, a local oncologist says if there is no change in the cancer on PET or CT scan, surgery is not advised. Further, it seems there are some heart issues as well. So, I may be completely on the wrong base. Anyway, my husband had chemo/radiation and then a PET scan which showed no cancer. He had the invasive IL esophagectomy anyway, and underneath the scar tissue in the esophagus, cancer cells were found so if he had not had the surgery, cancer would have still been there. His cancer responded to the treatment and did change on the PET scan. His situation may be totally different from your husband's. My husband did not have any node or spreading to other organs. So, I guess what I am trying to say, is if your husband is a candidate for surgery and can physically endure the recovery, if a cancer team is recommending surgery, the surgery should be seriously considered. Is the oncologist suggesting that if the chemo/radiation did not reduce the cancer's presence, then surgery is not advised. If that is the case, I would ask my cancer team doctors. So many miracles exist on this site. Sorry to be so confused. Just trying to be of help. More informed members can better understand and help you. The best of luck, and I hope all goes well. Mary

linda1120

BMGky said:

Is your husband to have surgery or not
I don't know very much about all of the options and am a little confused as to what I read. I took your post to say that you are to have an MIE in January; however, a local oncologist says if there is no change in the cancer on PET or CT scan, surgery is not advised. Further, it seems there are some heart issues as well. So, I may be completely on the wrong base. Anyway, my husband had chemo/radiation and then a PET scan which showed no cancer. He had the invasive IL esophagectomy anyway, and underneath the scar tissue in the esophagus, cancer cells were found so if he had not had the surgery, cancer would have still been there. His cancer responded to the treatment and did change on the PET scan. His situation may be totally different from your husband's. My husband did not have any node or spreading to other organs. So, I guess what I am trying to say, is if your husband is a candidate for surgery and can physically endure the recovery, if a cancer team is recommending surgery, the surgery should be seriously considered. Is the oncologist suggesting that if the chemo/radiation did not reduce the cancer's presence, then surgery is not advised. If that is the case, I would ask my cancer team doctors. So many miracles exist on this site. Sorry to be so confused. Just trying to be of help. More informed members can better understand and help you. The best of luck, and I hope all goes well. Mary

Surgery or not, that is the question
Hi Mary,

I know, my husband's case is complicated and confusing. He does have a heart problem, his aortic valve is closing due to calcification. He will eventually have to have a valve replacement, but his heart would not be able to go through the esophagectomy without having the valve opened, even though the procedure is temporary (6-18 mos). We are planning for him to have the surgery UNLESS the petscan shows that there is no change in the cancer in his lymph nodes. We were told if the chemotherapy does not kill the cancer in the nodes there would be no point in having the surgery because the surgery will remove the tumor and any visible cancer, but if there is any remaining cancer it will just keep coming back. Jim has had 5fu and Cisplatin and according to the doctors and all of my research, this is the treatment recommended at this time for EC. We are praying the chemo and radiation has done it's job and Jim can go ahead with the surgery, and if there is any residual cancer he can have "clean-up" chemotherapy. I hope I explained it better.

I forgot to mention too, that Jim came home and then ended up back at the hospital with some heart issues, low blood pressure and high heart rate. They kept him for a couple of extra days and aren't exactly what was going on, but he is doing better now. Thanks for all of the nice comments on the other post I started.

Thank you for your best wishes.

God Bless,

Linda

BMGky

linda1120 said:

Surgery or not, that is the question
Hi Mary,

I know, my husband's case is complicated and confusing. He does have a heart problem, his aortic valve is closing due to calcification. He will eventually have to have a valve replacement, but his heart would not be able to go through the esophagectomy without having the valve opened, even though the procedure is temporary (6-18 mos). We are planning for him to have the surgery UNLESS the petscan shows that there is no change in the cancer in his lymph nodes. We were told if the chemotherapy does not kill the cancer in the nodes there would be no point in having the surgery because the surgery will remove the tumor and any visible cancer, but if there is any remaining cancer it will just keep coming back. Jim has had 5fu and Cisplatin and according to the doctors and all of my research, this is the treatment recommended at this time for EC. We are praying the chemo and radiation has done it's job and Jim can go ahead with the surgery, and if there is any residual cancer he can have "clean-up" chemotherapy. I hope I explained it better.

I forgot to mention too, that Jim came home and then ended up back at the hospital with some heart issues, low blood pressure and high heart rate. They kept him for a couple of extra days and aren't exactly what was going on, but he is doing better now. Thanks for all of the nice comments on the other post I started.

Thank you for your best wishes.

God Bless,

Linda

Hope the chemo worked
Let us pray the chemo and radiation worked. Being naive when we started our journey, I thought that chemo always worked. As our doctor explained, sometimes it doesn't phase the cancer. That would be awful to go through all the discomfort of chemo and find out it didn't improve the situation. You were clear on your post. I just couldn't get my head around it. Bill and I laugh that we share a brain. He must have been using it when I was trying to respond. At the rate I'm going, I'm not only going to need his brain but rent another one as well. I have seen some posts where patients opted out of surgery following a successful PET scan as they didn't want to undergo the operation. In our instance, it would have been disastrous if we hadn't, and I was just trying to ensure you all considered the option. I finally understood that the doctor was saying if the treatment hadn't attacked the cancer, surgery may not be of benefit. I just hope the chemo and radiation really devastated the cancer. Will continue to have you in our prayers. Mary

Tina Blondek

linda1120 said:

Surgery or not, that is the question
Hi Mary,

I know, my husband's case is complicated and confusing. He does have a heart problem, his aortic valve is closing due to calcification. He will eventually have to have a valve replacement, but his heart would not be able to go through the esophagectomy without having the valve opened, even though the procedure is temporary (6-18 mos). We are planning for him to have the surgery UNLESS the petscan shows that there is no change in the cancer in his lymph nodes. We were told if the chemotherapy does not kill the cancer in the nodes there would be no point in having the surgery because the surgery will remove the tumor and any visible cancer, but if there is any remaining cancer it will just keep coming back. Jim has had 5fu and Cisplatin and according to the doctors and all of my research, this is the treatment recommended at this time for EC. We are praying the chemo and radiation has done it's job and Jim can go ahead with the surgery, and if there is any residual cancer he can have "clean-up" chemotherapy. I hope I explained it better.

I forgot to mention too, that Jim came home and then ended up back at the hospital with some heart issues, low blood pressure and high heart rate. They kept him for a couple of extra days and aren't exactly what was going on, but he is doing better now. Thanks for all of the nice comments on the other post I started.

Thank you for your best wishes.

God Bless,

Linda

Welcome Back Home
Hello Linda and Jim
Glad to hear you are home! I wish you the best of luck with your second opinion and possible surgery upcoming. We will be thinking and praying for you both. May God grant you the strength and peace you both need at this time. Keep us up to date.
Tina in VA