Hi Moore05

My dad was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in February, he'd had symptoms for a while but chose to ignore them, by the time he finally had an endoscopy a tumour had grown to 10cm. He had a PET scan which showed that it hadn't spread to other areas as such but he did have cancerous cells on the lymph nodes close to the aorta. Due to this they wouldn't operate because of the risk of damaging the aorta and him bleeding to death. He had a stent inserted to allow him to eat comfortably, although he still worries about it getting blocked, which as yet it hasn't. He started his first type of chemo shortly after which unfortunately didn't help, they have now started a type of chemo that they have described as a very aggressive form of chemo. He has lost his hair with this one but is not suffering from any other side effects. His oncologist has told us that there is a possibility of the tumour shrinking which might make it operable, however the risk with the aorta may still be a problem so I guess it will be the surgeons decision. My dad asked how long he had to live as he is stage 4, his oncologist told him 6months, he's still with us, his nurse said to him you don't die of cancer, you live with cancer. I wish you well with your journey through this awful time, 

Hi Billy, thanks for the reply and I feel a better knowing your story. Neither of us have been unfortunate enough to know anyone going through cancer so everything is so knew to us and as we were told it could be removed we did all that research but now told it’s spread and no meeting or information until 2 weeks so we feel very lost! I wish you well on your journey! Leanne 

Hi, thank you for your reply, I am sorry to hear about your dad but glad he is still fighting! Is he still well in himself and active etc, as in living a ‘normal’ life? We were told the surgery would be done with no chemo but now it’s spread they won’t operate but I’d like to think if the chemo can destroy or really shrink whatever is in his liver then the surgery could go ahead...we live in hope! We don’t even know what stage it is yet...do you know when you find that out? I wish your dad all the best on this horrible journey! Leanne