Esophageal cancer treatment: Anyone have good experiences to share?

Your factual, no nonsense approach to the difficulties of EC is inspirational.
Wishing you continuous progress on the road of recovering quality of life,
clawing your way through and out, appreciating the little victories which for us
are huge victories. Best wishes and YES! Stay positive!

Other than my PEG tube falling out last night and going to the ER where they put in a foley catheter until I get the correct one put in by my gastroenterologist today, I do have something positive to share. Over the past week, I’ve been able to drink fluids quite well, and I’ve been able to swallow loose mashed potatoes with gravy, which means there are many soft/ wet foods I will be able to eat. These are the first foods by mouth since mid June so I’m quite excited. Of course I get almost all of my nutrition through my feeding tube, but will be supplementing with “real foods” every day now, and hoping for small, well chewed and rinsed-down pieces of burger/ hot dog, etc at a BBQ our son is having Sept 1. Well, that’s the goal anyway.
Also- my pain from the spine metastasis has diminished noticeably and I’m beginning to drop down in the amount of pain meds- and my stamina has increased somewhat, although the chemo keeps that down.
Starting chemo round 5 tomorrow. Wishing everyone well in their treatments. Stay positive.

Praying all goes well.

Hi I'm.48 years old very fit and healthy with no underlying health conditions. I was getting my oesphectomy 2 weeks ago then when they opened me up there was microscopical cancer cells. I was devastated. Now I must get more chemo. I had a really good response to my first treatment if chemo before I went fir surgery. I'm a bit in limbo land and quite scared to meet the encologist for the next plan.

Well now. That is a compelling testimony. I see that you ate a follower of the Lord Jesus as am I. Sometimes I get down in the dumps, I have esophageal cancer and am awaiting surgery. I have no pain, thank God. But I did lose 40 lbs, and that's not good when you're starting off at 165 and 6 feet tall. I went down to 120 lbs. After chemo and radiation I had no appetite and everything tasted horrible. But after about 3 weeks post treatment, my appetite is coming back and I'm gaining a couple of pounds back. I pray for your husband and you, I know you are going through this with him. Your words are encouraging, seeing as how things aren't working out how you'd like, but you still have your faith. God bless you! I wish you both the best and thank you for that encouraging testimony 🙏. Your brother in Christ, Rick

Trusting and leaning on Jesus! Praying for your family 🙏🏻🩷

My husband was diagnosed in July 2023 (1 year ago), stage 3 if I recall correctly with metastasis. In Sept, on our girls’ 1st day of school they informed us that it was incurable and estimated 1 - 1.5 years. Folfox & Opdivo immunotherapy started in October reduced the tumour, returned his ability to eat. He had 4 “good” days out of every 14 for half a year. Exhaustion and nausea. But the neuropathy was intense by March/ April so it was time to quit it. Soon after, the tumour started to affect his swallowing again. He was losing what little weight he had left and losing the ability to consume food again. We learned the cancer (aggressive HER-2+ adeno, if I recall the right terminology) had spread to his stomach and cramps & pain were added to the difficult experience.

Out of their back pockets, the medical team brought radiotherapy. So far, it seems to have just kicked him when he was down. He went from starving & active to starving, nauseated, and in bed all the time. The hope is that he will begin to recover from the side affects of the radiotherapy, but as I watch his body waste away, I have my doubts.
I’ve learned about a promising complementary treatment called molecular hydrogen (if you ask AI, ChatGPT, Pi, etc., that is what they say: “promising”. PubMed calls it promising too). We are looking to have the therapy administered in a targeted way, which is pretty damn experimental. Perhaps we will succeed in getting the health system to bring it in through Canada’s Special Access Program. Perhaps we won’t. Perhaps it will help him. Perhaps it won’t.

But you asked for hopeful stories: Here’s the bottom line. For my husband, for me and our two girls, Jesus has been present with us every day through this journey. He has not forsaken us, even in the most dire circumstances. He has removed virtually all fear. For us, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
Blessings!

I go for my first follow up scan and blood work this week
Treatments started February 2023 and no cancer .So this is a big date for me.
Getting better everyday….slowly but better.

My husband had stage 3 esophageal cancer treatment and surgery in 2021. This week his scan showed continued good news of cancer free. It's not easy treatment or surgery but so worth it. Wishing you the best.

It has been 15 months since my last Chemo & Radiation treatments, and exactly 1 year since I was once again able to swallow both liquid and solid food. My through the nose feeding tube was removed one year ago today. I have had both CT & PET scans, along with bloodwork every 3 months since, and thanks to God, no recurrence of my esophageal cancer. I am so grateful to the Dr's at Mayo, both here in Eau Claire Wisconsin and in Rochester MN.
I just celebrated my 86th birthday a couple weeks ago. Something I thought I would never experience.

Darol Mason
Jim Falls WI.