Esophagus burns from radiation, can't eat or drink

My husband was diagnosed with Stage IIIa, advanced localized squamous cell non small cell lung cancer the end of January.  He has completed 34 radiation treatments (5 days a week) with 6 chemo treatments (once a week) Taxol and Carboplatnum (I think).  A feeding tube was inseted while he could still eat because the Doctor knew he would need it.  Now it is 5 weeks since his last treatment and he still can't drink or eat anything.  He is getting so discouraged.  Does anyone have suggestions on what could help this?

Thank you very much!

Hi there,

I notice that this post is more than a month old, but I figured I'd comment if it would help. Please give a little update if your husband is still having esophageal problems. My father was diagnosed at stage 3b and had chemo and radiation concurrently, which worked really well.  He didn't vomit or get nauseaous once and even put on weight.  But he did end up developing a stricture of his espohagus which required two balloon dilation procedures to open the thing up again. He basically couldn't eat or drink before the surgeries.  It was frightening because he lost so much weight during this time. In any case, I hope things are better for you now.

Sheila

Thank you for your response. Yes, things are much better now. My husband just had his 2nd 3 months check up and a repeat bronchoscopy with 8 biopsies. All were cancer free. He is in remission Thank God! If remission can happen for him it can happen for others. Now we just pray that it will last a long time.

 

On 11/14/2007 Kaemac wrote:

Thank you for your response. Yes, things are much better now. My husband just had his 2nd 3 months check up and a repeat bronchoscopy with 8 biopsies. All were cancer free. He is in remission Thank God! If remission can happen for him it can happen for others. Now we just pray that it will last a long time.

Hi Kaemac,

I was so happy to see you post from 11-14-07 and I wanted to ask how is your husband doing? I pray he is still cancer free.

My husband was also diagnosed with non small cell lung cancer - Squamous Cell Carcinoma Stage IIIA. Surgery is not an option due to the tumor being 6.9 X 3.9 in the right upper lobe with lymph not involvement.

He will start he treatment tomorrow. His chemotherapy will consist of going the first week 3 times (6-24-06 to 6-27-06) and then no chemo for 3 weeks and then back for 3 times the fourth week. For a total of 4 months. The two agents they will be using on Harvey are Platinol (Generic name- Cisplatin) and VP-16; VePesid (Generic- Etoposide). The Platinol needs to be drip in slowly so he will be there each chemo day for an average of 5 hours. Two out of three days he will have both and then on the third day he will just have the VP-16.
Then he will also have his radiation 5 times a week for 7 weeks starting 6-24-06.

I would appreciate anything you could tell me about this cancer and treatments. I am just so lost and afraid right now. I want to do all I can to help mu husband through this.

God Bless,

Bernice

Sorry this is so late.  I have not been to this site.  My husband made it until last month without recurrence but just had a bronchoscopy and the cancer has recurred in the upper part of the same lung.  They gave him 4 more strong radiation treatments in an attempt to push the tumor back and give him more time.  Squamous cell cancer is more slow growing and they think my husband had it for 3 years without knowing it.  There are people out there who are 9 years out from treatment of this same cancer and the same stage as our husbands so there is hope.