Hello everyone, I’ve not posted in here for a long time as my dad had, as far as we’d been aware, been in the clear and living his life with a bit of normality for a while but it seems that things have taken a turn and I’m trawling the internet researching once again. For background, Dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer end of 2023, the initial attempt at gastrectomy was unsuccessful as they found the tumour was touching (not invading) the pancreas and they would need other specialists involved. He had four rounds of FLOT after that which reduced the tumour down enough to go ahead with surgery. He had a partial gastrectomy (lower) plus a Whipple procedure at the beginning of August 2024. He recovered amazingly well and had the four rounds of FLOT post op. Following that all his scans have been clear, his last CT was in April this year all clear and he recently made a return back to his physical job as a street light electrician so things were really on the up. He’s lost quite a bit of weight the last month and a half but this coincided with his return to work so put it down to that. However, a couple of weeks ago he started having a few episodes of vomiting again, no where near the same frequency or severity as before his original diagnosis but obviously raised alarm bells. He also started feeling bloated to the point of being uncomfortable and had developed a hernia so he went to the GP. Anyway an ultrasound on Friday revealed that alongside the hernia the bloating was being caused by Ascites (this pressure has caused the hernia) and the ultrasound guy said the Ascites is most likely linked to his prior diagnosis (so the cancer). He also had a CT scan on Friday but he’s now not got an appointment with his oncologist until 14th November so no results or anything else until then. I know this is fairly quick in the cancer world but I’m really concerned about him just being left with the Ascites situation untreated or further investigated until then. He’s had no follow up from his GP who ordered the ultrasound in the first place. I feel that other things should be happening before the 14th but I don’t want to panic him by pushing him to ask for more? I know that Ascites is an indicator for advanced recurrence and my first thought is peritoneal spread. I just don’t think we should be sat around with nothing happening at this point. Maybe I’m just here to vent my frustrations, see if others have experience of Ascites and it being addressed? I can’t believe we’re even here after all the amazing progress, he made a phenomenal recovery post op and responded to chemo so well, it’s a kick in the teeth that this soon after him getting through all that we’re possibly starting over again and potentially in a much worse position. I know the surgery has given us more time already and we’re all grateful for that but it’s hard to accept this bad turn just 15 months post op. Any insights or advice would be helpful. Thank you x
