25 days of the roller coster ride of cancer

Another Stage 1 survivor
Welcome to this great site. Like others may say, I'm glad you found us, but sorry you had to look. But here you're going to find advice, others' experiences, and lots of support.

I, too, am a Stage 1 survivor. Your husband and I and a sadly small number of others are blessed and incredibly lucky to have been diagnosed early. It's weird to feel lucky to hear you have cancer, but so many here were only diagnosed when the disease was so advanced they couldn't swallow. So as much of a bummer as it is to be told you have cancer, I find comfort in reminding myself that I am, in fact, lucky.

I assume that by now your husband has had an EUS and maybe some other diagnostic procedures. It would be helpful to us here to know where he will have his surgery, who the surgeon is, and which procedure he will have: Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy (MIE), Trans-Hiatal Esophagectomy (THE) or Ivor Lewis (IL). It would be good if you can fill in some details in your "About Me" page, because it will help everyone get to "know" you.

Hopefully your husband's HMO will allow him to be treated at a major cancer center, rather than a regional hospital. Esophagectomy is a major procedure that will alter his digestive system, remove many lymph nodes, disable some nerves, etc., and should only be performed by a thoracic surgeon who has significant experience with the specific procedure he or she will be performing. Thankfully, there are many such surgeons, but it is worth asking him or her how many esophagectomies they've done and how frequently.

That said, my surgery was 6 months ago last week and I'm doing pretty well. I can eat almost everything I used to eat, just not as much at a sitting. I went back to work 3 months after the operation, and I started working out at a gym at about the same time. It's not all a bed of roses and there are lots of ups and downs along the way, but it's more than worth it. As the "godfather" of this site, William, has been known to say, "Would you rather have cancer?" (that was you, Bill, right?)

It's normal to be scared and on an emotional roller coaster right now, for both of you. I think the pre-surgery vacation is a great idea. My wife and I did something similar and went to Maine for a long weekend a couple of weeks before my surgery. I didn't know exactly what to expect from the procedure, but I knew my life was going to change to some extent and it was so nice to have that time alone and try to forget about cancer as much as we could for those few days.

So again, Welcome, and I hope you feel free to ask anything that comes to mind. I guarantee someone here has been through whatever it is that's bothering you or can point you in the direction of an answer to pretty much any question you may have. PLEASE don't pay any attention to any statistics. EC is a dreadful disease and the statistics can be very scary. But each one of us is a statistic of one, and you and your husband should try to remember that.

Tare care,
Bob

T1aN0M0
dx 8/3/11
MIE 9/23/11