My father was diagnosed with stage 3 esophagus cancer around 9 months ago. Hes had one round of chemotherapy which was for quality of life. Last week he was rushed into hospital as he was bringing up blood. Since then we have been back to see the consultant who has very quickly decided to give my dad 5 days of palliative radiotherapy in the hopes of stopping the bleed happening again or getting worse.. he actually is now booked in for radiotherapy starting this Thursday. I guess what Id like to know or if anyone has had similar experience, what to expect with him and this radiotherapy. Should he eat before going for the radiotherapy or after? They said nothing to us about that just that his diet should be small, soft, blended, mushed up foods.
Also after the 5 days, what then....? Will he have to go back for another scan and to see the consultant again?
In the information sheet there was a section that said one of the side effects may be nausea/vomiting and he could vomit blood. But how do we know if he was to vomit blood again if that was just a side effects of the radiotherapy or something more to worry about since he's had one bleed already?
I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, it's just a lot to process in a short space of time and I just don't know what to do, what to look out for..
Hi Mselectra and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I’m Anne, one of the Community Champions here on the Online Community, and although I've had different cancer diagnoses to your dad I know how difficult dealing with cancer treatment can be.
As you know, the online community is divided into different support groups so I'm going to recommend that you also join and post in the oesophageal cancer group as you'll then connect directly with others who have the same type of cancer as your dad and who can share their experiences of treatment with you.
To join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
It would be great if you could put something about your dad's diagnosis and proposed treatment into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
