On 1/25/2008
VintageLadyJ wrote:
Hi,
They are doing that right now actually. She has all these tubes going through her nose down into her esophagus. Supposedly a dye they put in can tell if and how much of the esophagus is damaged. What really gets to me is how the doctors and specialists keep saying they are baffeled by whats going on with my mom. Yet, when you read everyones stories they seem to be going through very similiar situations. What is so baffeling to them? Don' t they research the enresults of taking out someones stomach. Is that it!! They remove it and tell you ...ok go live your life now. Sorry I am frusterated and nervous about what her results are.
Thanks for the info.
Jenn
I know exactly what you mean, Jenn. My mother had a full gastrectomy in Oct. 07 and is now on the last few days of radiation. She's had one cycle of chemo a month ago which they said would be the only one she'd need. Yesterday, they mentioned 4 more cycles of chemo (this means 20 more sessions). When we asked why, the radiologist didn't have an answer except to show us something that explains that's usually the protocol. We asked about our mother's particular situation and the doc just stared at us blankly. We, like you, felt like "don't you guys do follow ups on your patients? how can you not know these things, except in generalities?"
The surgeon who removed my mother's stomach told her while she was in the hospital recovering that she would have to have monthly B12 injections for life. I was there at the time, but went back to my home (out of state) before she was released from the hospital. I returned 2 months later and casually asked my mom about the B12 shots and who was administering them. She said she hadn't gotten one. I called her surgeon to ask "what gives?" and he said "she's supposed to have a B12 shot monthly." And I thought, yes, we know that, so why wouldn't you good doctor give her the prescription for it before she left the hospital????!! Here we are two months later and my mom had no clue. He also didn't warn her about this esophagus issue that you've reported also, with gagging as the food tries to go down, and spitting up the foam. All he's said about it is that the esophagus is just healing from the surgery. Well, none of her esophagus was removed except to be connected to the small intestine, so the explanation doesn't make sense.
Meanwhile, we tell the radiologist, the oncologist, and the surgeon repeatedly about this problem and they all look at you with blank stares. It's simply unbelievable that these doctors do not have the answers or acknowledge these side effects and act like they've never heard of such a thing. I, too, have been so frustrated about the doctors' lack of any information or help in dealing with these post surgery issues.