Stomach Cancer/Anewdawn

Hi Dawn,
It's me Sabina, I would like to thank you so for for all of your responses and prayers so far. I had to start in a new spot here becasue someone else who wrote me when I responded back, went through too many times. rather than scroll through all that I thought I'd restart here. I just want to tell you that I really like to hear from you, and consider you a very caring person, and I thank you for that as well. As you know, on Tuesday, I get to know alot more about where I'm at after meeting my Oncologist. I will let you know the outcome of the visit that day. I pray to god, and certainly hope I have promising news that I have a good prognosis I am so afraid of all this. When you mentioned about your surgery, having been opened up from your navel to breat, around back etc.. Is that common for this type of surgery? Is that when the cancer is at the upper part of the stomach?? I just can't imagine how scary and painful that must have been. You are such a survivor! How you got through all your ordeal, all I can say to you is go live life you deserve it! Anyway, talk to you on Tuesday, after I know more about my situation.. Till then God bless kindest regards, Sabina

Dear Sabrina,

Thank you for your kind words. I firmly believe that God has spared me so that I can share my story and offier inspiration that you can survive. The surgery that I had was called the Ivor-Lewis procedure. You can look it up on the internet and it will give you all of the details. My cancer was at the top of my stomach where the esophagus and stomach meet. They call it the esophageal juncture. Once I was diagnosed and had all of the tests (MRI,CT SCAN,UPPER GI SERIES,CHEST XRAY)I gathered all of the results and headed to the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia. I was so sick by that point, that they had to wheel me in a wheelchair to meet my surgeon. At that time, he scheduled an exploratory operation. On 2/15/04 I was admitted into the hospital. He cut me from my breasts down to my belly button. While he was in there, he biopsied my tumor and took several lymph nodes. This also gave him the opportunity to look at my liver, lungs, etc. After the opperation, he told my family that he saw no other signs of cancer. But that I did have a sizable tumor at the GE Juncture (where the stomach and esophagus meet).
He recommended that I begin radiation and chemotherapy immediately. The surgery was no picnic, but I knew that the worse was yet to come so I made the best of it. One word of advice, if you have this same procedure, becareful of hernias. DO NOT do any heaving lifting. I have had two hernia in six months in my little stomach and it required major surgery to repair them. Each time they had to cut me from by breasts to belly button again. Its getting to the point where I am going to ask them to put in a zipper and save us all some trouble. To be perfectly honest I was very scared when I went for the BIG surgery. I knew this was it and I asked God to help me make it through, I just wanted to wake up. When my family was finally allowed in to see me, I gave them the thumbs up and then went to sleep. The doctors keep you well medicated so the pain is not the bad. But I knew I wanted to survive so I took it one day and a time and eventually things did become easier. Well enough about me, Where do you live? Do you have family to help you through this? What hospital are you going to? And where will you have your surgery?
Please make sure that the surgeon who is going to perform your operation has done many of these types of surgeries. The surgeon in my hometown wanted to cut me all up and then could not gaurantee the results would be good. Make sure you have a doctor that will go everything with you each step of the way. And if you have a choice, seek out a Cancer Hospital who specializes in nothing but cancer. They know all the latest treatments and will take very good care of you. Remember right now you are the one in charge. Make your decisions now while you still well enough to make the right decisions. Once you start treatment that will all change, you will be too sick to make any decisions. Also something I found out after my surgery, you can never be an organ donor. Once you have had cancer they cannot take any organs from your body. This broke my heart as I always wanted to donate mine. And you should also designate someone in your family to become your voice while all this is going on. Whoever you designate, make sure they know exactly how you want things handled with your oncologist, radiologist and surgeon. That way if you become too sick to care, your voice can be there with you to ensure you are getting the best care available. I hope all of this makes sense to you. Well you only have two days until you see your doctor. Keep up the positive attitude the worst is about to come. If you ever need to speak with me privately, my email address is --- Message edited by CancerCompass staff: for personal protection, email address removed. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html ---- I always here for you. I will thinking and praying for you and can hardly wait to hear from you on Tuesday. Dawn

Hi Dawn,
I tried you private email but it go sent back to me. Is there an error in that address??
It would be great to email back and forth on our own email addresses.. could you please send it again?? yours very truly,Sabina....

Dear Sabrina,

I checked the email address that I gave you and it looks correct. But here is is again. --- Message edited by CancerCompass staff: for personal protection, email address removed. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html ---- If it does not work when you try it again, post me your email address and I will try contacting you. What time is your appointment tomorrow? I am a nervous wreck waiting for you to go to the doctor. I am hoping and praying for positive results. I hope that you are able to get through on the email so that we can talk directly. I will talk to you soon.
Dawn

