Hi

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

My wife had combined chemotherapy and radiotherapy, followed by Ivor Lewis surgery. Initially, she carried on working, but she had to go on sick leave when the chemo- and radiotherapies started talking their toll.

She did finally go back to work a few months after the surgery, and my recollection is that she was on sick leave for a total of about six or seven months.

The treatment is tough , and the surgery is major surgery - so brace yourself for it. But remain positive, and do your best to cope.

I send you my best wishes for a complete recovery.

How long you will have to be off work depends very much on the type of job you do but I would say a minimum of 8 months. My tumour was in the same place as yours and my treatment started in Dec 2023 and I had my final post-op chemo in June 2024. There’s no way I could have managed to work at anything until at least the end of that summer (and certainly not full time even after that). Fortunately I was retired when I went through it so returning to work was not something I had to even think about. 

Thanks for the info,I'm 65 so will probably think about early retirement after the op

Hiya Baz. Sorry to hear about your diagnosis.

Sounds similar to my diagnosis which I first received in October last year.

I was fortunate enough to get the green light for surgery so my pathway was chemo - surgery- chemo.

I managed to work through my first round of chemo (desk based job with ability to work from home) and continued to work right up until the date of my operation which was 23rd Feb this year.

My second round of chemo was late April - early June this year and in theory I could probably have returned to work not long after the effects of the follow up chemo wore off but have chosen to take the summer off to give myself a bit of time.

I am due to return to work first week in September so only have a couple of weeks holiday left (boohoo!) 

Suppose your return to work timescale really depends on how fir you are now, how physical your job is and what you do for a living. 

Reckon I could have returned to work mid to late June had I really needed to. Also probably makes a difference what surgery you have. I had open surgery so had some significant wounds to heal. Reckonn with robotic or keyhole surgery, recovery time coule be reduced further still.

Happy to answer any questions you might have about the whole process.

Wishing you all the best on your journey. Its a rollercoaster for sure but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Russ

Thank you Russ, my jobs an mot tester so loads of physical work therefore will have to see how things pan out. What will be will be hey

To be fair, ive spent most of my summer break helping my best mate, who is a builder, to build an extension on his house. I've actually done more hard graft since having my operation than I have for the past several years in my actual job combined. I've been barrowing, concreting and lumping blocks and timber about for weeks now. Feel like the physical work has helped me get back to fitness as quickly as possible.

Worst thing for me has been been the pain around my ribs where they broke them to access my side incision.  My understanding is that this is not necessary if you can go down the minimally invasive or robotic surgery route so I would be pushing for this if you have a physically demanding job as I think it will make a make a significant difference to your speed of recovery.

Russ

Thanks Russ, yes that makes perfect sense