Im married to Mark (18yrs), two children Matt(16) and Grace(12). Mark's been undergoing tests for a couple of months. About a month ago we discovered that he has very eraly stage prostate cancer...we thought, no problem, it's treatable, we can deal with this. But then following and endoscopy about three weeks ago, we discovered he had a tumour on his oesophagus. On Monday this week, our GP told us that the biopsies showed that it was cancerous, and on Tuesday when we went to the hospital, the surgeon told us that it is 8cm and that it has 'strands'. He also told us that it's not curable-but is 'treatable'. We are devastated. He had had to go into hospital Thurs/Fri as his lungs were full of fluid-what does this mean? I am watching him daily just wasting away as he can barely eat...my big hulking man is dissappearing, and my heart is breaking.
FormerMember
Hello, My husband also Mark was diagnosed with secondary cancer of the liver and lungs at the beginning of June and with oesophegal cancer (his primary) just over 2 weeks ago, although it feels like a lifetime ago. Mark is due to start chemo this week, he has to have a hickman line, then the chemo will go in through that via a pump. The macmillan nurse came to see us on Fri and she feels he has gone worse in the last week. Mark has also lost a lot of weight and has gone from being fit and healthy not that long ago to hardly being able to walk upstairs. It is heartbreaking, and i guess we have to be as strong as we can to be there for our man. I'm sorry i've probably not been a lot of help to you.
Oh Wendy, I can so empathise although, your man's esophogeal cancer seems to be even more aggressive than mine. I like you have been married a long time (21 years). I'm 42, my husband, David, was 50 on 29th June, we have 2 children, Toby (19) and Thorne (18). David is a Major in the Army and we are posted here in Bavaria (Southern Germany - Alps, skiing, yodelling etc you get the picture).
On 9th June David had an endoscopy following blood tests that showed he was anaemic - he had a 3cm tumour, it is Stage III and he has just had an esophogectomy (1st July - thats why I have only just seen your blog, I have been playing nursie - he comes out of hospital on Tues - see my blog dated today) to remove his tumour, along with his esophogus and the upper part of his stomach. His cancer has infected proximal lymph nodes so chemo will follow. You need to ask the questions what stage is it? Sounds like it is Stage 4, are distal lymph nodes infected? (they should be able to tell this from PET and other scans). Just to give a small ray of hope - I have read on many of my research sessions (prior to finding out what Stage David's cancer was) of people who have been Stage 4, had chemo and radio (palliative) and the tumour has shrunk enough to then become operable, so please do not despair. As for eating, they can help with that too by placing a stent in his esophogus to make eating more comfortable - ask your consultant asap!!!! Presume the treatment they are talking about is chemo? When does this start?
Wendy, seek out 'Libby' on this site, she has been a great help to me and is sooooo knowledgeable (as she had cancer of the esophogus 2 years ago) re cancer of this type. If you would prefer to chat/ask some more privately, my email address is julieryan1@hotmail.co.uk I will help you with what little I know from the endless hours of research I have done since David's diagnosis.
Best of luck to you both, try and stay positive but ASK NOW re making your man more comfortable - if he doesn't eat, he won't have the strength to fight this bug*er, they need to help him NOW!!
Mark and I are both Police officers, my dad's ex Fusiliers-career soldier.
Mark has his first appointment at the Christie hospital in Manchester on the 22nd July.
We havn't been told what stage he is at yet- I knew I had to ask that question when we went to our local hospital last Tuesday, but it just didn't come out, with the shock of what was being said to us.
Mark was hospitalised Thurs/Fri last week with fluid on his lungs-we don't know why this happened-did it happen to your husband? (He's back home now)
Mark's tumour is aparently right up next to his aorta. The surgeon did mention that they would probably try chemo first to try and shrink it, with a posssibility of surgery if that were successful.
Both Mark and I are quite negative about chemo, you hear stories about people being terribly ill, and I think he just wants to be well for what ever time he has...although he is already sick and ill and in pain-the oralmorph is helping now though, and he is sleeping better.
It's Mark's 52nd birthday on Thursday, he's never smoked, drank no more than average, and this just isn't fair. Sorry to sound 'wallowy', but it's all very raw at the moment, we feel defeated before we even start.
I'm glad that your chap is some way down the line to recovery.
I'm not terribly good with computors, so if I don't find you in this forum again, my e-mail address is wendybridges@talktalk.net
