Advice for a T3N2 patient

acedamama
acedamama Member Posts: 12
in Esophageal Cancer #1

Hello Survivors:

My fiance was just diagnosed with a T3N2 tumor in his larynx. We meet with the oncologist on Wednesday. The recommendation is to try chemotheapy to see if the tumor responds. If it does they will continue with chemotherapy and radiation. If the tumor does not respond he will have surgery to remove his the tumor and his larynx. Can anyone give me some direction as to what we have in store for us. My biggest concern is that my fiance is very small and now is only 109 lbs. What can I expect from chemo and radiation and what will the recovery fro surgery be like? I'm so worried and don't know what to expect. Thank you for any information you can share.

Comments

  • Rickyr1219
    Rickyr1219 Member Posts: 53
    #2
    Welcome

    Everyone seems to be different when it comes to how they respond to the different treatments for Esophogeal Cancer.  Even the chemo given are different.  I was treated at MD Anderson in Houston and the regimen they used on me was a combined Chemo and Proton Radiation for 5 1/2 weeks.  The Chemo I had was not as hard on me as I expected and I never even lost my hair which I was expecting to happen.  I continued to eat all I wanted for several weeks,  Drove myself to and from my chemo and radiation appointments.  The radiation did affect my eating after a few weeks and it got to the point where I could only eat soft things and usually had to take a liquid medicine to sorta numb my throat to even do that. This lasted for me for about 2 to 3 weeks after the radiation stopped before I could really eat everything again.

    I weighed between 265 and 270 lbs when I was diagnosed and atoday I'm around 225 lbs.  I lost about 25 of those lbs during my Chemo Radiation and the rest after my surgery in November.  I did drink the Boost and Glucerna drinks when I was doing the Chemo and Radiation to keep my caloric intake up. 

    When I found this sight I browsed through the older posts and would read the ones that sounded like what I had.  Might be a good place to start for you and see if there are other posts that are your husbands size when they started.

     

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