Hello all,
First off - just wanted to say how brilliant I think this forum is. Inspiration and hope can be held only with the knowledge that there are other people out there - perhaps only virtually - but there, nontheless. So thank you. For those currently battling ( and beating) EC - Keep going....the thing about cancer is there's all to be played for and attitude can make a difference. My ma - the one person who means more to me than life itself, continues to fill every room in our house with love and laughter; 9 months after diagnosis with T3N1MO esophageal cancer. She's phenomenal.She whooped Bowl Cancer 6 years ago and I can tell you - there isn't inch of her that isn't willing to give EC the same treatment. (no pun intended)
Her diagnosis, as per many, came after years of being fobbed off with indigestion tablets. 'here - have another rennie.' In fact it wasn't until the had a complete blockage (not even being able to pass water) that they thought to do an endoscopy. Some four/five months after her having trouble eating. Anyway I digress ( not unusual) Long of the short is she finished her treatment (Chemo and Radiotheraphy - Cisplatin and 5-FU) back in September. She then had her first scan at the beginning of November. The scan showed ' no significant change' to the tumour but she was told that given that there had been a functional change e.g. she was eating better - she should, well, just go home and get on with life. Give her consultant a call if any problems swallowing reoccured.
It was the strangest diagnosis to recieve. After months of feeling like we would have something concrete to work on - the response just frustrated me further. What do you mean there's no significant change, but your telling her to go away. I really couldn't understand it. Why wouldn't they do another endoscopy, instead of just relying on what are more often than not relatively useless scans? I knew that changes of esophageal cancer were sometimes hard to detect [often the tumour itself is a thickening of the wall rather than a solid lump] but if they couldn't build an accurate picture - why just send her away...
Immune system battered, she's been on steroids almost continually since November. At the beginning of December she started having a wee bit of trouble eating again but put this down to post treatment aggravation of the esophageus. She insisted she was fine ( as she always does when she's not!) Then a few weeks ago she was let out [my pop's had her under house arrest this christmas fearing infections etc!] to come visit me in Edinburgh ( I'm in my final year of Uni there) for the day. We had a wonderful day, even went out for some lunch. She vomitted and fainted. I knew then that something wasn't right again.
Two weeks on and she's barely keeping anything down. She's been put on a waiting list for another endoscopy. They might put a stent in.
My questions as ever are never-ending; and so i'd be grateful for any response/advice. However I would really like to know whether anyone has had a similar experience. I can't quite work out whether they've just decided that it's not going to be cured and thus are looking into pallative options e.g the stent or whether they...oh I don't know. I'm just confused as to why they can't give us any straight answers.
Anyway - apologies for the rant, healing and strength vibes sent in force across the cyber divide.
Walk in balance all,
Han