Surviving Oesophageal Cancer

Hi Lyn

It’s good that your husband is healthy and a good diet will go a long way to ensuring he gets through the treatment well.  Since surgery I follow a Mediterranean diet, or the Rainbow diet, which is similar, as all the ingredients are high in antioxidants, very healthy in all the right nutrients and the ingredients are high in the superfood categories.  I also grow and use plenty of fresh herbs, as these too have excellent medicinal and healing properties.  I really dislike the taste of honey, but my husband eats Manuka honey every day and uses it to sweeten drinks.

I know you have a wait now of a week or so for the results, so you’ll be in my thoughts and fingers crossed that all will be as we hope.

Love

Crystal xx

Crystal - amazingly we did not have to wait for results - were given results of laparotomy yesterday and oh Crystal - there hidden amongst all the jargon and medical terminology was this line "No metastatis seen.No contraindication to surgery". That has to be good news doesnt it ? No-one has actually talked to us yet but they seem to think they can proceed to surgery and we have been told we need to have an appointment with the big man himself (the surgeon - no other big man!!) so they are going to cut this horrible thing out. Nielsen home from hospital with better news, daughter home from London for the weekend - life is good. Have a wonderful bank holiday weekend.

L xx

Hi Lyn

Am in a bit of a rush but just wanted to take a few minutes to say that this is really promising news that the laparoscopy showed no sign of spread, and that is exactly what we’d hoped for.  I know it will be a huge relief to you both, so now you must enjoy your daughter’s visit over the bank holiday and put all dark thoughts aside.  Later on, your hubby can concentrate on getting fit ready for surgery – gentle aerobic exercise such as walking, swimming, lifting light weights etc., also mind-raising thoughts, uplifting music and good food even if it has to be semi-liquids.  Is he to have the neoadjuvant chemo before surgery?

In the meantime, have some fun and laughter just to unwind from all the stress that’s been the norm until now.

A step at a time is easier to handle.

Love

Crystal xx 

Good morning to All looking in.  I really hope you’re feeling as good as you possibly can be. 

Love

Crystal xx

Morning All:

Just wonderful news for Lyn. What a relief.

Crystal, the juicer is arriving today. Thank you for your lovely message.  Yes, he away on business but flying back fro Berlin tonight.  Tennis tomorrow with any luck!

Steve, how is the chest pain?

Love to you and all

Sue x

After my surgery, I had some problems, not so much keeping it down but getting it down, my oesphagus shrunk to 2.5 mm. I don't have a stent in. Survived on juices, vegetable and fruit in many combinations, soups, ice cream, jelly and yoghurt and smoothies. Even tried a carrot smoothy once, did not like it too much tasted like crap but I suppose you can live on it, but add a little apple and lemon and wow. The trick is mix it up and try it and have a little as often as possible. Lycopene is suppose to be another food product to keep the nasties away, this means tomato and beetroot juice. Often added milk powder, sustagen, aktavite or milo even to the vegetable juices. Had a lot of tomato soup. Used to add vegemite or bonox  a lot of times because I liked the taste even during chemo, try bovril if you are a pom, often had these as a beverage before bed in the evening. A real good japanese diet is to eat 30 different foods a day, this includes the seasoning and spices.

I agree with Crystal about some of these so called cancer treatment, and believe me, I did a lot of research. With a applied  biology degree, I had enough backgrounding to understand the science and enough nous to differentiate between wishful thinking and reality and indeed some blatant cons. While supplements are neccesary to us with eating problems, they should never replace a dietary source.  I have looked at curcumin in many research papers and yes I do believe it has some potential, I add a bit of curry or tumeric to my stirfrys or soups. i onced worked for a company that sold a supplement  for arthritis and when sales dropped off, it overnight became and effective treatment for cancer, I have had some experiences with these cons, needless to say I left this company.

(Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is a polyphenol derived from the plant Curcuma longa, commonly called turmeric. Curcumin has been described as a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. Evidence has also been presented to suggest that curcumin can suppress tumor initiation, promotion and metastasis. Pharmacologically, curcumin has been found to be safe. Human clinical trials indicated no dose-limiting toxicity when administered at doses up to 10 g/day. All of these studies suggest that curcumin has enormous potential in the prevention and therapy of cancer. (Aggarwal BB, Kumar A, Bharti AC. Anticancer potential of curcumin: preclinical and clinical studies.)

I agree with crystal, about buying magic supplements on line. I once worked for a company that manufactured a nutritional supplement for arthritis made from sea cucumber, it showed some promise but when sales dropped off it magically overnight became a treatment for Aids, then they added a cancer treatment to its resume, I quickly left that company.

I have  done some research into Curcumin, with a applied biology degree I have some grounding in the science and enough nous to tell the difference between wishful thinking and reality and indeed some blatant scams. I believe Curcumin has some properties to help us in our cancer cure and prevention. I also know with our eating problems that we need supplements, but supplements should not replace dietary sources. Just add curry to soups and stews.

Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is a polyphenol derived from the plant Curcuma longa, commonly called turmeric. Extensive research over the last 50 years has indicated this polyphenol can both prevent and treat cancer. Pharmacologically, curcumin has been found to be safe. Human clinical trials indicated no dose-limiting toxicity when administered at doses up to 10 g/day.

Hi sue

Thanks for asking, the chest pain has eased a bit. It may have been down to the night shifts as I am covering leave and they are all over the place upsetting my routeen. Another two to do at the weekend lucky me!

Take care,

Steve

Just joined this evening. See bio for my little problem as dont want to bore everyone on my first post. Have been reading the posts for a couple of hours now and have gone from oh sh..... to oh thats good. My wife has seen me change face colour during the past couple of hours and she asked "Why are you doing that?" my answer is that with this latest setback I just need to know. Didnt need or want to earlier but the time has come...so thanks so far for the different views.

Bobb (my name is Bob but somebody was already using that 'handle'

Hi Bobb,

And welcome to the site! I We don't have another Bobb so you are filling a hole for us - albeit unwelcomely - if you follow me.  There seem to be so many new people joining up - it's awful how this disease is becoming so 'popular' and we can't blame Avram Grant for all of us can we!!  You seem to have had a pretty rough jounrey and I understand you are dreading RT - I didn't hav RT but tons of chemo which really made me ill!  It sounds as if you are in good hands and don't get too despondent - we all do at some time but there are people on this sight who have been fighting the disease for many years - without the operation. 

You sound bright and positive and I'm sure it will help you on your journey.  If you need us we are here and will back you up as much as we can.  If you have any questions the OPA (opa.org.uk) is absolutely great and they can give you advice on avaialbe treatments.  Treatments seem to be advancing fast and who knows - if we keep going long enough they might come up with a magic pill. I am ever hopeful.

have a great weekend and don't hesitate to keep us updated.

love to all my Mac firends out there in cyber space

Judy