Just saying hello

Andy

Sorry you have found yourself joining this group! But you will find so many positive stories here which will help you through. 

I was diagnosed with stomach cancer in September and had chemo then surgery in January.

Today I did the 5k Race for Life and am really well!

The waiting to find out the treatment plan is the worst time. It’s really frightening as you don’t know what you are dealing with!

I wrote a Blog of my experiences as I hoped it might help others.

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/members/jacquiw10/blogs

There are lots of people on this group to help you through this.

Take care

Hi Andy

so sorry you found yourself here, you’re not alone. 

I was diagnosed aged 46 in August and was very fit at the time, it was and still is a surreal shock. The waiting is the worst part, after my CT I had a staging laparoscopy and to make sure there was no spread, it did seem like one thing after the other but within 4 weeks I was started on chemo, I then had my stomach removed and only managed 2 of the planned 4 cycles of chemo after the op. My last chemo was on 26th March and it left me very ill but today I’m sat by a pool in Tenerife, apart from being skinnier and unable to eat all the lovely food I want I’m doing ok. 

Please feel free to ask any questions or even if you just want to chat message me.  

Lou x

5k Jacque!! That’s brilliant, good for you! X

Thanks guys, genuinely appreciated. 

I'm lucky in that apart from being young(ish!), pretty fit and otherwise healthy, I have a very strong support network around me in my wife, family and in-laws, some of whom have gone through their own cancer scares (my mother in law had bowel cancer a few years back).  I also have an old school buddy who has been living for the last few years with a form of (ultimately terminal) brain cancer, so i'm gonna meet up with him for a catch up and whatnot.

What's ironic is that I was struggling with stomach pain and heartburn for a few months before xmas, tested positive for H. Pylori twice, then got referred for an endoscopy; at times through December/January it was horrendous feeling at times and I was in a fair bit of pain, but the last maybe 6 weeks or so I've been feeling mostly fine except for the odd twinge and the endoscopy showed the H. Pylori as having been cleared up!  

To be honest I'm as worried for my wife than myself (if not more so), we recently started fertility treatment as our last chance of having kids and are just waiting for the "Go" call so this was the last thing we needed, enough stress to deal with....and if i'm perfectly honest and without trying to sound super-negative what really scares me the most is the thought of leaving her... 

As far as treatment goes, whilst i'm obviously not comfortable with it, the thought of chemo/surgery/whatever doesn't massively bother me, at least not yet  :-)

Anyways, just need to wait a couple more days to get the news on what we are facing.  So yeah, fingers crossed

Wow! Great to hear you are on holiday and enjoying the sun!  It was a Stroll for Life rather than a Race!  I did it with my daughter and two grandchildren!  But it was great fun and a lovely day with everyone!

Enjoy the rest of your holiday!

Just a bit of an update...

Saw the doc at the hospital today following their MDT and had kinda-ish good news. Based on last weeks CT there is nothing else obvious showing in/around my stomach, so appears to just be the cancerous ulcer.  However the scan did show a "small" shadow on my liver.   Going in for a laparascopy on either Tuesday or Friday next week to check around my stomach to confirm that's all good, then an MRI the week after to check my liver.  They seem to think it's probably just a cyst or something given they didn't see anything else but obviously need to confirm.

So all in all better than I was expecting, not quite as good as I hoped as there is still a degree of concern around my liver.   They've told me that as long as the lap. and the MRI are ok, I am probably just facing surgery which i am guessing would be a partial gastrectomy ("Bert" as I like to call it, is at the top of my stomach).  

That said, feeling more upbeat now than I have been for the last week  :-)

That’s good to hear Andy, sounds very like my story, I was told there was something on my liver which turned out to be nothing too. I was told I’d have a partial gastrectomy because  the ulcer was in the lower part of my stomach but ended up with a full one because my cancer wasn’t visible to the eye he couldn’t be sure he’d taken enough until the pathology report came back, which it did with good margins but I’m glad he took it all.

For me I think I’ve recovered well from the gastrectomy, age and general fitness will be on your side. My advice would be to eat well gain weight if possible and exercise in preparation, if you’re not having chemo then that is a bonus to keeping your weight up prior to surgery, I found my weight stabilised about 6 weeks after surgery, It’s hard at first but gets better quickly. 

Keep us posted on your laparoscopy results, will be thinking of you. 

Hi

That's good news and like I had a strange growth on my liver and had two MRIs to decide what it was!  It turned to be a cyst so nothing to worry about. I had a partial gastrectomy and am really well so fingers crossed for you too!  I would not have believed how well I recovered but as Lou says get as fit as you can and eat well to build up your strength!

Let us know how you get on!