My lower oesophagus there is a tumor adenocarcinoma beginning 33cm from incisors length 5cm , They took 8 Biopsy's and 2 from upper body. Also had CT scan 3 days later, now waiting for results what stage etc, and a treatment plan. I also have M.S and heart condition so doing well... And all of this just after my father passed away..
Sounds similar to my diagnosis. Have they mentioned a PET scan yet as this is more accurate than CT scan in determining if there is any spread. They may also perform a laparoscopy on your stomach. Fortunately for me, my PET scan showed no spread and I was eligible for the chemo-surgery-chemo route. Not an easy journey at all but, two and a half years after my own diagnosis, I am doing well. The stage you are at (waiting to find things out) is very tough mentally. Once you have a treatment plan then you just kinda get on with it. I hope you have supportive family around you as it would be a very tough path to travel on your own. I cannot imagine how I would have got through it all without my wonderful wife.
I am very sorry to hear of your father's passing. I can imagine where you are on that, having my father taken within a few months of my first daughter being born, and I celebrate his life a little nearly every day of the 41 years since then,
I wanted to reach out as someone just a little further along the journey we (and many others) are on, in conjunction with the useful observation from Cool Blue about the PET scan - I believe they use that to give contrast to the CT, and get a clearer picture of your organs, to support the treatment planning. I was 10 weeks from detection of a Stage 2 lesion arising from Barratt's Syndrome at the entrance to my stomach, to seeing the surgeon who will perform an Ivor Lewis (I believe) esophagealectomy in June (3 months or so after 1st meeting).
The feedback I wanted to give you is that those 10 weeks were frustrating, as in: when are you guys going to start fixing this? I am really worried about what may be happening in my body. I now see this as a slowly developing health problem, that has been ongoing for a year or more probably, so that "delay" of 1/5th or an 1/8th or less of that cancer gestation period was a little less concerning.
I am reassured that the FLOT chemo I am now 5 weeks into, is now fighting back against anything that may have entered into a couple of lymph nodes adjacent to the lesion, and so could be circulating somewhere.
This message may be too long already, but I wanted to open the door to any thoughts you might like to share Simon, and offer a perspective from someone who has had more time to get this into a better place in my head? What I will say, is that when the treatment process begins, I expect you to be reassured that the wonderful people that will support your treatment, in a process that feels very tried and tested, and gives us a great chance to come through this. Finger crossed for us both Simon.
