Saturday, July 17, 2010

Tom and I thought we could have a place for family and friends to visit and to "hear" the latest in our battle with esophageal cancer.

Tom was diagnosed June 18th during a gastroscopy. He was having difficulty swallowing. When they put us in a private consultation room after the procedure instead of talking to us in the recovery room was my first clue to news they would impart.

It has been a whirlwind since that day. We left the procedure center with pending appointments for more testing and different doctor visits. Each time we found out what the next step would be, it entailed waiting for that next doctor visit or next procedure. Tom has had an endoscopic ultrasound, a CT, a visit with an oncologist, a PET CT scan and a visit with a surgeon and the radiation oncologist. The one thing we have learned is plans change. Some days they seemed to change by the minute.

What we know today is that, hopefully soon, Tom will start radiation therapy with adjunct chemo therapy. The chemo drugs are cisplatin and 5FU. Please ignore any misspellings, particularly of drugs and procedure names. I think the chemo will be given the first week and fourth week of 5-7weeks of radiation treatments. I think they will do retesting and if all is as it should be, a month or so of rest, then surgery.