Hi Redski, thank you for asking.   Husband has just had his fourth and final round of post op chemo on Monday.   We were both incredibly relieved he managed to limp past the finishing line.   However he is pretty wiped out now with fatigue and chemo-ness.   Hopefully in a week or so he will start to pick up a bit, and then back to trying to eat proper food again.    I hope you are doing ok, and as you say, I also hope everyone is trucking along their paths.

Sally x

Hi y'all.

Hope everyone is good.

9 months today since the slice and dice was done (:

Y'all know mine has been coughing since birth, opps I meant op, must have been the 9 months LOL- and it is driving us both to distraction!! Well, rang our unit again to say arrgggg. She said ' oh I'll let the surgeon know" surgeon comes back- " well let's do CT Scan" To see what the trouble is !!!!! You can imagine what I'm thinking !! Last time we had those sort of words it went like " oh, we'll  just do an endoscopy to check everything is normal" . I am bricking it, I did ask them "are you looking for mets! , " not really they say, we are looking at the whole picture - arrrrgggg. Trigger or what.

On top of that we have now visited our local maggies. What an amazing outfit they are, defo be one of my charities for the future I think. We'll he went today and I go Monday. They have offered loads of 'psychological' stuff, but we got a fascinating article written by one ( can' remember name and to lazy to get of my butt and look). Harvey maybe?? Describing EXACTLY what is going on in our heads at the mo. So uncanny, I wonder if he has been in my head! Very much about the auto pilot, then wham, the massiveness ( queens English?) of the whole thing starts to hit home. At least I take heart from knowing for the first time in my life I am completely normal!! Still don't feel good though ):

Sally- yay- all done , finito. Yep, the hero in him will start creeping back little by little over the next few days, then weeks and before you know it, some type of normality- yay

Anyways

Onwards and keeping the faith

Hilts

Hi Hilts,   I hope the CT scan is ok, I can imagine how you are feeling, when is it?   I think my husband will be having a scan as well, different people say different things, so not sure, but I think it will be before the Oncologist call next month if he does have a scan.   It would be good wouldn't it if they could just see what might be causing the cough, it is a very difficult thing to live with, especially with people so wary of COVID coughing carriers.   Let alone the irritation of it.   And it is irritating for all parties.  We actually went to see a play a week ago, how exciting.   For some reason I started getting a tickle in my throat and was frantically trying to suppress a choking fit in the very quiet audience.  It was horrible and could have ruined our first night out for years!   It's not even me who is ill so what's that all about.

interesting you dropped into Maggies.   At his last chemo session I walked by the Maggie's centre near the hospital, I stood a while, but couldn't go in, I felt I would just start crying and not be able to say anything.   Or what even to say.   So I just ended up walking around the grounds.   I hope your session there helps you and brings you some comfort.

keeping the faith,

sallyX

Hi all,

My husband had his last FLOT today - hurray! Quickest one too finished at 14:10 although still has 5FU to go through til tomorrow. Sally - my husband asked about a CT scan and was advised it should be in 6 weeks and then 8 weeks until he seeing Oncology consultant. He has appointment with the surgeon on 6th October.  I hope your husband is beginning to feel a little better day by day. 
 

Hilts - yes I understand you must feel anxious and I agree with what Sally said about it being irritating. It seems a simple thing but when it's constant it must be difficult. Hopefully the scan will enable them to resolve the problem. Re the wedge for the bed lol - yes longest river in the world I believe by volume lol Pleased that Maggies were helpful and the article is by Dr Peter Harvey and the Clinicol Physcologist gave it Kev - very helpful and interesting . I definitely appreciate an explanation rather than a professional just listening although that in itself can be helpful too. 

I did think of something that might be help - Pomegranate juice or pomegranates are good for the platelet count. 

I hope everyone is going along OK on this difficult path. I appreciate everyone's situation is unique but I really do wish you all healing thoughts for body and mind.

keeping the faith

Milly

Hi,

I just wanted to say I've been thinking of you and hope that your treatment plan is progressing. No need to reply unless you want to.

keeping the faith,

Milly

Yep Millie- to tabnabs, 

I've been thinking about you too and how I might respond,here I am moaning about feeling fed up, meanwhile.......hence why I have not responded sooner really, I still don't know what to say to you, other than thinking of you xx

Hilts

Hi everyone,

I haven't yet been diagnosed and am only 3 days into my 2 week wait for an Endoscopy for query oesophageal cancer. 

I've been having a read of your thread on my breaks at work today, and I have to say that while it's not put my mind at rest at least I know if worst comes to worst I won't be alone. 

Currently experiencing dysphagia for all solids and swallowing fluids is painful, (though I think this is exacerbated by the chest infection I've got on top of everything else). I have confirmed thickening of the walls of oesophagus which was coincidentally picked up on a contrast CT where they were looking for something else, and my GP did not reassure me when he goes we find this in 35% of chest CT scans and in 50% of cases it's cancer. I've also lost a lot of weight in the last 2 weeks, dropping from 10 stone 6 to 9 stone 2 but I'm sure this is in part to the dysphagia as I'm definitely eating less.

I know statistically I should be in the "safe" half of the population as a 29 year old female who's not smoked in 10 years and rarely drinks, but you never know who this is going to hit do you? 

Hope you don't mind me gatecrashing, just not had much if any support from the family. When I told my mother her response was just it won't be cancer people your age don't get that. Obviously I have to say I'm hoping it's not, and that maybe the heartburn that started at the same time as the dysphagia has just caused scarring in the oesophagus instead, but would be nice to have some support on my journey from those who have been there and understand. 

Howdee Leo, 

Never worry about 'gatecrashing' - you're not, this is a public board and everybody and anybody is welcome to join us. Welcome.

Bless you, you sound like me in the first throws of investigations! Reading EVERYTHING I could find on 'it' the more gory the better! LOL. Google is an absolute horror show.

What can I say to you. The worry is horrendous. IThe longest 2 weeks of your life!. Horrible.

If it turns out to be nothing then great, if it turns out to be 'something' then you've found us !

i am not the victim, it's was my 56 yr old husband, I say 'was' , not because he's popped,off, but because he is at this moment in time disease free after 9 months of treatment. Same as many on here , but by no means all.

People, like friends or relatives the try to be helpful, bless 'em, but by god they can say the most crackingly  helpful comment......not.,Even GP's  bless em.

I wouldn't beat yourself up about, "did I do this or that" , nobody has ever really done anything, it just is.

Most on here know that I am a great advocate of the ' Keith Richards health promotion plan' ( look him up on google ) he has done EVERYTHING they say you shouldn't and is still here knocking on for 80!. I always think luck of the draw rather than anything else.

Anyway finger x for you and come back to us either way

best wishes and keep the faith

Hilts

Thank you .

I know I've been added to the Endoscopy waiting list (perks of my old boss now being the team leader in the cancer bureau at the hospital where we both work), and she's told me my referral has been triaged as a 2 week wait 1b urgent. No idea what the 1b means, but at least I know I'm on the list. Nerve wracking waiting for the call though. 

I've been checking my phone every 5 minutes at work just in case I've missed the call. All I really know so far is that when I had my CT done I saw a registrar rather than a consultant and he just goes your lungs are clear but the CT has thrown up that you have significant cell changes in your oesophagus and then sent me home! Not the most reassuring thing in the world.

At least my GP has shed some more light by saying that it's wall thickening at some gastro junction? even if he then did have to throw the 50/50 statistic my way.

It's really heart warming to see how much they can do now because I saw some figure when I first jumped on Google about a 15 percent survival rate at 5 years and that terrified the living daylights out of me when I've got young children.