Hi I am having the same procedure on Wednesday I have found it doesn't matter what anybody says the fear is constantly with you ,I am the same ,I don't switch off at night neither.I think my fear is to find out what stage i am at.Hope you find something to help you .

Its all constant fear. I know its not happening to me, but my son, but its constant fear as to what theyre going to say. My son will be told the stage soon as well but hasn't got appointment through yet. Keep googling what I know so far about his tumour size and no spread etc to try and predict - it's driving me mad!

Well I’m still here. Went down to theatre at 8 am and  got back to Intensive care at  8:10 pm. Supposedly everything went as well as could be expected. Came round with hardly any pain but. A few tubes coming out of me and no feeding tube. The most annoying is the one in my nose. I have a bit of a sore chest but that is after three walks of about 10 minutes each and sitting up for most of the day. I am on 25 ml of water an hour so quite thirsty. Same tomorrow and then the possibility of tea or coffee ion Thursday. It’s very busy in ICU so not much sleep but I made it.

Hello Boxbrain0

Welcome back and well done for messaging so quick post op. 

So pleased for you that all has gone well.

Nasogastric  tubes are irritating try not to dislodge it! 

Hope your recovery goes smoothly and you get your cuppa tea soon

Sending best wishes

RB

Thank you. 

Wow Marc that’s fantastic news. Great to hear from you so quickly after your op. 
3 x10 min walks on day one is brilliant. 
you’ll be kicked out of ICU before you know it

It’s all the tubes and equipment that they have to follow you around with. I have a shortness of breath and chest pain but now I’ve got more pain relief I should be ok. How are you getting on

The tubes will soon start coming out you feel quite mobile when you get down to just the one drop stand. I still have shortness of breath now. I’m working on it as it’s holding me back from upping my exercise. 
went to a group meeting of upper GI people today 2 or 3 guys there who had operation like )6 and 9  years ago and doing well 

Didnt really want to go but was well worth it to chat with a couple of them. 
recommend it if they have something like that near you once you are up and out. 
Hickman line fitted and this time I remembered to take my steroid tablets as  Chemo starts again tomorrow 

Fantastic! Good to know you are doing well Mark. Look after yourself. Get as much rest as you can. 

Thank you. Really feel shattered now and the bed is uncomfortable when you can’t move about in it ń. Still I ate jelly an hour ago and it was great. 

Ahhh bless you! I bet you can't wait to get back to your own bed.

Suki good luck with the stent. Sorry I know nothing about them. 
Marc, that is one of the worst things straight after. You manage to get into bed , one stand on one side one on the other you’re not comfortable and you can’t move. They should stress this more in that pre hab. You need arm strength and leg strength to attempt to adjust yourself. Try and shove up on those things that stop you falling out of bed 

Suki good luck with the stent. Sorry I know nothing about them. 
Marc, that is one of the worst things straight after. You manage to get into bed , one stand on one side one on the other you’re not comfortable and you can’t move. They should stress this more in that pre hab. You need arm strength and leg strength to attempt to adjust yourself. Try and shove up on those things that stop you falling out of bed 

Hi, just hoping you are still doing well.x

Hello all, I have spent the last hour reading this entire thread. It has helped me a great deal.

my 49 year old wife has been struggling with swallowing for the past four months and had an endoscopy on Thursday.

The doctor found a mass just before the stomach. It was big and he struggled to get the camera past it. We have been told it’s likely to be 90% chance of cancer. Her CT scan is tomorrow and we wait the biopsy results.

I have been a complete mess for days with full breakdowns while trying to be normal when my 14 year old daughter is around. 

My fear is that she perhaps only has months to live, as I read that once swallowing difficulty presents, it normally means the cancer is well established. We were told that if it has spread to the Aorta area then operation is not possible. 
it’s been the worst weekend of my entire life. 

My wife, bless her has been very calm about it. She says she has had no other symptoms and her bloods and poo samples were all fine. 

she is now on a liquid diet and she is keeping it down which I am so happy about. She has gone from 60kg to 50kg in six months. She had never smoked or drunk more than a glass of wine now and then.

Having read through all of your journeys, I’m feeling a little more confident that I’m not about to lose the love of my life. 

So THANK YOU all again for giving me hope. It seems that this cancer can be battled with.

Alex.

Hi there. Yes I know how absolutely frightening it is to read online about oesophageal cancer. At the start of this when my son was diagnosed he was dead and buried in my head and I was looking into how to kill myself after he was gone. The consultant couldn't get the endoscope past his tumour so we thought that was it. Just try and go along with it all step by step. Hopefully your wife will have the chemo, surgery then chemo again and it will be gone.x 

Hi Alex

So glad you are finding our various posts helpful. 

It really is a shock when you first find out  ....my hubby has had treatment and it has been a roller coaster BUT there is help via CRUk and Macmillan helpline ...and lots of good information on their webpages including for supporting youngsters.

Dont be shy to ask ...no question to small 

Sending strength to your wife and you and your daughter

Kind wishes RB

Thank you Karen and RB xxx

Alex prior to my husband being diagnosed (20 yrs ago) he couldn’t swallow anything of any bulk only soft food and even that was hard- he had the operation and apart from about 4 dilation ops over a couple of years ( due to scar tissue) he’s fine. He lost a lot of weight and has never really regained what he was. He was told to eat little and often ( he couldn’t get use to that so tends to stick to 3 meals a day but much smaller portions than he use to have). Do try and stay positive since his original diagnosis my husband has seen our children married and enjoyed 6 grandchildren- something we didn’t think would happen all those years ago.

Send all the best to you and your wife x

Wow, I love this! These are the real life stories we want to hear. I am on a FB group of oesophagus cancer survivors and there are loads of long time survivors, some diagnosed like 25 years ago and still here. So happy for you that your husband and you are enjoying your lives together with kids & grandkids. x

Hello all, it’s now been almost three weeks since my wife had her endoscopy biopsies plus CT and we still haven’t had any results.

my wife has lost another 2kg since then and drinking food is getting harder.

No call from any dietitian as promised either.

We are getting really really stressed now.

Hi if it was me I would ring and ask for results/next steps. Don’t wait any longer - hope it turns out okay for your wife

Hi, I’ve been ringing lots.. they say they are escalating it, but not much they can do as a different hospital is doing the analysis.