update on treatment

sammy123
sammy123 Member Posts: 65
in Esophageal Cancer #1
Hello everyone-

We (it is always we) are now receiving chemo/radiation before surgery. Our plans are to have the surgery at Pittsburgh once pre-treatment complete. We are one week into the radiation and completed the chemo cisplatinum/5FU for five days and to be repeated again week 5. Has anyone else following this regimen? My husband is already feeling the results. He is having difficulty swallowing, not quite sure if it is from the chemo or radiation. Any ideas for the difficulty swallowing, not so bad as of yet to take narcotics. Any ideas on OTC meds to avoid constipation? Thank you each and every one of you and pray for all of you daily.

Comments

  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #2
    This comment has been removed by the Moderator
  • cher76
    cher76 Member Posts: 292
    #3
    When my husband was on his
    When my husband was on his first round of chemo he suffered from severe constipation. He found that taking Miralax daily (sometimes even 2 X a day) helped. Once or twice when it got really bad he also took Sennakot. These were all approved by his doctor. He also tried to eat a high fiber diet, raisin bran for breakfast, etc. Drinking lots of fluids also seemed to give him relief. You might want to ask your doctor about these. Hope this helps.
    Cheryl
  • Susie_Brendon
    Susie_Brendon Member Posts: 128
    #4
    Just like Brendon...
    Your husband is taking the same treatment and chemo that my husband took. My first suggestion is that he has a j-tube put in as soon as possible. Brendon experienced extreme difficulty in eating...and even after 4 weeks post-treatment...he still has a hard time eating a little mashed potatoes or soup. The j-tube has provided him the ablility to maintain his weight through his treatment and provide all the nutrients that he might need.

    Brendon did pretty good with treatments until about the 4th week. Then the radiation began giving him a horrible burning sensation. (His tumor was so large that he couldn't swallow much of anything even when the treatment wasn't affecting him) He is on an anti-acid pill which seems to help with the burning effect.

    Brendon never did take pain medicine through his treatment and luckily for him, the feeding formula in his j-tube kept his bowels regular. However, I would reccomend getting colace, it's a stool softener and he can take that every day...it will help him to remain unplugged. However, once constipated, the colace won't help...but he shouldn't stop taking it in my opinion, just add metamucil or miralax.

    After about the 20th treatment of radiation, Brendon had a difficult time even swallowing water, so I made sure he went and got a bag of fluids at the hospital to keep him hydrated! Don't let your husband get dehydrated because then he will end up in the hospital and the chemo that he's on, is pretty rough on the kidneys. Make sure he is hydrated. VERY IMPORTANT!!!

    Feel free to contact me with private message if you would like my phone number to talk....I've been where you are now...

    God Bless,
    Susie

Discussion Boards