About a year ago I was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and after numerous tests and scan's I had a picc line fitted the following May ready for my 4  flot chemo rounds in June and July. After reading some posts in here about side effects with flot I was not looking forward to the rounds...however after the first round I felt good with only the loss of my taste buds for about 5 days and a little little bit of thrush inside my left cheek...I got tingling in my fingers whenever they got cold. I felt tired and lethargic after day 3. I also struggled with sleeping with the pump attached at first but it got better over time. Even the chemo got slightly worse reach time. I never felt sick through any of the rounds which I thought was strange and that the chemo was not working. I was recommended for a Romeo study which I joined. This involved with not knowing what type of operation I would have...open  or keyhole...even the surgeon did not know until the last minute. So on August 13th I had my operation which was when the problems began. I went down and had my epidural fitted however they had to refit it a second time as it did not go right the first time.

The operation went ahead with open surgery and had my right lung collapsed as part of the op. Everything was great until a few days later when even though I was nil by mouth a Dr asked me to drink some ribena and it ran straight into my chest drain. Which the Dr got me back for a second op as there was a leak. To which I had my lung collapsed a second time to repair a failed stitch which also led to a second chest drain fitted.

I woke up from that and had chest pains so had I thought I was having a heart attack only to find my epidural had failed for a second time and was taken back to have it refitted again but was stopped by a nurse because I had had blood thinning drugs so had to wait with only morphine until the drug had worn off before they could refit the epidural. My surgeon came and apologized to me saying he had never this happen in 10 year of this type of operation.

After 11 days I developed a lung infection in my right lung and was treated with antibiotics for three days before I was allowed home. In September I got took back into hospital for three days with problems with my right lung again...I had a small amount of fluid in it and after a appointment with the respiratory clinic and some tests it was found that I had  empiema and treated with antibiotics for 4 weeks. At the end of October I was back in hospital with the same problem but this time I was treated with antibiotics intravenously for 10 days and felt great after. But due to all this I was late starting my next rounds of chemo.

So a week before Christmas I had my next chemo and then new year's eve for the second lot and so on until my last round Feb 3rd. Again the rounds not as bad as I thought it would be but still worse than the 1st 4 rounds...mainly the loss of taste and the the thrush and tiredness. Each lasting a bit longer than before. I did lose a small amount of hair so I shaved it all off so as not to make a mess and my wife likes me like that so I am keeping it that way lol.

On the 4th of Feb I had a CT scan and yesterday the 3rd of March I got my results with my oncologist who told me that it did not show any cancer and that unless anything changes he was happy to leave me to my surgeon and upper GI team.

I would like to say that my hassle with the treatment will not happen to everyone and most people will go through this with no major problems at all but this is what I went though. And at the end of the day if I never went through this my life would be so much shorter than I expect it to be and I am so greatful to everyone involved in my care and treatment...I appreciate everything they have done and their time they have invested in my recovery.

So here's to the next 5 year's of positive thoughts and getting back to full recovery.