Pain in back and ribs

Hi Cath

My husband has 2 OC tumours stage 4 has been tube fed for some time finally had 2 stents fitted on 4/6/19 so can now eat & drink again. He always had back pain mainly due to his prior occupation as a bricklayer and subsequent weight loss. Since stents, he has suffered from pain in his back and below his ribs and does have morphine but takes it only when necessary and paracetamol. He can cope with the pain mainly i suspect because he'd rather have the pain and eat than have 'those bloody tubes back' as he called them. He does find if I give him a gentle back rub it helps so some form of massage may be worth a try.

I do worry that the tumours will grow quickly now that he is on a rest from his palliative chemo but looking at quality over quantity at the moment and staying positive for our 18-year-old daughter about to depart for uni xx

Sending good wishes & hugs

Carol

Thanks for your reply Carol 

my husband is on his second stent and possibly a third on Thursday they are planning to put a stent within his stent because the tumour has grown over the top of his stent. He had his first one put in October last year then that came lose and went into his stomach the second one was put in June. He like your husband loves his food and was able to eat steaks and all sorts.

I purchased him some CBD oil and CBD muscle rub today from Holland and Barrett and so far he has slept from 10pm until 4.30am he is usually awake the majority of the night with maybe an hour or two napping (causing me to be awake aswell rubbing his back, trips to the kitchen for milky drinks etc) I’ve fingers crossed this is the way forward to relieve his pain. 

I’m currently reading a book called Radical remission it’s very interesting and us think about additional things we can do to lengthen his time without chemo (he was on his second line chemo that didn’t work but the side effects were awful for him) 

its a shocking disease and such a rollercoaster ride for us all x 

my daughter has just finished Uni and did very well considering everything this year. They have great resilience kids nowadays although we do dumb down the prognosis a bit to her because I always feel while he is breathing there is some hope. 

Has your husbands spread beyond the Oesophagus? Mins has it now in liver, lungs and stomach lining plus lots of different lymph nodes. It had started to metastasis at diagnoses but on the last scan there was more spread in all the original areas. 

Keep strong xx 

cath 

Hi Cath

I'll look at reading Radical remission did you get this online/bookshop?, at the moment although he does have pain he is able to do a little gardening he managed 30 mins the other day cutting a hedge back that's the longest for a while. He has a very bad cough at the moment and suffers badly with phlegm which is a bit of a worry. His cancer had not spread to any other organs at last scan but that was some months ago now it's restricted to the oesophagus but then he says he has 2 there why should he have anymore elsewhere !! We are back at the oncologist 19/9 the day before daughter goes to uni, I imagine the doc will want another scan, not really sure I want hubby back on chemo because at the moment he has some quality of life whereas he was struggling with the chemo and had zero quality.

We are looking forward to our daughter going to Uni, its been a hard time for her as you will know, she needs to get away from the talk of cancer, hospital appointments and the lack of family things we can no longer do

Hoping you are keeping things going, sending hugs xx

Carol