It’s now 4 weeks since I came home after my surgery. I met with the surgeons, specialist nurse and dietitian last Friday (14/3) for a post operative review and Wednesday (19/3) I met with the oncology team. Everyone seemed quite happy that I am healing well and making good progress. The tumour had reduced in size to just a thickening of the oesophagus wall. They removed 39 thoracic lymph nodes during the surgery and found no microscopic evidence of cancer in any. And there was no spread or any evidence of any secondary tumours. The overall staging had reduced from T2N0M0 to T1bN0M0, which means that the 2 months of preoperative chemotherapy had been effective – a regression factor of 4 - not great, but at least some effect.
Future Treatment:
As the chemo was effective they consider it worth repeating in order to deal with any stray cancer cells that may be in circulation. This is planned to start on 14th April and finish in early June. So we can still book that Mediterranean cruise in June, that we have been hoping for.
So how am I doing:
I’m obviously pleased with the effectiveness of the surgery and chemo. I’m not especially looking forwards to another 3 cycles of chemo, but I realise that it increases the chance of long term remission.
I feel that the rapid progress I made in the early weeks has slowed and I’m struggling to eat enough and I often feel unwell after I have eaten. It is very much trial and error to find what things I can easily manage that don’t make me feel unwell. I have lost about a stone in weight (which was all spare anyway). I’d like that to slow now otherwise I will need to replace my whole wardrobe – as it is I can now get into clothes that have been too tight for a year or two!
I enjoyed a change of scene last weekend at our annual dance weekend in Rockingham. But, whereas I usually spend a day or two following these weekends recovering from the excesses of food, alcohol and exercise, I just felt shattered, feeling that I had overdone things a bit. But I have recovered from that now and the eating seems to be a bit better too.
We always knew that the recovery process would be long and not without its difficulties, so I am not discouraged.
