Lost husband June 28

20 months after being diagnosed with EC, my husband, Bernardo Hutton, Sr. lost the war. He had surgery on 11/15/10 to remove the tumor at the GE Junction. The doctors also removed 5 inches of his esophagus and 30% of his stomach. He had chemo and radiation following the McDonald Regimen beginning in January of 2011 and completing April 29, 2011. He went back to work 7/5/11 and was slowly getting better. He was regaining his weight and starting to do the things he loved again. Then in March of 2012, he started having pains in his back, which he attributed to working out. In April of 2012, he thought he had pulled a muscle and was slowly unable to move his right arm. Then, on April 27, 2012, he was admitted to the hospital for what they thought was a blood clot but turned out that the cancer had metasticized to his right axilla. He did 10 rounds of radiation in hopes of shrinking the tumor and he was discharged from the hospital on May 30, 2012. He was on a lot of medication to help relieve the pain (Fentanyl patch, Neurontin, Decadron and Morphine Sulphate) because surgery was not an option, as the tumor was encased around the nerves. He did have stents places in his veins and arteries to keep the blood flow going in his right arm but other than that, the arm was usless.

On June 5, 2012, the oncologist told him that since the cancer spread, it was stage 4 and terminal. His life span was now in terms of months and not years. He was adamant about fighting this disease until the very end and we were in the process of getting him appointments at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota as well as UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center in San Francisco. He didn't live long enough to get to the appointments. He went down hill pretty fast and we're not sure why. His sisters' seem to think the Fentanyl patch had a lot to do with it but we don't know for sure. It was heartbreaking to watch him go from 6' 4" and 250lbs. in 2010 to probably less than 150lbs. when he died. He was in so much pain but he said he would win this battle as well. He had the mindset that he would win the war but it was not to be.

It was horrific watching him die slowly but we know he is at peace now. We asked people to donate to ACS in his name so that more research may be done to find a cure for this disease so that one day, EC will just be a bad memory.