New Ec Diagnosis For My Race Dad

Hi,

I'm new to this board. 

My wonderful dad was unfortunately diagnosed 3 weeks ago EC.  He just finished all his tests and it was confirmed he is at stage 3 with his cancer. 

It started out as him just always having Acid Reflux. Two months ago he started having trouble eating and lost a lot of weight.  His doctor told him it was stomach pollups and the food would get stuck but not to worry as it  would later pass. After convincing him to get further testing and a third round of him being too sick to eat, he was diagnosed with EC.

Now after his EC diagnosis, he will start Chemo for the first time this week. It will be a continuous 24 hr pump and supposedly not as invasive.  The cancer is 5 inch in diameter and hasn't spread to his stomach.  He has Kaiser medical insurance but will get a second opinion from a reknown EC surgeon at UCSF.

My dad is 68 and just came out of retirement to accept a corporate job the week before he was diagnosed.  Funny enough everything he worked so hard for years to bring to a close (come out of retirement, save money to buy his retirement car - a corvette, finish the race car project with his buddies that they worked 5 years on and move me down to be closer to the family) all of this came together just a month before he was diagnosed.  Things happen for a reason I guess.

Now my dad is living off of mashed potatoes and jamba juice right now and can't seem to eat much more than that.  He's very tired all the time and is trying to stay centered and keep anything stressful out of his life.  Its hard for him because he's so used to being the man of the house .  He also has 3 small grandkids (age 3 and twins age 6) that stay the weekend almost every weekend and it is chaos.

Curious what kind of house rules did anyone have to set when they had many family members visiting all the time and did it help or hinder the recovery?

Sorry that you had a reason to join this site, but this is the place to be for advice and support.  My husband was dx in Sept. 06 and he was also same staging as your dad and he couldn't eat before he started treatments.  Once the chemo started he was finally able to eat again and he also had the 24hr pump.  He's had treatments then surgery then treatments and his CT scan last month showed no sign right now of cancer.

As for chaos in the house, before my hubby was dx I had a daycare in my house.  I had to close down for the year just because I was so scared of so many germs in my house while he was doing chemo.  We also have 4 kids 9, 6, 4, 1 and two big dogs.  The dogs no longer sleep in our room and the kids are still really good about not laying on Daddy's pillow when they are sick and not to cough without covering.  In the beginning I tried to keep all the sniffles away from him, but he needed the kids more than ever during the past year.  Your Dad sounds pretty lucky to have so many kids keeping him company.  If they are old enough you can just let them know that your Dad can't get sick and they just have to be careful if they don't feel good.  Good luck to your family and your Dad.  It's a long road, but one day at a time is all you can really do.

-Take Care,  Becky

So sorry to hear about your dad.  My dad was also diagnosed with stage 3 EC in July.  He was living on mashed potatoes, too!  He is in the middle of a 28 day treatment of radiation and had a 24 hour chemo pump for 4 days.  After his first chemo and one week of radiation he was able to eat a lot!  He now is able to eat most things.  Be careful of chicken and meat in general.  It tends to be dry and gets stuck and causes pain. Also, my dad's potassium level skyrocketed because of all the mashed potatoes he was eating.  Watch for this when he gets blood tests done.  Lastly, my dad drinks three Carnation breakfast drinks everyday.  This is good for protein and other nutrition, and keeps him hydrated.  Hydration has been a problem because when he was dehydrated ( due to chemo) he was always very weak and could barley walk.  Once they put fluids in him he was a different person.

As for the company -- it is very important for your dad to get lots of rest.  Just listen to his body.  Also be aware of sickness because cold and flu season is here.  As a result of chemo his white blood cell count will go down making it a little harder to fight colds.  But grandchildren are so important in the fight with cancer!  My dad's grandchild has kept his spirits high!  Just do a lot of hand washing!

Tracy

Hold your heads hi folks we can beat this dreaded cancer, I am near my 5th year as a  survivor.  I can eat anything that I want and I take no medications. I am 70 years old and feel  like I am 50, Thanks be to the Lord for his guiding me on this journey.

 You can see my story if u go to google search and key in "william66  cancer" (u might see 3 or 4 links) hope you can benefit from some of my experiences thru the last near 5 years.

Esophageal Cancer  stage 3 (t3n0m1) survivor .