Stage III EC - Treatment starts tomorrow

Hello All,

My father (64) was diagnosed with Stage III EC a few weeks ago and begins chemo (cisplatin + 5FU) and radiation treatment tomorrow.  The plan is 6 weeks of radiation with two courses of chemo mixed in follwed by surgery some number of weeks afterward.

I've been reading everything that I can find and until coming across these message boards, what I read was decidedly "not good".

I'm encouraged by the survivor stories that I've read here today but equally I'm trying to brace for what's ahead for him.  I plan to update this discussion as we progress through the treatment.

I've been told that tomorrow will be a full day so I'm planning on spending the entire day with him at the hospital.  Luckily I'm a telecommuter so I can actually still work from the hospital (I expect we'll be spending a lot of time there!).

So far I think my dad is in better spirits than I am.  His primary concern when the doctors were outlining the treatment schedule was the potential impact to his annual post-retirement fishing trip =)

Sorry to hear about your father and hope that everything goes well for him.  

We are beginning our second journey with cancer.  My husband was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in July 2010.  After 35 radiation treatments and 2 chemo (cisplatin) treatments we thought he was clear.  But in February 2011 we found out that the cancer was still there.  In March 2011 he had a laryngectomy and throat reconstruction due to the radiation.  

Now we are beginning another journey with esophegeal cancer.  This was found on Monday during a procedure.  He will undergo a PET Scan on Friday and then next week we will meet with the doctor to find our the course of treatment and the stage of the EC.  I know the tumor is very close to his stoma and at this point small compared to the tumor that was in his larynx, just praying that it hasn't spread anywhere else. 

Please make sure your dad drinks  lots of water to flush his kidneys.  Something my husband didn't do and cisplatin is hard on the kidneys.  They won't use cisplatin this time we are being told.

On Apr 09, 2012 3:15 AM ratherbfishing wrote:

Hello All,

My father (64) was diagnosed with Stage III EC a few weeks ago and begins chemo (cisplatin + 5FU) and radiation treatment tomorrow.  The plan is 6 weeks of radiation with two courses of chemo mixed in follwed by surgery some number of weeks afterward.

I've been reading everything that I can find and until coming across these message boards, what I read was decidedly "not good".

I'm encouraged by the survivor stories that I've read here today but equally I'm trying to brace for what's ahead for him.  I plan to update this discussion as we progress through the treatment.

I've been told that tomorrow will be a full day so I'm planning on spending the entire day with him at the hospital.  Luckily I'm a telecommuter so I can actually still work from the hospital (I expect we'll be spending a lot of time there!).

So far I think my dad is in better spirits than I am.  His primary concern when the doctors were outlining the treatment schedule was the potential impact to his annual post-retirement fishing trip =)

I am sorry to hear that your dad, and you, have to face this difficult journey.  I was diagnosed stage 3, with one node involved in Jan 2010.  I went though two rounds of chemo, cisplatin and texotere (sp), 3 weeks apart.  Then daily radiaition for five weeks with a chemo each week.  I was operated on at Sloan Kettering in July 2010 using MIS.  I am doing quite well.  Have gained a lot of my weight back and except for some life style changes, i.e., sleeping at an angle smaller meals, etc. I am doing everything I did before the diagnosis.

Best advice I got was to drink lots of water during treatment and exercise daily.  The water helps flush chemos out the excercise will prepare you for the operation and help with the general mental condition.

There are a lot of survivors out there, check with this site often and you will get some good advice and answers to some questions.

I would also advise keeping a journal of some sort, I wish I had.

Good luck to you and your Dad.

Thank you both for your kind words.  We're through the frist two weeks of treatment and it seems to be going well so far (10th radiation treatment is this afternoon).  He's definitely trying to follow the "drink lots of water" advice.  I just called to nag him about drinking more water and he said if he doesn't drink a lot of water then he starts to get a nasty headache so he has an extra incentive to stay hydrated.

So far the treatment hasn't been too hard on him, some nausea (but no vomiting) and headaches is all he's really experienced to this point.  He's lost over 10 pounds but he had plenty of "extra" so we're not too concerned.

He even said that it seems like he's having an easier time swallowing, so hopefully the treatment is already working!

Also, we're treating this whole saga as a kind of engineering project, so we've been pestering the doctors to give us all of the records, including all of the imaging results.

I've been charting his blood test results in Excel, archiving all of the test results, and procedure dates, etc.  I even made him create a "project file" to store all of the research, results, bills, insurance docs, etc.  I think we're going to need to get a bigger file folder =/

I spent some time today going through the CT scans with him.  They gave him a CDROM with DICOM formatted data and results.  It took us a bit of time for him to figure the software out, but we felt like doctors scrolling through all of the images, pointing at various things and guessing what they were.  We *think* that we've located the tumor itself, but it's really difficult to be sure (neither one of us has any medical or biology experience at all and there is a lot going on in there!).

Finally, according to the EUS report, the staging is T3N1 with a single lymph node involved near the tumor but no visible issues with the liver or heart.

Sorry for what you and your dad are going through.  The EUS report sounds very promising.  I am an 8 year survivor.  Just know that the first several months are going to be rugged.  The chemo/radiation will come to an end and then the body will begin to heal from that.  Keep posting as he may get some side effects from the radiation/chemo and the folks here have remedies to help with some of the discomfort.  Remember, everyone is different so he may not get the same side effects.  I got them all, but I survived my 8-10 weeks of treatment and then I survived the awful surgery too.  Keep positive.  You have a lot of great people on this site to advise you.

On Apr 09, 2012 3:15 AM ratherbfishing wrote:

Hello All,

My father (64) was diagnosed with Stage III EC a few weeks ago and begins chemo (cisplatin + 5FU) and radiation treatment tomorrow.  The plan is 6 weeks of radiation with two courses of chemo mixed in follwed by surgery some number of weeks afterward.

I've been reading everything that I can find and until coming across these message boards, what I read was decidedly "not good".

I'm encouraged by the survivor stories that I've read here today but equally I'm trying to brace for what's ahead for him.  I plan to update this discussion as we progress through the treatment.

I've been told that tomorrow will be a full day so I'm planning on spending the entire day with him at the hospital.  Luckily I'm a telecommuter so I can actually still work from the hospital (I expect we'll be spending a lot of time there!).

So far I think my dad is in better spirits than I am.  His primary concern when the doctors were outlining the treatment schedule was the potential impact to his annual post-retirement fishing trip =)

Hi

I am so sorry to hear about your Dad....but you will find a great deal of support here and as I have read through so many posts, I found much hope

My Dad (72) was diagnosed with EC stage 3 in November2011.  He has just completed radiation and chemo(Xeloda).  I have been so amazed at how he has worked through this.  He has an extremely positive attitude and went into this ready for a fight.  It has been difficult, but he has done so well.  He has lost alot of weight but we are hoping he puts some on now, he is eating so much better.

We are praying the PET scan shows positive results, he will have that next week.  He also will meet with the surgeon after the PET scan and review the surgery that will be best. 

Sending positive thoughts your Dad will do as well as he starts treatment.