Oesophagus Cancer Liver Metz

Hi all.

After some initial positive news, my beloved Mum has been told that her cancer is incurable and I just can’t wrap my head around it. I was hoping that in posting here I could find someone who has been through/going through the same. 

My Mum is 55 and usually fit and well, however in September 2018 she experienced bleeding which resulted in doctors finding a pollop on her womb, cue a long story short they operated and cut it out, reared or for cancer and it was all clear. At the same time the nurse performed a smear test which resulted in her being diagnosed with stage 2 cervical cancer. Whilst we were all devastated as it was such a blow (she was so well in herself) the oncologist was very positive and quite certain they could treat and cure her.

A few scans later we discovers my Mum also has cancer in her Oesophagus. This again was such a shock as she had no symptoms of this (and still doesn’t now). We were told it was not a secondary cancer it was a completely separate one and they were putting together a plan to treat both.

The outlook has been pretty positive and my Mum has been her usual self, eating like a horse (but keeping her size 6 figure) although she has been suffering from anxiety which I am sure is common.

We had a meeting with the team dealing with her Oesophagus cancer and were told that after further scans they found that they couldn’t operate on the cancer in her oesophagus and that it looked like it has spread to the liver as they had seen ‘specks’ of it on her liver. The consultant explained that their can’t cure the cancer in her liver as it’s secondary. 

My mum was offered chemotherapy and started last Friday, she was initially great however she is now feeling a bit worn out and spending the odd day in bed. It’s sad to see as before the chemo you wouldn’t be able to tell anything was wrong with her.

she hasn’t been offered a stent as  yet as she can still swallow just fine, although I’m not sure how long that will last.

i have read majority negative stories about this cancer and the statistics online are not encouraging. Does anyone have something positive for me to cling on to now? I dream that she will still be here in 5 years time and I will tell everyone about how well she’s doing :(

  • Hi Sadie

    I'm so sorry to hear about your mum. It sounds like she has already been through so much and now this.

    I'm not going to be much of a positive vibe for you having just lost my husband to oesophageal cancer but I can give you some advice.

    Number one would be to be careful now much research you're doing online or rather be careful where you do it: some websites are poorly researched at best and down right wrong at worst. Stick to cancer research, Macmillan and Marie Curie 

    Denial is ok... it's our brains way of protecting us.

    Listen to what your mum's medical team are saying. ..they will always have her best interests at heart. Be prepared for the possibility of having to make the "quality over quantity" decision. Not something anyone wants to contemplate but it MAY be something you need to consider in the future.

    Write a list of questions you want answers to and don't leave the consultants room until you have as many answers as you can. Bear in mind you may not be given information if you don't ask the question. In my experience thankfully we were drip fed the bad news only as we got further down the road.

    Anyway sorry I can't be more supportive in terms of your specific questions but I can share my experiences with OC if it helps

    Take care and please be kind to yourself and if you need any help or support this is the best place for it 

    Good luck 

    Ruth x