Hi! I have just created an account today and I wanted to introduce myself, say 'Hi' and thank MacMillan for their support last year.
I am now in remission having gone through treatment and surgery for stomach cancer in 2008. I have to say I am so grateful to Peter and Jo at MacMillan for their support throughout my ordeal, it made a great deal of difference. It's good to see familiar faces throughout the appointments and treatment with so many different doctors, consultants and surgeons and nurses!
I am very happy to report that I am now living a normal life and have just come back from a week snowboarding in Les Arcs with my brother and 3 of my mates. I can honestly say that it is my best snowboarding holiday ever and I had no difficulty matching the stamina of my friends (2 of whom run marathons!) on and off piste. Life is good at the moment, and I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all the doctors, consultants, nurses, surgeons and the wonderful people at MacMillan for getting me to where I am today. If anybody is interested in finding out more about how I coped through the difficult times last year, I have a blog at http://blog.amazedatlife.com It is still work in progress and there's a lot more to come!
I hope that for anyone going through a similar thing, there will be at least one thing in my story that will help them through their own ordeal.
Believe it or not, despite the obvious difficulties I had a really good year in 2008. I didn't have to go to work, that was one plus point straight away! but it also allowed me to pursue other interests that I wouldn't normally have the time for. I would be especially interested to hear from anyone else who is in remission from Stomach Cancer, or has had a sub total gastrectomy so that we can exchange tips.
Cheers! Tony
FormerMember
Hey there,
Read your blog and await the next posting.
My dad is about to come home from hospital following a total gastrectomy six weeks ago.
We are a bit concerned at what to feed him. Hes been on light food for the last 5-6 days - porrige, minced meat & pot etc.
Sorry it's taken so long to reply but I've only just found your comment!
Sorry to hear about your Dad, it's not the most pleasant of operartions but I can honestly say that I am doing fine 7 months from my op. There may be differences of course between your Dads situation and mine, but I was given the green light to eat whatever I wanted in terms of the type of food I ate as soon as I was allowed to eat - which was about 1 week after the operation. I was a bit unlucky in that I got C Diff and so was battling with the effects of that as well as trying to eat! I did however manage to break free of the ward and took a walk to Burger King about 2 weeks after my op, and I managed a whole Whopper! Not something I would normally boast about, but I have to admit I did feel pretty pleased with myself! I think this helped my case when I was asking to go home while still suffereing from the C Diff (antibiotics weren't working. The consultants reluctantly let me go home with a different course of antibioitcs and I get better really quickly from that point onwards. I was basically eating what ever I wanted as soon as I was home, but obviously in much smaller quantities to start with. I did however take heed of the booklet given to me by McMillan and pretty much avoided fruit and too much veg. During the first month I would get a painful stitch type pain low down in my abdomen towards my groin after I had eaten or drunk too much. It was really difficult judging where my limit was, but the doctors weren't at all concerned and said it was just where the join was betwwen the top bit of my stomach that was left and the upper intestine. Well before Christmas though all this had passed and I was eating lots more and was even able to drink several pints of beer quite happily without any ill effects (unless it was a sweet beer), and fairly normal sized meals. I was (and still am) enjoying a normal sized lunch and a good sized evening meal, and nobody (including myself) would know what I had been through unless I told them! The one thing that I will say though is to avoid sweet foods and especially sweet drinks. The sugar gets into your blood real quick and I suffered from 'dumping syndrome' quite frequently until I cut out sugar in my tea and coffee and sweet cereal on a morning. I had several 'funny turns' where I would get the shakes and sweats and had to eat a load more sweet foods to get my blood sugar levels back up, usually about mid morning after having had too much sweet stuff at the start of the day. Now that I am more aware of the effects I am much more careful and feel much better for it. I do dtill have deserts now and again, but I'm careful what other sweet things I have around the same time.
I hope this helps a bit, and that your Dad makes good progress. If he enjoys food I'm sure he'll soon be pushing the boundaries and before he knows it he will soon be eating well again and enjoying it!
One of the upsides of not having a stomach is that you don't ever get hungry (which can be annoying sometimes!), but you still crave after food and you still enjoy it in the same way. It's actually not the curse that I thought it would be, and am more than happy with what I am able to eat and drink - all the plumbing seems to work just fine :o)
I'm happy to report that my Dad's doing much better & hopefully on the right road at last.
He's been in hospital for over 6 weeks now & we just want to get him home.
He's eating (too much at times) but has lost over a stone, and although he's in his seventies he's still rather vain & hates losing too much weight. I'll give him your advise though not to eat too many sweet things. Luckily he likes the soups the diatitian gives him at the hospital so I'll make sure I get lots of those when he leaves.
I'll keep you posted on his progress & you keep well.
