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I can’t cope - dad diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus

Lauren_123
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My dad has felt a bit under the weather and the doctors thought he had gall stones, my dad had an endoscopy on Father’s Day and found out that he didn’t have gall stones but he had cancer of the oesophagus, since then dad had an mri and they found out he has secondary cancer in the liver.

 I just wanted to know if anyone could give me some hope, I can’t bare the thought of living my life without him, operating is now not an option because it’s gone to the liver, all he can be offered is chemo.

i have never experienced pain like this and I don’t know what to do

  • Offline in reply to plebbs

    Hi Plebs,

    Glad to read that your husband’s EOX regime is coming to an end - I found that the side effects were cumulative so felt lousy after the final one.

    The good news is that the side effects started to wear off almost immediately apart from the neuropathy whih meant my feet and hands felt cold for about six months after the last capecitabine tablet. 

    It sounds counter-intuitive but I found that mild exercise helped - mainly wrapping up well and taking my dog for a long slow walk. That plus sleeping whenever my body told me too. 

    Homemade power shakes and smoothies helped - especially when my appetite was low. Being homemade, I knew exactly what the ingredients were and that there were no preservatives or other chemicals added.

    Good luck!

    Dave

  • Offline in reply to davek

    Hi, my hubby has one more EOX on thursday but is thinking about skipping it because of the tingling / numbness in hands and feet.  The oncologist has said it will likely be permanent damage and won't get better so that has put him off... did you find it got better when treatment finished or was the nerve damage permanent?  I am obviously concerned about him missing his last dose!

  • Offline in reply to plebbs

    It took a while, but in my case the feelings of coldness and tingling were reduced after a month and completely gone after six months. 

     

     

  • Offline in reply to plebbs

    Interesting that he is having eight cycles of EOX. I had 4 with an option of 2 more but my CT scan showed things were shrinking so the oncologist advised I should stop there. 

    Different approaches in different countries, I guess :-) 

     

  • Offline in reply to davek

    Well, hubby finished his 8 rounds of chemo in December and is now on maintainence Immunotherapy with the Herceptin every 3 weeks. He had his CT scan at the end of December and we go for the results of that tomorrow. As he had such good CT results after his 3rd round (shrinkage of 50%) we are hoping for more good news tomorrow. Keeping my fingers crossed that things are good. He is still keeping well, eating well, putting on weight. He says he feels weak in his body and legs, but hopefully thats just the  effects of the chemo. Keeping positive but doubt I will sleep much tonight.

  • Offline in reply to patgc

    Well, the news was good. The main tumour has shrunk right down. The Docs words were thats its negligable. The liver lesions have shrunk from 35mm to 22mm and the lymph nodes look virtually normal.

    Needless to say we were both really pleased. He will carry on with the Immunotherapy for as long as it keeps working and has another CT end of March.

    Only problem I can see is that I am now going to be paranoid about any ache, pain or problem that he has, thinking that its all growing again.

    Hoping that he is as lucky as Davek. Fingers crossed.

  • Offline in reply to patgc

    Wow - that's fantastic news! 

  • Offline in reply to davek

    Thanks Davek, . Every time I have a panic, I think of you and tell myself if things can work so well for you, It can also do the same for my husband. I keep positive thoughts as much as possible.

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