I am new to this message board, actually looking for information for last stages of stomach cancer. I felt that I had to respond to your post. First of all, my dad is 79 years old and was first diagnosed with stomach cancer in January of 2000, over eight years ago. He had a total gastrectomy that month with no chemotherapy or radiation. Two small lesions were found on his liver in March of 2003 at which time he began chemotherapy. After approximately 18 months of chemo, his oncologist found that the lesions had actualy shrank considerably, and he did not have chemo again until the summer of 2007 after a scan indicated that he had multiple small lesions on his liver.
My reply is actually for two reasons. The first is that I would like to offer you hope. My dad is living proof that people can live for a long time with cancer. I will not say that he has not suffered and that the chemo never left him drained, but overall, his quality of life has been very good considering his age and prognosis. I pray that your husband will have a good outcome.
Unfortunately, my dad's health has declined drastically over the last few months. He was living alone in his home until March when he was hospitalized due to cellulitis. He is currently in a rehabilitation facility and was looking forward to moving into an assisted living apartment. Now I am being told that he will need to move into the skilled nursing area because of the problems he is now having with edema and weeping wounds. Obviously, his cancer has been very slow progressing, and I wonder if this is the normal progession. He is in a lot of pain, and I hate to see him suffer like this. It seems that as soon as they seem to get the edema under control, within a few days it is back again. Has anyone had similar experience?