Chemo After Surgery

In August I was diagnosed with EC, stage 3.  All tests showed that the cancer hadn't spread.  I underwent 5 weeks of radiation along with 2 rounds of chemo.  On Nov 27, I had an esophagectomy.  I was told by my surgeon that there was no cancer in any of the lymph nodes they removed and there was no viable cancer in what they removed of my esophagus.  He is suggesting that I speak with my oncologist about follow up chemotherapy.  I honestly just don't think I can go thru more chemo, but don't want to be short-sighted.  Does anybody have any info concerning chemo after esophagectomy?

 

Also, at what point after this surgery do you start to feel normal again?

 

Thanks!!

Hi,

 

I was also stage 3 and had 3 rounds of chemo before my surgery on February 9th, I was told that there was no need for further treatment - maybe they will tell you the same?  I do not know when you feel normal after the surgery - I think that it is a new normal that we have to live with.  I was really pleased being able to eat two small courses at Christmas along with a glass of wine.  I still get very tired and occasionally I eat the wrong foods or too much and suffer but I am still alive!

 

Let us know how you get on,

 

Aoife

Hello,

I just wanted to add my two cents.  My husband was dx in Sept. 06 did chemo then had surgery in Feb. 07.  After the surgery he had chemo and radiation, "clean up" they called it.  He was not happy with the treatments after the surgery, simply because his body was so different that he had a very hard time with the "clean up chemo".  Anyway, if you were to ask him now he would not have done it differently.  Why go through everything that you have been through to have one bad cell floating around just looking for a place to land.  This is just my opinion!

As for now my husband has had to clean CT scans since finishing up the "clean up".  He was 250 lbs. before surgery and he is trying to hold tight now to 183 lbs.  He has different eating habits now and the main problem he has is that he is never hungry.  So if he is busy he just forgets to eat.  He has to make a real effort every day to eat.  Still has problems with certain foods and still has "dumping syndrome" but if you were to ask him, he would say, "What was my alternative?" 

Anyway this is just my thoughts.  Hope you are doing well.

-Becky 

Husband was stage 4dx in 12/05.  Had chemo and radiation followed by surgery in 3/06.  Surgeon would have liked him to go through round of clean up chemo.  Oncologist opted not to because recuperation from surgery was big and chemo would have been another insult to his body when he was weak.  Nine months later, and much stronger, we were back for surgery where it returned to lung.  Two months later we were doing two rounds of more aggressive chemo because it was back again in both lungs.  He has been cancer free since May 07 PET after first round of chemo.  Sometimes people just aren't ready to make it through the chemo.  I would love to have never had to deal with it again after the first surgery, and maybe the clean up chemo would have made it so, but there are no guarantees with this cancer and many people die from secondary complications from chemo so I'm just as glad we had those months of relative health before we had to face it all again.  Not sure if the clean up chemo is as aggressive as what we ended up with, which was brutal, but in hindsight I know now the surgery was bigger and more to recuperate from than I imagined to begin with.  It's all very scary, and hard not to second guess oneself.  Just try not to indulge yourself in that one.      

We are about a year past you in post surgery.  A new normal is probably the biggest part of recovering.  I think I believed at some point we would go back to things being the same.  I know now that will never be, but where we are is okay.  One of my mantras is "No Expectations".  It keeps me sane.  All in all life is good, but we always have to be careful about eating regularly enough, not too much at once, and I know my husband would love to be able to drink a beer (occasionally he can do a few sips but anything with bubbles is just too much, although he might be able to handle wine if he tried it).  Between the eating requirements, fatique, and big scars, he isn't able to work much more than very part time at his old profession, or get around as much as he used to, but we keep pushing forward with gratitude in spite of it all.  In time you learn what works and what doesn't, if you watch closely enough.