My husband was diagnosed with esophegeal cancer stage 3/4 a year ago. We now have 11 folfox chemo treatments and 5 immunotherapy fusions under our belt, and have a pet scan next week. Not many people have this type of cancer, it is hard for me to find others who are dealing with it. Right now my main focus is chemo anger.....my husband is starting to become physical with me...and I am concerned. Anyone want a pen pal?? I am 66 but very young at heart..... ... View more

Hi. I have adenocarcinoma, which started as ductal breast cancer, 3 years ago. It spread to my thoracic spine and I had to have 2 vertebrae removed in June 2017 and live with titanium rods in my upper back, which isn't fun. Thanks🌺 Kathy, for the good explanation of 'mucous producing glands'. I'd googled but not much came up. What is FuChemo? I am on a (hormone) aromatase inhibitor, exemestane and calcium to strengthen my bones. Regards Ri ... View more

There is actually one place in WA called Xantippe according to Google... I've never heard of it, that's for sure!   Z is for Zeehan (Tas).   Time to restart! ... View more

Blood is always bloody scary (sorry), but not always bloody serious.   Through my cancer treatment, I was often coughing up a (sometimes scary) amount of blood.   You get this atavistic reaction like .. something broken inside me .. my body eating itself ... but in my case, my airways were aggravated by an excess of phlegm .. caused by both inflammation and a lack of saliva to push it through my body in the normal way .. so I was coughing a lot .. and the coughing abraded some minor blood vessels .. next thing you know I'm spewing into the sink and seeing blood threaded through it.   In that case, really scary, but not serious.   When the blood is bright red, apparently you shouldn't be too worried, because its fresh and somewhere near the expellation point .. example bright red blood on your toilet paper more often means haemmorhoids than stomach or bowel cancer ... but where the blood is darker, that apparently should be more of a concern, like a malignancy inside you. ... View more

Just realised I had commented on this before! Excited to see some positive news I guess. The chemo hasn't been too bad for me overall. I still have all my hair and don't feel nauseous. The worst is the metallic taste in my mouth which is making food unappetising. ... View more

Hi McTasky, I was diagnosed with Stage IV Esophageal Adenocarcinoma late January 2013. I will have a look at your blog. : ) Kathy ... View more

Nearing the end of my third cycle. So its off for a CT scan and hopefully it has not spread. Then its farewell to my stomach and then 3 more cycles. Nervous but will be happy to have it gone! ... View more

It's now been 8 weeks that I had my Oesophagectomy lucky for me the cancer hadn't formed and this operation was so that in the future it didn't turn into cancer the operation wasn't very pleasant but have make it through. The worst is eating I find dairy is the worst and try to avoid I'm now on lactose milk and products that are the same only one hitch so far is that I had scar tissue grow over the opening which was something I wasn't aware of it has now been fixed so I am eating foods again when that happened I could only have fluids. I do feel for those that had to have chemo and radiation as that must have been awful to have gone through. ... View more

An update on my post: My porta-cath was removed a few weeks ago in a day-surgery procedure. Very simple, straight-forward and painless; local anaesthesia with something to calm me down (I was almost asleep during procedure). I'm probably not having another porta-cath inserted at this stage, as iv chemo will most likely stop soon and in the meantime my arm veins are still good. As for the thrombosis, I am on Clexane (self-injecting daily) for three months. ... View more