Just Diagnosed, Not Yet Treated Or Even Staged

You are in my prayers
Hi,my mom just got diagnosed the first of this year with stomach cancer. I too have been researching like crazy and I am nervous and having trouble sleeping. I have not been able to find anyone that has been through the whole thing and can tell me what I can expect. Every site talks about the treatment options but not about what the average patient goes through phsically, and emotionally during treatment or after surgery. Do you know of any sites that go more into detail? I am trying to get my mom evaluated at MD Anderson in Houston. She was uncomfortable having the surgery in El Paso. Mainly because she wasn't given many options other than surgery and its a tricky high risk surgery. Did you develop any blood clotting or low blood counts? My mom is on Coumadin to thin her blood because she developed a clot in her neck after she fell. That is actually how we came to find out she had stomach cancer. She was taken to the hospital because her arm was turning purple and she had a lot of swelling and pain in her arm the cardiologist did further blood testing and found that her blood counts were low and ordered a colonoscopy and endoscopy to check for internal bleeding. That is when they found the tumor in her stomach. Biopsy came back positive for cancer. We saw the surgeon a week after she was realeased from the hospital and we never got a copy of the pathology reports or anything but he set her up for surgery. I could tell she was not comfortable with the doctor and his explanations so I decided to start looking into other options and everyone keeps saying MD Anderson is the best?!? God only knows...I am scared I just lost my dad in April of last year to lung cancer. My mom is only 61. I know I am on the other side of the fence compared to you and my mom but I am also feeling the depression, anxiety, fear...All I know to do is pray so I will pray for you, my mom and anyone who is going through this. God Bless You

Same symptoms
I am a Canadian who two years ago went thru the exact scenerio as you are now. I posted a reply to a previous person today that you may want to read. I hope that everything turns out well and I will Pray for you as I know many have for me. You may contact me at starasoff@telus.net and give your phone number and i will be very glad to contact you and tell you my experience.

ScissorsMacGillicutty said:

Thanks to all for your
Thanks to all for your replies. Haven't been here in a while.

Long story short:
Neither a CT nor an MRI could determine if there was spread to the liver, but a PET scan showed NO spread, so that was good news. An ultrasound endoscopy showed the little $@#%! had crept up into my esophagus a bit, so I'll be having a good piece of that removed along with my stomach.

The drill:
I'll be doing my chemo and radiation before the surgery. The surgeon would like to see if chemo and radiation can smack down some of the esophageal stuff and keep him from cutting more than he has to (and he's already going to be cutting a lot) and the radiologist says that he won't have to use as much firepower over as large a region of my body if I get it before the surgery—which will, naturally, stretch out not just the affected (effected? I can never keep them straight) areas as well as the margins quite a bit.

I might be stage II or IIIA. As I mentioned above, the CT scan showed two enlarged lymph nodes, but they didn't come up on the PET scan. The hell with wondering about stages: since there are folks here still standing tall after stage IV, I figure, why not me too?

A nurse in the radiology department talked to me about side effects and said that staying hydrated can be key in supressing nausea: try to increase your intake of water 50% and have a sports drink a day. He acknowledged that would be difficult, but just having it as a goal and getting more water than you otherwise would will be good.

In an odd way, I'm looking forward to treatment. I know it'll be hard, but at least I'll feel as if I'm doing something to evict these unwelcome and destructive cells from my body.

My thoughts and best wishes to everyone else here in the struggle,
Scissors

Good luck
Scissors, you didn't say when you start your chemo but best of luck with your therapy. Check in when you can and let us know how it's going.

Tonia

Tomissimo said:

Scissors, I wish you luck
Scissors, I wish you luck and success in your treatments. What you described as what they found out so far is similar to what I had. Stomach Cancer, 5 or 6 cm tumor at the junction of the esophagus and stomach, 2 Lymph nodes infected. They didn't determine the amount of lymph nodes until after the surgery.

Quick Treatment for me was:

2 Weeks of Radiation treatment with a week of Chemo to shrink the tumor and kill off any cancer cells that may have spread.

Total Gastrectomy and removing the bottom third of the esophagus

And a follow up treatment of 2 Wks Rad and 1 wk Chemo about 2 months after surgery.

That was all between June and November of 2007.

As far as Black moods, I used my wife (married in 2005) and my 2 yr old daughter as my incentives to keep going. It was just having something to hold on to each day to tell myself one more day for my family.

If there are any questions that I can answer for you please let me know and I will be happy to relay any information that I can.

Tomissimo what size was your
Tomissimo what size was your tumor?? They say that my moms is inside the bottom of her stomach wrapped around. the endoscopy showed no signs in the esophagus or in the beggining of the small intestine. All other organs tested good with bloodwork they say but still have to do a PET scan. Her lymth nodes are swollen so i'm praying that they are cancer free. They said they would take her stomach out. I need some kind of comfort(not that anything will) I'm very scared for my mom just wanna talk to someone.

Tonia11 said:

First
I would say first you need to take a deep breath. Your mom needs your steady support.

My husband (38 yrs old) was just diagnosed with stomach cancer in Jan. We have two boys ages 10 and 7. So on top of all of this we still have two boys to raise. My husband was diagnosed with advanced stomach cancer. The tumor is at the top of his stomach but not quite into the esophagus. It measured about 6cm. His treatment regimen is 3 rounds of chemo first. The chemo is administered once every 21 days. He gets oxiplatin and eripibucin (sp) via IV. He also takes Xeloda pills everyday. His 3rd round is on 3/16. After that he will get a new round of scans and tests to "re-stage" the tumor. Then they will remove the tumor along with all of most of his stomach. In doing my research, this regimen with chemo and/or radiation before surgery is standard. So far, my husband hasn't had too many problems with the chemo. He has neuropathy (tingling and numbness in hands or feet) from time to time but nothing debilitating. He's gotten his nausea under control with the help of Kytril, Zofran, and Compazine. And there's nothing you can do about the fatigue but to sleep it off.

Think about the things you did to calm your nerves when you were diagnosed. I try to keep a sense of normalcy to our lives especially for the boys. And it helps that hubby really isn't all that sick right now. I don't know if you are a spiritual person, but prayer and reading the Bible brings me peace and strength. I also have a lot of good friends that check in on me often.

Hope this helps.

Tonia

Thank you Tonia I really
Thank you Tonia I really believe in the power of prayer and that's all that my whole family and friends have been doing. It really does give some peace of mind. I have a husband and 4 kids 19,13,9,6 and one beautiful grandson who is 5months. My kids are scared for my mom I try to reasure them that nana will be ok and that she will have to get treatment like i did. My moms cancer is inside of her stomach, is inside or out of stomach different?? I don't know what or how to register all this info but I find myself looking for more answers and knowledge of this cancer from the internet. This is something that i never did with myself i was a wreck when i was diagnosed. I would cover my ears so i wouldn't hear what the onc was saying and never even knew what king of cancer i had until recently. I am very postitve around my mom but deep down inside im falling to pieces. Maybe because i have been through cancer and still going through treatment. I don't know maybe I feel like finally i am cancer free they say and then this happens. I can't even feel happy about being cancer free because then i feel guilty about my mom. Deep down inside i feel guilty like it my fault even though i know it's not but i feel like maybe if my mom wasn't there so much for me she wouldn't have got this monster disease. Thank you for listening Tonia