Father Just Diagnosed With Level 4

Hi everyone

I'm a new member on here. My father of 65 was diagnosed last week with EC, specifically - Squamous Carcinoma of Esophagus with metastatic coeliac and para-aortic lymphadenopathy. The tumour is 13cm big and the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes above the tumour, and also below the abdomen meaning apparently that there is no cure.

Since that point, my father, myself and my family have been in pieces of course. Finding that he had cancer was bad enough but when the oncologist said there's nothing that can be done, and that we could expect between 6-18months, we were all rock bottom.

The only thing it seems they can do is to give him some chemo to try to reduce the tumour so that he can start eating again, if that fails then they would go for a stent. He has just started his first chemo session today.

I've been trawling the internet looking for some sort of alternative on this for several days and 2 things have come up:-

cellular zeolite
poly-mva

I have read endless conflicting info on these, and I am sceptical at the best of times, but I wondered if anyone here has any opinions on this?

Thankyou so much in advance for your help,
James

Perhaps you should look into taking him to MD Anderson in Houston since they are the #1 ranked facility in the country.

I use the Poly-Mva. Maybe it works, maybe not. I don't know. But heard really good things about it from other patients.

2 tsps. 3xs daily.

R

So sorry to hear about your father.  I can relate, though, since my father was diagnosed in December and given the same prognosis.  He and my mom chose not to do any kind of chemo, though, because he doesn't want to spend any of his limited time left being sick from any chemo.

Best of luck to your family....

On 3/14/2008 JamesW wrote:

Hi everyone

I'm a new member on here. My father of 65 was diagnosed last week with EC, specifically - Squamous Carcinoma of Esophagus with metastatic coeliac and para-aortic lymphadenopathy. The tumour is 13cm big and the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes above the tumour, and also below the abdomen meaning apparently that there is no cure.

Since that point, my father, myself and my family have been in pieces of course. Finding that he had cancer was bad enough but when the oncologist said there's nothing that can be done, and that we could expect between 6-18months, we were all rock bottom.

The only thing it seems they can do is to give him some chemo to try to reduce the tumour so that he can start eating again, if that fails then they would go for a stent. He has just started his first chemo session today.

I've been trawling the internet looking for some sort of alternative on this for several days and 2 things have come up:-

cellular zeolite
poly-mva

I have read endless conflicting info on these, and I am sceptical at the best of times, but I wondered if anyone here has any opinions on this?

Thankyou so much in advance for your help,
James

Hello,

My Dad was diagnosed in Nov 07.  The day before Thanksgiving he had his biospy and the surgeon was sure at that time it was cancer.  We found out the Monday after Thanksgiving, by Friday he was in the hospital with dehydration,  While in the hospital they did the pet scan and found that the cancer had spread and he was also diagnosed with stage 4.  They put a stent in and he was able to eat, drink, etc, and came home the next day.  He started chemo at some point in December.  As to date he's had 5 chemo treatments ( the regimen the dr has him on doesn't make him sick, he has lost all his hair)  After the 6th chemo they will do another pet scan.  To date he has had to have the stent flushed out twice because the food gets stuck and then it gets blocked up.  He is doing unbelieveable right now.  It is a life changing situation which he is starting to really realize.  We keep reminding him little bites and lots of drinking while eating.  With Dad's stage they would only put in the stent and we were told only 6 mos to a year.  I'll pray for your dad as I do for everyone with this awful disease. 

Thankyou all for your replies, you all have my prayers and best wishes.

Regarding seeing MD Anderson, we are in the UK and my Dad isn't really interested in exploring options. This has been so difficult for us to deal with, he actually even said to me that if he knew there was a cure in America he just couldn't didn't have the energy to go through with it.

Dads Angel.

Thankyou for that info, that is very useful to know how things are progressing with your Dad, could I ask how they put the stent in? Dad is sure that the gastroenerologist said it could be fed in through the mouth, but the oncologist said it would need to be surgery.

Hello,

 I can understand what you are going through right now.  I went through the same thing you did.  My dad was diagnosed 2 years ago with the same cancer, last stage.  At the time they only gave my dad 6 months to live and like you our whole family was crushed.  You always hear all the stories of people affected by this terrible disease but never think or accept that it can hit so close to you.  Not only is he my dad but he was my best friend.  I would tell my dad everything and he was my world to me.  He definitely didn't want to go and faught the cancer with everything he had.  My dad just recently lost his courageous batttle with cancer on March 10th, 2008.  The doctors only gave him 6 months and we got 2 years.  Although i would have liked many years and think 56 is too young to go i am thankful for the extra time we had.  My heart aches every minute and sometimes l get a lot of anger because he just didn't deserve it.  He loved life more than anything and was an amazing person.  I never heard him say a bad thing about anyone, which is a hard thing to do nowadays. 

 People can overcome some amazing things.  Keep positive.  I know how hard it can sometimes be but that was the one thing that kept my dad fighting.  Doctors don't always know everything and it's amazing what people can do.  If you ever need someone to talk to that's been through it, don't hestitate to talk to me!!