I m 46 yrs old and 4 children and 25 yrs of teach and coach am dx on april 5th EC AC protrude to upp

Coach B
Coach B Member Posts: 18
in Esophageal Cancer #1
I am new at this Discussion Boards and i just want ot let you know i was born deaf at birth and I hope you or anyone can understand me.. I was Dx on April 5th esophagus cancer junction to my upper portion of my stomach... I have been jumping around different dr to dr for other opinions and that s crazy.... they have not label which stage I am in and I am only 46 years old and teaching and coaching high school level for 25 years and im speechless and need some help... what kind of chemo and radiation therapy such as linear accelerator (IMRT) or others? and how long? what kind of surgery transhiatal or ivor lewis etc... I need to make a decision asap this week to start before the cancer spread ... I have EC AC right at the juction of esoph and protrude to my upper portion of my stomach... I never had any symptom until the dr foud out i have low hemoglobin count at 7.0 and rightnow it upto 9.0 because I am eating lots of hamburger without transfusion... I dont knwo what to do... Ineed your story and other people as well... I have 4 children and can you help? and I appreciate if you give me any idea to prepare for the battle that I am about to face... God bless and fight backand beat the cancer.... How i got em is by acid reflux that cause me cancer wow...

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  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #2
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  • megmacmd
    megmacmd Member Posts: 85
    #3
    Glad you found this site
    EC is a very scary disease in that it is a relatively newbie in America very common in Asia but climbing the charts here. Bill and Loretta are the gurues of EC they can tell you all you need to know a lot more than most doctors and I say that with confidance as I am a doctor granted just a mere neonatal(newborns) hospitalist but have many (most) friends who are doctors and are stymied by this disease . First of all Iwould say have confidance in whatever doctor you chose keep looking til you find that doctor. second of all no one can predict your course you are a human not a machine i used to try to explain to my engineer husband the differance between people and machines we are all very unique nd no matter what the statistics say everyones body responds differently which is the very nature of being human.I take each awesome day as it comes and its been a year since they said I was inoperable stage 4 and yet after enduring 12 rounds of folfox I am still here My goal was to get my youngest child through college(my husband died unexpectably 4 years ago of a brain aneursym go figure)I have one more year to go.Hope you get the answers you need you did not give your stage so have no idea where you are in the course of treatment .Hope you are an early stage with great things in your future. I share your concerns about children as they are what I live for my own as well as all I treat.May all go well with your tretment and prognosis dont get hung up on statistics you make your own Happy Returns of the Day Meg Mac
  • JReed
    JReed Member Posts: 428
    #4
    Hello Coach!
    Welcome to our family/friends. We are so happy you found us. As you can see, William and Loretta have so much information - it's a lot to sift through, but plesae take the time to do so.

    It is going to be difficult to know what course of treatment will be available to you until you have a stage and you may need to complete further testing to determine that. Do not get discouraged - it does take time - something I had to learn when my husband, Don, was diagnosed in November.

    If you are a candidate for surgery - you MAY have chemo and radiation or one or the other. Different types of chemo is used and I honestly don't know why different types are used. Maybe someone else knows the answer to that one. Don went through chemo and radiation - he had chemo once a week and radiation every day for 28 days (except weekends). He did rather well with that too - lost his taste and smells bothered him real bad, but it was certainly doable.

    If you can have surgery, the MIE would probably be 1st choice, followed by THE and then the Ivor Lewis. My husband had the THE, he had no problems from surgery and is doing better and better each day.

    I would also encourage you to read through as many posts as you can - the information you will find here will educate you to things you don't even know you're going to need to know.

    We are here for you so please come back and ask any questions or vent frustrations, whatever, that's why we are here.

    We got your back Coach,
    Judy

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