Last chemo

Hope_Faith
Hope_Faith Member Posts: 150
edited March 2014 in Esophageal Cancer #1
Hello everyone,
I have an update on my hubby. He was supposed to have 3 rounds of chemo after surgery.He's gone through two and said that he was done. Of course, this made me very nervous and scared. Well, we were told good news today from his oncologist. His oncologist agreed and so my hubby doesn't need the last chemo treatment. CHEMO'S OVER! :)
He will have to have weekly blood work done though, to check tumor markers and he will have PET & CT scans done in 6 weeks. This is really great news! My hubby can now heal from all the chemo treatments and get stronger - get ready to go back to work - get back to a 'normal' life ~ Thanks all to God!
~Shelly

Comments

  • This comment has been removed by the Moderator
  • cjmac49
    cjmac49 Member Posts: 100
    Last chemo
    Congratulations. Doesn't that feel great?

    Jim
  • Hope_Faith
    Hope_Faith Member Posts: 150
    cjmac49 said:

    Last chemo
    Congratulations. Doesn't that feel great?

    Jim

    Jim
    It sure does :)
  • Hope_Faith
    Hope_Faith Member Posts: 150
    unknown said:

    This comment has been removed by the Moderator

    Marshall
    Hi,
    Yes, it will be great to see the life come back into my hubby -- he's been so sickly the last few months. I'm so glad that God has given people the ability to come up with the treatments they have to fight cancer and other disease's.
    Thanks for you response - you are always so uplifting and helpful. Praying that your relative's health will continue to improve.
    ~shelly
  • Yovana30
    Yovana30 Member Posts: 15

    Marshall
    Hi,
    Yes, it will be great to see the life come back into my hubby -- he's been so sickly the last few months. I'm so glad that God has given people the ability to come up with the treatments they have to fight cancer and other disease's.
    Thanks for you response - you are always so uplifting and helpful. Praying that your relative's health will continue to improve.
    ~shelly

    Hi Shelly
    I am so happy to know that your hubby is done with the Chemo. Your husband is so blessed to have you. God's bless, faith, and your support were the ingredient to this success.
    I will pray for your husband's recovery

    My journey is just beginning. Today, I have my EUS and found that my tumor has invaded to the muscularis propia and two peritumorals lymph nodes involved which that means that I am staged T3N1. I am confused and I don't want to think about that the tumor is growing, but CT scan performed on March 25 showed no lymph nodes involved, not met to any main organ, and the size of the tumor was 6cmX5cm. EUS showed that the tumor is 8cm large since 30 cm down in my Esophagus extending to 2 cm of my stomach (cardia). It seems that the doctor will remove half of my stomach as he predicted. I had my Pet Scan last Friday, but I do not know the results yet. Praying that PET scan does not show any changes. I am wondering if I wil qualify for MIE procedure.

    Tomorrow, I will have Pulmonary Test, and Friday will have appotiment with the radiologist.

    If you could please share with me the following. What kind of symtoms did your hubby have? How may lymph nodes were involved? Did you ask Dr. Maish for the MIE procedure?

    Thank you for your attention,

    God bless you,

    Desperate for answers,

    Yovana
  • Hope_Faith
    Hope_Faith Member Posts: 150
    Yovana30 said:

    Hi Shelly
    I am so happy to know that your hubby is done with the Chemo. Your husband is so blessed to have you. God's bless, faith, and your support were the ingredient to this success.
    I will pray for your husband's recovery

    My journey is just beginning. Today, I have my EUS and found that my tumor has invaded to the muscularis propia and two peritumorals lymph nodes involved which that means that I am staged T3N1. I am confused and I don't want to think about that the tumor is growing, but CT scan performed on March 25 showed no lymph nodes involved, not met to any main organ, and the size of the tumor was 6cmX5cm. EUS showed that the tumor is 8cm large since 30 cm down in my Esophagus extending to 2 cm of my stomach (cardia). It seems that the doctor will remove half of my stomach as he predicted. I had my Pet Scan last Friday, but I do not know the results yet. Praying that PET scan does not show any changes. I am wondering if I wil qualify for MIE procedure.

