Just wondering…

Hi JPR

Such good news! 
I doubt that changing your ppis could have any effect on what you can eat. They may well have an effect on your reflux though. I have been on omeprazole for decades and rarely suffer from reflux now. Just shows have different we all are!

Maybe because I’m a positive kind of person I would assume that the chemo/immuno therapy is working a treat. It pays to be positive. So keep on doing what you are doing. 

Thanx , Brent. Whatever works!. PJR

I had a similar effect when I started treatment, I couldn't eat solids though for a while but my stomach settled pretty quickly and it made my eating better. Take this as a good sign buddy. At the start of my journey I had cancer in my oesophagus and lymthnodes and now it is only in my oesophagus. Believe in the doctors, focus on the right nutrition, keep yourself cold/infection free and be positive! You can do this buddy

That is good news. I am at the same stage as you-my week off! Still not eating solids but definitely drinking liquid more easily and tablets seem to be going down more easily. My coughing has improved but still causing some problems at night. I had a bad second week on the chemo but I feel more or less ok now so not looking forward to my treatment on Friday! But hey. It has to be done to get rid of this thing. Good luck for this week! 

Good luck to you, Nan, as well for this next stage! I’ve noticed the cough too but put it down to hay fever season. Maybe it’s not that. I’ve found pasta and ground beef and scrambled eggs go down pretty easily along with all the smoothies my daughter introduced me to. My infusions are on Thursday so we seem to be on pretty much the same schedule. 

Had my second infusion today. Long day at the hospital but miraculously by the end of it I was really hungry. Demolished a bag of maltezers when I got back-first time I have done something like that for months! How are you PJR?

That’s great Nan! I had a somewhat similar reaction yesterday for my second one. I ate three smallish pieces of pizza for dinner and was able to take my 7 tablets! I had the best nights sleep in ages. Sounds like we are both doing ok! Long nay it continue!!!

Hi PJR, yes it can ! It’s quite common for people to see a decent improvement in their eating after cycle 2 or 3.

The chemo causes fibrosis as it kills off the cancer cells and if you have the op they send the tumour off to the lab, and you get histology results back which include a TRG (Tumour Regression Grade) and indicates how effective the chemo was at nuking it.

So, from what I know and have been told by my surgeon on my clinical trial, the eating improvements are down to the chemo rather than the Omeprazole etc.

Hope that helps.

Are you on FLOT-A immunotherapy ?

Thanks, Red10. My oncologist was very happy with the changes so far. I need two more cycles after this one and then some scans. I was told originally no chance of an operation. In terms of the imm’otherapy I don’t know what FLOT-A is but mine is Nivolumab (opdivo).

it is definitely working especially good because I’ve only started cycle 2. I feel so much more hopeful and positive about everything than I did a few weeks ago. This site and everyone on it and all the nurses at the enter are wonderful!

That is absolutely brilliant to hear PJR, well done - you’re smashing it !

Lots of people I’ve encountered on my journey (which started almost a year ago to the day) have switched from the position of not being offered the operation, to things changing through good and effective responses to chemo and treatment - so keep fighting, keep walking forwards, stay positive always and anything is possible.

FLOT-A was the immunotherapy trial I was on at The Royal Marsden, using Avemolab alongside FLOT, so they named it FLOT-A … I think that trial has now finished and moved to the Nivoulab so might be called FLOT-N on the trial.

There are some really good results from Nivolumab, so it’s brilliant you’re on it - well done !