Your story sounds very familiar to my husband’s. You will get through this though! If it wasn’t for the Lord and the strength he gave, I’m not sure we would’ve made it through so well.
My husband Who was 57 years old at the time this past March when he had problems swallowing. We had to push our doctor to get him in for an endoscopy to get scoped . By April 19 , During that week, he saw a G.I. doctor, and he took him in right away in two days to get an endoscopy. He told us immediately after the procedure that my husband had cancer. He was compassionate yet forthright. The following week he gave us the biopsy results as adeno carcinoma and later that week, after a pet scan was diagnosed stage three. That doctor also put a peg tube in that week because he was concerned over my husband’s 20 pound weight loss. My husband didn’t start tube feeding until he really felt that he could not eat. He hated pushing the tube feeding in 5 to 7 times a day to get his caloric intake so I encouraged him to get the pump so that it can administer what was needed. He loved it. He also started right away in May with A strong chemotherapy and radiation regime. Six weeks of daily chemo and daily regiment of radiation Monday through Friday. By week 4 to 6 he was getting weak, tired, and definitely not eating anymore. Everything was by tube feeding. Medication’s as well. Some sternal chest pain because the tumor was starting to shrink and change shape, which stimulated nausea and vomiting occasionally. My husband lost A lot of hair, but mostly it had turned white and was like peach fuzz. My handsome 57-year-old looked like an 80 year old. After the therapies, he was given 6 to 8 weeks to recover. The first two weeks were miserable. After that, he started feeling better, and was able to actually start eating again. He started to gain his hair and strength.
During this time, we had people over the world. Praying for my husband. God it taken him through some very hard times. Very dark times. A lot of the symptoms your husband is experiencing is what my husband also experienced. You just have to find what works for the rate of the tube feeding, etc. It’s not worth chancing to eat orally if he feels he gets it stuck or gets nauseated. We had to experiment with different nausea medication’s as well. Compazine and or Reglan seem to help. The capsules of Nexium does not go through the PEG tube so stick to the Pepcid if possible.
We journaled everything from tests to how he felt every day.
He was a patient of the local cancer hospital here for his chemo and radiation and he had fantastic doctors. But they referred him to UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, California for the surgeons there are phenomenal.
We had a detour when the doctors recommended the stress echocardiogram to check to make sure he it was ready for his esophagectomy at UCLA. Unfortunately, it showed that my husband had five blocked heart vessels. We had no idea that he had any heart condition. He had no symptoms. So two days later on August 11 the UCLA cardiothoracic team did a quadruple bypass on him. After six weeks of recovery, he was already walking 3 to 4 miles a day and feeling really good. But he knew we had to proceed with the esophagectomy. That was done on September 28 of this year. That was an 11 hour surgery but they took 2/3 of the esophagus and a few lymph nodes. They did several biopsies and everything came back negative. He is now cancer free! They had placed a jejunostomy tube and removed the G tube So that he can still feed himself by two feeding. After a few weeks, he was allowed to start eating clear liquids, then full liquids, and then onto a regular diet. He is still recovering, because that was quite a hard surgery after a cardiac surgery but he is in cardiac rehab, using the treadmill to get his stamina back. He is eating anything and everything now but more like 1/2 or 2/3 of the amount he used to eat so he eats about every 2 1/2 hours during the day. No nausea or vomiting and he is gaining weight. He still has a lingering cough from time to time which can be normal for this kind of surgery. He has all the tubes and lines out of him finally.!!
I hope this helps and if you have any questions please write me. It’s been a big journey but surprisingly everything happened pretty fast considering all the things that he went through. He just has follow up appointments now for tests but otherwise no treatments etc. We are done! But we could not have done it without the Lord. He gave us such a peace and grace to get through it all. Financially, it wasn’t easy, but our life group class at church surprisingly gave us a hat filled with cash they had gathered while we were out. That helped with many bills. I could not have done it without the Lord. I pray that you will get through each day with his love and support.
Patti