    Tomorrow, I will have Pulmonary Test, and Friday will have appotiment with the radiologist.

    If you could please share with me the following. What kind of symtoms did your hubby have? How may lymph nodes were involved? Did you ask Dr. Maish for the MIE procedure?

    Thank you for your attention,

    God bless you,

    Desperate for answers,

    Yovana

    Hi ~
    Hi Yovana,
    So good to hear from you! I will be happy to help you with any questions you have. The early symptoms my husband had, he didn't recognize: pain in stomach area after eating and feeling very bloated; sometimes could not swallow his favorite snack - peanut butter on a spoon with milk, he would have to throw it up, but other foods went down so he didn't think much of it; when it got to the point of all the food he tried to eat would not go down and was throwing everything up, he went in to get checked out.

    Lymph nodes: They first thought he had 1 lymph node involvement because during his EUS, it showed 1 lymph node swollen by where the cancer was in his esophagus. However, after surgery, Dr. Maish is 100% sure, it never had cancer in it. I'm not sure how she knows this because he did have chemo & radiation prior to surgery, but she is so certain. So, he went from a T3N1M0 before surgery, to a T2N0M0 after surgery. Dr. Maish also said that the cancer did not go in as deep into the esophageal wall like they previously thought it did so that's why they re-staged him to a 2. They also said it was not the most aggressive type of cancer as previously thought. So, even though he went through CT scans, PET scans, EUS, and ultrasound scope, they still didn't really know exactly how the cancer was until the surgery.

    MIE -- Dr. Maish automatically said that she was going to do the surgery that way. She is considered an 'expert' for this type of surgery. You will be in wonderful hands with UCLA's team of experts, so don't worry! :)
    Best of luck to you. You will continually be in my prayers!
    If you have any other questions, I'm here.
    ~Shelly
  • Yovana30
    Yovana30 Member Posts: 15

    Hi ~
    Hi Yovana,
    So good to hear from you! I will be happy to help you with any questions you have. The early symptoms my husband had, he didn't recognize: pain in stomach area after eating and feeling very bloated; sometimes could not swallow his favorite snack - peanut butter on a spoon with milk, he would have to throw it up, but other foods went down so he didn't think much of it; when it got to the point of all the food he tried to eat would not go down and was throwing everything up, he went in to get checked out.

    Lymph nodes: They first thought he had 1 lymph node involvement because during his EUS, it showed 1 lymph node swollen by where the cancer was in his esophagus. However, after surgery, Dr. Maish is 100% sure, it never had cancer in it. I'm not sure how she knows this because he did have chemo & radiation prior to surgery, but she is so certain. So, he went from a T3N1M0 before surgery, to a T2N0M0 after surgery. Dr. Maish also said that the cancer did not go in as deep into the esophageal wall like they previously thought it did so that's why they re-staged him to a 2. They also said it was not the most aggressive type of cancer as previously thought. So, even though he went through CT scans, PET scans, EUS, and ultrasound scope, they still didn't really know exactly how the cancer was until the surgery.

    MIE -- Dr. Maish automatically said that she was going to do the surgery that way. She is considered an 'expert' for this type of surgery. You will be in wonderful hands with UCLA's team of experts, so don't worry! :)
    Best of luck to you. You will continually be in my prayers!
    If you have any other questions, I'm here.
    ~Shelly

    Update
    Hi Shelly and CSN family,

    I passed my Pulmonary test. No Pet scan results yet.

    Thank you very much Shelly for your support and answers. I live in Covina, my family drives like an hour to get to UCLA.

    I read your past post about your hubby complications after surgery and again your husband is so blessed to have you. I already asked my aunt to help me while I am revovering surgery. I do not have surgery date yet.

    God Bless you,

    Yovana