FLOT dose #8 and Surgery

Hi Oyita

 Glad to hear that your husband is nearing the end of his chemo, as I’m sure he is!

I didn’t have FLOT so I’m unsure of what the wrap up will be with the oncologist but I remember very well our meeting with the surgeon. I had little idea of what the standard surgery entailed and it sounded brutal. However more than five years on it’s all a distant memory! 

If you want to know more about the Ivor Lewis surgery just ask. 

Meanwhile I would recommend that you keep a journal with questions and answers in and to record appointments and events  it will help as months later you may not be able to remember the sequence of events or who said what when  

I hope everything continues to go smoothly for you both during your shared journey.  Keep positive and keep living and loving life.

Dear Brent, 

Thank you very much for your advices, keeping notes is such a good idea. I am also really looking forward to a meeting with our surgeon.

Today the oncologist just wrote to my husband that they may omit the 8th dose due to neuropathy on his hands and feet. Today my husband also told him that his gums were aching as well. 

We will see what his treament team will decide, nevertheless it is difficult to make sense of it due to fact that as patient and care giver we do not have resources or information to evaluate the pros and cons of omitting the last dose in the long term. We will  have to trust our doctor for this...This is one tough journey, I keep saying that to myself.

Thank you for your wisdom and positive vibe.

Regards,

I wouldn’t worry too much about skipping the 8th chemo. I had a different chemo regime but I had to quit during my post surgery chemo and it didn’t affect my outcome, I’m still here almost 6 years post diagnosis.

We are also hoping that omitting the 8th dose will not affect the overall outcome of this journey. Fingers crossed.

We have finally met with our oncologist and the surgeon. After the scans they have seen some problems with his lungs due to the secondary effects of FLOT chemo but the thorastic specialist told us that this would not be an obstacle for the surgery. Other than that, scans show no sign of tumor, so all the chemo hussle was a sucess.

The treatment team will discuss our case on monday with the results of the pre-op checks which they have done over the past few days and if all goes well my husband will be admitted for a laporoscopic stomach removal surgery on Tueday the 17th. 

If all goes as planned we are looking into 7 to 8 days in the hospital, then off home for recovery. Yeeyy.

His main problem nowadays is fatigue past 20 days since his last dose of FLOT chemo. My husband desparetly wants his old energy back, and so far we have not been told more about this. I guess I will have to ask more next time when we are at the hospital.

I am really excited about the up coming surgery and really looking forward to all this being over, and going back to some normalcy for us, and may be start a family in the future.

Hi oyita,

Last year I had 4 doses of FLOT, surgery and then 4 more doses of FLOT. I found the second cycle of post surgery FLOT harder to tolerate than the surgery. Most patients do not complete 8 doses of FLOT (only 40% do). I am luckily in remission now. Wishing your husband all the best with his surgery today. It took me 12 weeks to recover from my surgery and most of the delay was due to a broken rib (accidently broken on gaining access).