On Thursday morning the 17th Aug I woke up feeling ok. Got out of bed and went to the toilet. So far, so good. Came out to the kitchen and had head spins and vision issues. Had to sit down. My immediate thought was low blood pressure. I felt all right sitting down but when I tried to stand again I had the same occurrence. Mel (my partner) had gone to work by then and I was home with Sienna (my 3 yo daughter). After a while on the couch I felt dizzy and quite unwell. I also had a dry wretch or two. That cleared and I was fine for a little while but then it hit again. This time I vomitted and because I couldn’t get up I threw up on myself. When I looked down I was covered in red. My first thought was ‘What did I eat that was red?’ Then I realised it was actually blood. I rang Mel who came home straight away. We couldn’t drive me to hospital as I couldn’t stand. So Mel called the ambulance. Luckily there was a paramedic on call nearby and he was here quite quickly. At that time I threw up more blood. He couldn’t find a radial pulse and my BP was as low as 60 over something. Another ambulance arrived and I was rushed to hospital. They used the sirens when they got into town so the situation was a lot more serious than I had thought. I stayed in Emergency for most of the day, until after 3, where they gave me two units of blood and got my blood pressure up to 100. The decision was to take me to Tamworth where they had plasma and a better way of keeping an eye on me. I was Ambulanced down to Tamworth and put in Emergency there for a while. They took my haemoglobin and it was up to 100 from a low of 80. They moved me into the ward and when the doctor did his rounds decided to keep me over the weekend for observation. They did an endoscope Sunday morning and found no source of the bleed. Blood test still showed low haemoglobin. Lower than 100. I also hadn’t had any bleeds since Thursday morning. On his rounds on Monday the doctor was happy to discharge me as there hadn’t been any further bleeds. My haemoglobin is still below but climbing and I am feeling stonger everyday. What this has made me realise is how quickly a situation can change. This is the first major complication I have had from this disease. The doctor seemed confident that there was a minimal chance of a recurrence of the bleeding. Let's hope he is right!! ... View more

I am thinking of switching to a purely plant based diet. Has anyone else gone this way and found it helpful?  ... View more

I was diagnosed with Stage 4 oesophageal cancer in March this year. It had metatisised to my liver and lymph nodes. My initial CT was on the 16th March. At this stage I had pain around my liver and some difficulty with swallowing. I had to wait 6 weeks before chemo started and during this time I lost weight and my appetite as well as my strength. I could barely have a shower without getting tired out.    Once chemo started my condition improved. My oncologist told me to have half a steroid tablet a day to help with my appetite, which seems to have done the trick. I have had very few side effects from the chemo overall. Some red spots on the back of my hands and loss of taste, especially salty. I was on one round of cisplatin and xeloda tablets for two weeks with a weeks rest between sessions. Last visit to the oncologist and he has changed me to oxilaplatin, which I immediately felt the side effects of not being able to touch and drink anything cold without getting pins and needles sensations. I have also noticed that my lower leg muscles cramp quite regularly at the moment.    I had a follow up scan two weeks ago. This showed that one of the larger tumours in my liver had reduced but another had grown. Also the scan has picked up metastisis to my T9, T2, T3 and T12 vertebrae as well as some possible lesions on my sternum. Since there was such a big gap between the first scan and chemo I believe that the cancer worsened in that time and could, in fact, be getting better. My oncologist is in the same mind and has ordered another CT scan for 5 weeks time. Hopefully this will show some changes.    As I feel generally quite well, I am able to stay positive and feel like I don't have a disease that is very likely to take my life prematurely.. ... View more

In March I was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. I only became aware of this when one weekend I experienced severe pain in the upper right quadrant of my abdomen. Doctor Google told me this was most likely gall stones so on the Monday I trotted off to see my doctor who felt the same. He sent me off for blood tests and an ultrasound. I had the bloods done immediately but had to wait until the Wednesday for the ultrasound. My doctor gave me a call to say the blood test had indicated the possibility of gall stones. I had organised an appointment to see him for the Thursday afternoon of that week. I dutifully had the ultrasound and felt that the sonographer seemed to be very thorough. That afternoon I received a phone call from the my doctor's surgery asking if I could come in for an earlier appointment. I started to feel a little concerned at this stage. I promptly turned up in the Thursday morning. My doctor informed me that I did not have gall stones but they had found several lesions on my liver. I took this news in my stride and he organised a CT scan for me to be done that day. The report from the scan identified the lesions on the liver. Two large ones and several smaller ones. I might add that the pain I had experienced on the weekend had almost gone and I was only experiencing some discomfort. There was also noted a thickening at the base of my oesophagus, some enlarged gastric lymph nodes and a lesion on my right adrenal gland. Of course the CT scan also identified a few aging issues, slightly enlarged prostate etc (I am 54). My doctor sent me to a gastrologist who felt certain the primary cancer was in the oesophagus because of the thickening but he was going to do a gastroscopy first and also a colonoscopy if he couldn't find anything in the oesophagus. All this had happened within a fortnight so I felt grateful that things were moving quite quickly. Anyway, he only needed to do the gastroscopy and he showed my the pictures of the tumours at the junction of my stomach and oesophagus. Still no real feeling of shock from me. Maybe it felt surreal. Though, I did then realise that I had experienced a feeling of a lump when swallowing a few weeks previously. So my diagnosis is Stage IV oesophageal cancer, classified as incurable and recommended for palliative care. I am now on my second cycle of chemo. One day of Cisplatin and two weeks Capecitabine (3 tablets twice daily) then a weeks rest. At this stage I am only experiencing some discomfort around my liver. Before chemo I was taking pain killers to alleviate the pain as it recurred a little especially when I had a sharp intake of breath. I have hardly needed any pain relief at the moment. I did initially lose my appetite but the oncologist told me to take half a tablet of steroids daily and this has definitely helped, though I rarely feel hungry. I also supplement my meals with Sustagen. I have lost about 10 kilos but I seemed to have stabilised now. So, that's the experience of the last couple of months. I have taken sick leave from work (Assistant Principal of a primary school). Fortunately, I have rarely had a sick day in my 30 years of teaching so have accrued 268 days of leave!!!  I also have to young children. A boy, 6 and a girl 3. I came to fatherhood late. The thing that seems to puzzle me the most is that I have a disease that could very likely take my life quite quickly yet I don't feel that I am going to die. I didn't get emotional upon diagnosis. I didn't feel devastated. I didn't feel sorry for myself. In fact, I find my friends and family are feeling it more than me. To me, I just feel like I have contracted a disease that I need to get better from. Is this a strange feeling or do others have this same feeling? I really don't think I am going to die from this cancer, despite the odds I read of survival for Stage IV not being that great. I'd be interested to know how others felt. Maybe if I felt in pain and had trouble swallowing etc my thoughts may be different. Even the chemo doesn't appear to be effecting me too adversely. Anyway, the end of my ramblings. Congratulations if you made it this far. Paul ... View more