Hope for anyone who is struggling

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Hey

I check in on here when I can, I just wanted to come back on and do a post as I can see there’s lots of new people struggling with various things like weight loss, eating troubles and just been diagnosed/waiting for tests etc.

I was 28 and diagnosed with T3N0 signet ring adenocarcinoma of my lower stomach in march 2024, I did 4 FLOT pre surgery and 4 post surgery. My post surgery pathology came back with clear margins and a T1N0 tumour so stage 1A which was brilliant news. Tumour measured approx 1.5cmx1cm.

Eating after TG is really tough, but I’ve come on leaps and bounds. For example I can eat 1/2 a pizza and I’ve just ate almost a full homemade burger with fries this evening! I can eat everything I could before, just smaller portions, just got to be careful with sugar. Yes I do suffer with dumping/hypos and bile reflux but I’ve learnt how to manage that as best I can. Every day can look different without a stomach, but I promise things get better! When you’re in the trenches you feel like completely giving up sometimes, but stay the course, there’s so many people who have been through it and are able to support you.

Lots of love

Chloe x

sueCC 5 months ago

Nice to hear from you again Chloe and so pleased to hear you doing well,. Take care xx

Sue Xx

Jacquiw10 5 months ago

Chloe thank you for sharing this! It’s so good to hear that you’re doing well! It gives others hope, which is so important when you get a cancer diagnosis and are going through treatment! X

Jac

Life is what happens when you are making other plans!

JanetJ 5 months ago

Thank you Chloe for sharing this. As someone who is in the throes of the struggle and about to start my 4 post surgery FLOT it’s good to hear from someone who has been there and survived. Take care.
Janet x

Norwichcanary 5 months ago

Hi Chloe, good to hear you are progressing well. We have followed a similar treatment path and have had similar issues which does give hope to all. My stomach was removed in July 2024 and I knew it would take a long time to get back to eating well again and to recover from the operation.

Bile reflux has been my main issue and the lack of knowledge from my consultants on how to treat it. They did not want to stop the bile as it helps absorption of fats etc. But with help from my dietician, research and this forum it has improved which really improved my eating and I started to increase weight.

I was fortunate to have no dumping issues but I think being careful when I drank ( and no alcohol) before or after meals helped.

Over a year I found out what I could eat and what I could not. Small portions worked well. Bread is a no go but surprisingly I am ok with pitta bread and pizza. I used to often eat steaks pre my stomach removal but these were difficult to digest so I stopped trying but recently I had a fillet steak and I was fine with it.

To everyone, you can recover from losing your stomach and eventually get back to enjoying food but it takes a long time.

This is all positive for recovery from stomach removal and it does take a long time, much longer than I expected.

However, a recent scan found 2 cancerous lymph nodes near my heart which cannot be removed. I am now back on chemo with added immunotherapy with the hope this will stop the cancer cells from spreading or even reduce it in size.

Best Wishes

David

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