New Here, Husband Diagnosed in February...no idea what to expect.

My husband is 36. He was diagnosed with EC in Feb. Stage UT3 UN2. He was having difficulty with food going down, feeling like it was getting stuck in his chest, he also said he had a burning sensation. I had to force him to go to the doctor ,they put him on a couple of acid reflux medications and after a month of not working they decided to have him undergo a scope on Feb 18, 2010. We just figured bad acid reflux or at worse an ulcer. After the scope, we were told he had a large mushroom sized tumor. The doctor said he had never seen a tumor like that. Of course hearing the word tumor, automatically we thought cancer but doctor wouldn't confirm until he got the pathology back. After agonizing over this all weekend we got the news on Feb 22, 2010 that the tumor was malignant. The gastroenterologist wanted to surgically remove the tumor in hopes it hadn't spread to the wall of the esophagus, then send it to the pathologist to see if it had spread past the "stem" of the "mushroom". Surgery to remove was actually scheduled, then doctor called an hour before surgery after consulting with his peers who advised him NOT to even attempt to remove the tumor, the surgery was cancelled. My husband was upset because he just wanted IT out of him. Little did we know there would be a long process to follow for that to happen. After the cancelled surgery, he got referred to U of M who wanted 2 different CT scans, another scope with ultrasound, PET scan, and barium swallow BEFORE they would even see him. Nobody even mentioned chemotherapy/radiation to us until my husband's family doctor got word a couple of weeks after diagnosis and called him into the office to discuss. We were under the impression from the doctor that did the scope that we would just go to U of M and have the tumor surgically removed. Not so easy...family doctor was the one who finally got the ball rolling on chemo/radiation after ALOT of calling and bugging people to get the tests he needed scheduled. Went through one Oncologist, we did not feel comfortable with (she told us he was stage 2 and he is stage 3 and was very unprepared and didn't even know there were lympnodes involved) so a friend of my husband's referred us to another, who we feel is very competant. So now we are on our way finally with this. First chemo treatment was on April 5th of Cisplatin and sent home with a 5FU pump for 96 hours. Today was the 1st of 28 days of radiation. All in all he will have 2 rounds of chemo, and 28 days radiation, then a rest period and surgery. Actually just met with the surgeon at University of Michigan on April 8th so everyone is coordinating treatment now. We hope and pray for the best possible outcome. So many questions and not knowing what to expect. I'm glad to have found this site and be able to read all your stories.

Anjanette