Hello Dawn,
Well, not only was today my birthday, but as you know the day I had met with my oncologist. She was very nice, professional. I am confident in her that she knows what she is doing.
Heres what is going to happen: I am going to have another CT scan done, because she also would like to see my lungs. Another endoscopy with a couple more biopsies to make sure things are the same, and then a a laproscopy to look inside around my stomach. Then finally if all has checked out ok and hasn't metastisized, I go for surgery. It looks like if all this goes ok I can anticipate having surgery done around mid-march. They don't tell you what stage of cancer it is until after the surgery. I hope it is early. They said that there is a chance if after surgery they are satisfied that they got all the cancer, I may not even need chemo or radiation. That would obviously be ideal, but the key is to get all of the cancer. I guess I have to continue to be strong and think positive. I pray that I can survive all of this.
Wow, It's amazing how much we can endure. But if it depends on life, I guess we'll do just about anyth

Dear Sabrina,

I am so glad that you have finally had your appointment with your oncologist. Do you know when you will be having the next CT Scan, Endoscopy and Laproscopy? Hopefully they will be soon so that you will finally know what your next step will be. What hospital will you have your surgery? Have they refered you to a surgeon? I am just guessing, but I assume the surgeon will review the type of operation that will be performed. I hope and pray that you will not need chemotherapy. Radiation is not bad, at least not for me. It was just like getting an xray. It was a pain in the butt going everyday but was not painful nor did it make me sick. The chemotherapy was another story. I hated it....It made me so sick and I did lose all of my hair. But I had a friend who had colon cancer and she received chemo everyday and did not get sick at all. As a matter of fact, she was able to continue working while having her treatments. So I guess it depends on the type of chemo treatment you receive. If you should have to have chemo, I have a web address for all of the different types of chemo available. It explains each of them and the side effects associated with them. But I don't want to send it to you and scare you unless it is necessary. I guess I am surprised that your oncologist did not suggest a PET scan. I was told that it was the most definitive way to diagnose where your cancer was located and to stage it. It is a totally painless test and you might want to ask your doctor about having one. How are you feeling physically? How is your appetetite? Are you mainting your weight? Please continue to keep in touch with me and let me know how you are doing. Keep up the faith and I just know you are going to make it through this.
Dawn

Hi Dawn,
Just me Sabina. Thank you for your response. My oncologist is also my surgeon, she is very nice. I asked about a PET scan and they don't use them here in Canada. They claim that not enough research has been done proving them that they are of any benefit. Could be some more political stuff. Nothing new, always politics involved. I am anxious to get the testing done, and get things going. Surgery seems like it won't be so painful. They put an epidural in your back with a pain med pump. Did they do that with you?? because my cancer is located at the top of my stomach, it seems like I will more than likely have a complete gastrectomy. No stomach. They make a small one out of your intestine. Anyway, it has been such a long day today. I will be going to bed very soon. I live in a small town outside of Toronto, Canada time here is 12:40 a.m. This message thing never lets me write long enough it always cuts me off, do you know why?? It seems to only let me write so many words. Anyway, Dawn... talk to you soon (write).

Dear Sabrina,

Send me your email address. I want to send you some pictures and information that I have. Sorry this is going to be short tonight. I have the flu and I am very sick. My grandson is in the hospital with pneumonia and I think I got sick from being around him. Anyway, please try and send me your email address or try emailing me again at --- Message edited by CancerCompass staff: for personal protection, email address removed. Please review CancerCompass Member Guidelines at http://www.cancercompass.com/common/guidelines.html ----

I will talk to you tomorrow.
Dawn

It's me Sabina. I hope you are getting over your flu bug. Sorry that you are ill. As for me, well, I have been doing pretty bad. On Friday afternoon I went into the hospital. I felt so much pain and nausea I could't eat or drink. As soon as I got to the hospital, they put me on an IV for hydration. They had also done a CT scan. They gave me a really strong acid blocking prescription called "pantaloc" 40 mg 2 x daily. Yesterday, I was in so much pain in my upper abdommin that my fingertips were tingling. I thought I was going to have a heart attack I also had diarrhea all day. I am having so much difficulty trying to eat anything. It is such a vicious cycle, feeling so ill and trying to eat. I don't know how much longer I can take this. I feel so down and discouraged. I know this isn't going to get any easier anytime soon. What a mess. Did you get any medication for nausea, and or do you know of anything that can help? I definately need something for the pain as well. I thought I'd call my family doctor tomorrow on that. I wonder if stomach cancer is one of the more painful ones to get. I know they say they are one of the more difficult cancers to treat. I've also read the average survival rate for a stomach cancer survivor is only 3-5 yrs. That's not that long, pretty scary. I am trying so hard to find the strength and not give up hope, but I guess I will have take it day by day. It's amazing all the thoughts and mood swings one day can bring. You can be fine one minute and a mess and crying the next. I am also so worried about my daughter (7 yr old) what she must be feeling. I was thinking that maybe if we can somehow contact cancer compass directly we can somehow connect via phone or email, I would really love to actually talk to you. You are a great support and inspiration for me to keep the faith and fight. I pray to god everyday to help give me the strength to keep on going... .....Sabina

Hi Sabina, my name is Les, I have stomach cancer also. I take Emend for nausea when I'm on chemo, it stops it for me. I only take it three days which is a good thing, it's pretty costly. I take it the first day of chemo then 2 more days....it's by prescription..they say to take it before nausea starts...hang in there, hope things get better!! Les