Scared

HANG IN THERE HUSBAND IS ONLY 45
Hi there,

Well let me begin to welcome you to our site, My husband is/was only 45 at the time of his diagnosis, we were told on april fools day that he had cancer, let me begin to tell you that he had not been to a doctor in 20 years, (I have only be with him 6) he was never sick, and never a complainer other than a few colds and coughs. he went to see a doctor in march as a new patient every test they did was negative and until I set my foot down, and told them we need something else done he cant eat, hurts to swallow, and etc, now keep in mind my husband was a smoker for 20 plus years and could put away a 30 pack a day sometimes 2 and be drunk on his butt, and still drink. I told the doctor something else was going on, he was scoped thinking his esophogus was constricted but to find cancer, we were devasted, I went from no way to oh my gosh, how are we going to handle this, nobody in his family has cancer, so we proceeded with our journey and saw an oncologist, we had a pet scan done to see what stage, and luckly we were only a stage 2 and not in the lymph nodes, I was so happy, but before we had surgery we had 3 months of Chemo, and I mean hard chemo, then we were off about a month and had an esophojectomy on July 23, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, we did great through the surgery and came through that fine, but my husband had other problems after surgery, we were in the hospital total of 15 days, Jeff and I was so scared we were like how could this happen to us, and why us, in the beginning I didn't know if I could do this, but I kept going and listening to everyone on this site that responded and let me tell you before this all took place I was scared to death, I had the poop scared right out of me, but I thought okay I have to be strong and keep going. I was a little apprehensive in the beginning but thought well we are not the only ones with this disease so I decided to PULL UP MY BIG GIRL PANTIES and keep going, I will say it was not an easy road, my husband was knocking on heavens door several times, he was on a ventilator, had 14 tubes in him, and i just didn't know if he was going to be here for me, luckly my employer let me have 6 weeks off of FMLA, my husband's work put him on disability but in the meantime has shut the plant down, so he has no plant to go back to. I want you to know that there isn't a shoe I haven't walked on this kind of cancer, My husband had 2 grown children so thankfully we didn't have any at home like you, so first off you need to sit back and see if there is some kind of disability you can be on to cover your family. I know it can be done as we have had to do it. I will say we have several people on this site waiting for surgery or contemplating surgery. I have been told by one of my good friends on this site that I have went from diapers to BIG GIRL PANTIES in just six months. The recovery period is hard but it is definately worth the surgery.

I certainly hope I have gave you some answers, but like the other posts if you haven't had a scope yet you need to and quick and get on this ugly disaeas we call cancer. Just remember we all are in your shoes,

Now, you will probably be hearing from Mr. Bill Marshall shortly and he will be giving you some excellent advice, and he might scare the crap out of you but he is an awesome guy, I didn't like him in the beginning either but he is now the most wonderful person on this site. I will tell you to please get your BIG BOY UNDERWEAR ready cause you will need it for all the things you are about to proceed with.

If I can help further or you have any questions at all please let me know. If you are married i will be glad to help your wife with answers too.

thanks and god bless
Lori aka MOE