Chemo 2 - 200917

Hope you're well AM. Been reading your posts and thinking of you.

G

Thanks Graeme.

Ironically , I'm feeling quite ok at the moment. I have been bothered a lot less by heartburn and stomach acid and have been eating better, even feeling hungry on occasion which has not happened for a while.

The tumour I have is a Signet Ring Cell Carcinoma which is quite an aggressive tumour so I just want to get through all the chemo so that I can have surgery before it spreads anywhere else. 

I hope that you are doing well. Are you still hoping to go back to work at the end of the year?

When I met my surgeon last week he told me that the surgery would be keyhole. I was quite relieved at this.  For some reason I thought it could only be done by traditional means.  I must have read that on one of the many websites I have visited. 

Take care and keep in touch. 

AM x 

Hi AM

Hope you are well. Can you update on your treatment and also tell me what your early signs of the stomach cancer were?

Thanking you and God Bless xx

Brian

Hi Brian,

Happy New Year.

I started having a lot of heartburn in May 2016. At times I had pain in my stomach. After a few weeks I went to my GP and asked to be tested for helicobacter pylori. I'd had this a few years back and the symptoms were similar. The test came back negative. My GP thought I had GORD and prescribed Nexium. This seemed to ease the symptoms for a few weeks but then they came back again. I was prescribed omazeprazole but it didn't really help. In October 2016 I was at a charity ball and I started to get terrible stomach pain and had to go home. When I got home I vomited. This happened a couple of times more. In January 2017, I saw a gastroenterologist who said that I was overweight and that I should lose 5 kilos and do 3 x 20 minutes cardiovascular exercise every week. She said that if I did that she was sure that my symptoms would improve. To cut a long story short, they didn't. I then went through a period from March to June 2017 where on some days I just couldn't eat and started to vomit on a regular basis every 7 to 10 days. By this time I had lost around 12 kilos. In July 2017 I asked to have an endoscopy where they saw a very deep stomach ulcer but the doctor didn't like what he saw. He took a sample for biopsy and wanted to do more tests. I was admitted to hospital and had a CT scan and they said that my liver and lungs were fine. I then had another endoscopy with ultrasound and they took another sample for biopsy. The first biopsy came back negative but the second one confirmed that I had stomach cancer. I had 4 chemo sessions of FLOT at two-week intervals followed by surgery to remove 80% of my stomach. If I am fit enough I will have another 4 rounds of chemo, starting in a couple of weeks, to attack any cancer cells that may be lurking around but have not yet settled anywhere else. It has been a very tough 4 months.

I suggest that you insist on an endoscopy. You should not be taking PPI medication for such a long time.

Good luck and please keep me posted.

AM x

Hi AM

Thanks so much for the detailed reply. I will keep you in the loop and please do the same. I wish you all the best for your further treatment.

Regards,

Brian