Hi d, 

Welcome to the club!!!, one you would NOT have wanted to join. But here we all are, What else can I say. There are loads of us on here (hi Daisy), seems that we are becoming common as muck (:

We joined in very late July. Wow ,what a surreal time. I think the first 2 weeks were the absolute worst, every emotion under  the sun, changing on an hourly basis. I am not a lover of the words 'strong' or 'coping' , I mean what do they look and feel like. All I can say is that take it as it comes, if you want to cry, then scream and cry, if you want to laugh, do it and enjoy. 
I think we made a decision early on , to keep everything as normal as possible, we only told very close family, not because we were 'embarrassed', we just didn't want people's pity or 'advice' ( see Daisy 71 hilarious- " what not to say to a cancer patient", cracked me up). We have young-ish kids( 11&13) , so we were motivated to crack on for them. They know that 'dad has nasty ulcers on his food pipe, that need shrinking and whipping out- which is the absolute truth apart from the C word. We didn't want them to have that long shadow over them or their relationship.

He found the chemo tough, wiped out for 5 days, then improved before the next hit. He is post op now and having the post up,chemo. I suppose we are just fed up now, especially with this nutty lock down arrrgg.

There are a few on here that are palliative, one guy 7 years palliative (hi Davek).

My husband and his gang of other chemo travellers are all on FLOT I think that stands for something like, fluruoracil, oxiplatin, Doxatel and something else ooo levoricin??? . All intravenous once a fortnight. ( there are 3 blokes on the same 'trip' as my husband. Him being the oldest at 56!.  I think it is the doxatel and particularly the oxiplatin that give him the grief, tingling v numb fingers n toes and some spectacular nausea. , the dexamethasone pre chemo is most 'exciting' - but hey ho what choice do we have .

Anyway

Best wishes

Hi everyone, 

I'm 25 years old and writing this on behalf of my 27 year old brother who has recently been diagnose with stage 4 oesophageal/stomach cancer that's spread to his liver. It's been the hardest 4 weeks of my families lives - at first being told it would be operable for then a painful 2 week wait for the MDT results to say it's spread and we'd only be offered palliative chemo. My brother is really upset and still in shock (like us all) he's due to start chemo on Wednesday and is really panicking about everything including getting chemo. Being the only person we know to have cancer I think talking to someone who has been through a similar situation who could shed some positive light would really help lift his spirits. Any advice you could give us to make this journey any easier would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks, 

Chloe 

I'm so sorry to hear this...

My Uncle has stage 3 at 82 years of age no treatment offered as he's too fragile. Try and stay strong xx hugs