When David went for the endoscopy, the nurse informed us that they had found something and had taken a biopsy, things moved very quickly following this and we had further tests and hospital visits and were informed that David had Oesophageal cancer. The biggest question we were asked by all the health professionals we met was how did we spot it as it was very early. This type of cancer is usually picked up in later stages, this was fortunate for David as it was operable.
There was a trial for this type of cancer and David agreed to partake, he underwent 2 cycles of chemotherapy within the OE05 trail in April/May 2009. Then underwent an Ivor Lewis oesophagectomy, which took 8 hours in surgery. They had to break one of his ribs to gain access and removed two thirds of his oesophagus and one third of his stomach. Following the surgery he was nil by mouth and was fed by a tube into his stomach, he stayed in the intensive care unit for about 8 days, after about two weeks he was allowed his first 30ml drink of water. Gradually over the next couple of weeks he was gradually allowed to increase the water, the surgeon did scans to make sure there were no leaks, and finally he was allowed to start eating soft food. and increased to whatever he liked after about three weeks. He worked hard to eat and to come off the feeds before he came, though he had to keep the tube in his stomach for a short while, and it was removed at one of his outpatient appointments. The main problem he has, and initially this was quite frequent is a sharp doubling over pain when he has eaten too much. The first time he had this at home was quite scary, and we ended up calling an ambulance and being taken to hospital as we thought it was something to do with his ribs. The biggest thing with an oesophagectomy is effectively having to learn to eat smaller quantities more often, the stomach cannot handle large quantities of food and so smaller snacks throughout the day are required in order to maintain weight. David weighed 22 stones when he went into the hospital, and dropped to 12 stone when he left the hospital which we struggle to maintain on a daily basis. David had problems with certain foods, especially cheese which he loves which made him feel bad following the surgery. Also we had problems with capacity, he couldn't manage a cup of tea with his meal anymore, we have to wait about half an hour after he has finished. This is especially a problem if we decide to go out for a meal, as it means David either only eats a small amount with a drink, or just has a drink and no food. Also he suffers from reflux at night, we initially purchased an ezee bed raiser, to go under the matress so he could sleep at an angle, but because it was a double matress, it meant I also had to sleep at an angle and I ended up sinking down the bed taking the covers with me which resulted in bed clothes war. David was prescribed Lansoprazole capsules for the reflux, which is as a result of removing the oesophagus which normally prevents this. However the tablets have a side effect of diarrhoea which caused David great problems, he could eat and spend the day on the toilet, or not eat and go out. After several trips back and forth to doctors and trials of different drugs we eventually were put on Omeprazole and things settled down sufficiently for David to be able to manage to eat and not spend all day on the toilet. We were lucky enough to use our savings and purchased a new bed so that I could lie flat and he could lie at the required angle to deal with his reflux, higher if it is bad and lower if it is okay. We have found that he needs to stay still for about half an hour to an hour following food and needs about half an hour between the Omeprazole tablet and eating breakfast. David started returning to work in April 2010, his company have a 12 week gradual increase back to work after a long period of absence so the first couple of weeks he just did a couple of days and then gradually increased. He found that it was best to have his tablet then go to the work canteen and have breakfast there. He wanted to return to work as he missed the camaraderie and felt if he was able to work, then he was able to do the other things he wanted to do at the weekends.
