Female esophagel cancer sufferers

I didn’t know that about statistics, thank you and yes you’re right i have to trust the doc and his team 

I feel very depressed in rhe mornings, but once breakfast is over I start looking for things to do. Keeping busy helps. Getting out in the garden & seeing to my flowers. I phone & meet friends, not to talk about cancer, but chit chat about ordinary every day things. I find that helps. Having a Hickman line fitted soon to start chemo

• I was doing all of those things until my hospital appointment Monday I find if I don’t eat enough during the day the heat burn and bloated feeling is bad do you take lanzaprozole? What’s a Hickman line?

Good luck with the 5k and with all your treatments 

Good luck with the next round of treatment and the 5k challenge, Clarab. I’m midway though my first treatment so I’ve no idea if it’s working yet. I am sore from the radiation and swallowing is really painful and I like to imagine and think tumour is suffering too. Stay off Google a lot of info out of date, depressing and no one really has the same journey. I was so scared about the potential operation when I had a meeting with the surgeon I cried because imagining life after and he phoned the Macmillan nurse who has put me in contact with someone who has the same treatment last year and we had a chat on the phone. She said I can contact her again and ask questions. Maybe ask your nurse specialist or the  OEsophageal Patients Association OPA to see if you can find someone to chat to. 
Kells - don’t worry about the chemo you don’t know how your body will react. Look at the side effects listed on paracetamol but we don’t worry about that when we take one. Doctors have just got to inform you of them so you can be vigilant but it doesn’t mean you’ll have them. Enjoy the next 2 weeks. 

I’ve had the op too 6 weeks ago and am happy to chat to anybody about it 

Its a thin catheter inserted through a vein near collarbone and comes out at top of chest. It has attachments where chemo drugs can be put in through a catheter. One of chemo drugs I'm having has to be administered over 24 hours which would mean an overnight stay in hospital. With the hickman line i'll have a portable pump which I can take home. Other similar devices are PICC line, central line and Portocath. Look them up on internet

Its good to hear about someone keeping reasonably fit and well during chemo and after the op. I mostly hear from people about how terrible they feel during chemo and after the op. On an American website i read about a man who spent 3 weeks in hospital then was too exhausted to climb stairs when he got home so he had to sleep in reclining chair downstairs with a comode. Then I was filled with dread at thought of operation. So its good to hear of a better experience

I was worried when I read about someone being too weak to climb the stairs but again depends on each individual. I feel because I was active before surgery it helped my recovery. I went up my stairs the same night I came home from hospital, - I was puffed out and held on to bannister but it got easier each time I did it and now 6 weeks on I can run up them and am not out of breath.

I was in a good place when I found out I had cancer so I feel my positivity has helped me so much. Was quite a negative person this time last year before I made some lifestyle changes.  You’ve got this Kells 

That last paragraph reads wrong sorry! Was in a good place leading up to my diagnosis that was meant to say!