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What was your experience immediately following RT/chemo?

Posted by Lynn @cometsmom, Jun 14, 2024

My husband Jeff completed 6 weeks of RT/chemo on Friday. He was told the first few weeks could be the most difficult of all and so far, things have been pretty rough. He was not able to eat anything at all for the last 4 days and yesterday couldn't even get Ensure to go down. He was admitted to the hospital and the plan is to try an endoscopy this morning. The GI doctor is not sure they'll be able to pass the scope. He's getting the feeding tube back in. He said it could be inflammation from the radiation or tumor obstructing. Jeff has lost 10 pounds in the past week and looks awful, gray and exhausted. He's sleeping almost all of the time. I'm anxiously awaiting the results. Has anyone had a similar experience after completing treatment? What was the outcome? Thanks for your input.

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mrgvw | @mrgvw | Jul 18, 2024

Understand your situation and staging now. Do you know your tumor biology? If they had that already then they would know which immunotherapies might be most effective... although I've seen some be effective in situations where they should not have been effective. Go figure.

Hang tough... you know where we are on our twice-weekly free Zoom calls.

Gary

REPLY
s6819103 | @s6819103 | 5 days ago
In reply to @cometsmom "Just posting a cautiously positive update. My husband finished his chemo/radiation June 7th and had a..." + (show)
@cometsmom

Just posting a cautiously positive update. My husband finished his chemo/radiation June 7th and had a rough time afterwards. Jeff has been able to eat a much greater variety of foods over the past week. The esophagitis is resolving thankfully. His weight has been stable, albeit low, but he's getting stronger in every way each day. I'm anxious about the first CT scan Monday, although I think it will be fine because it didn't detect any problems when he was rediagnosed in February. Gastro appt and rad onc visits Wednesday. Endoscopy 8-10 weeks after treatment ended.

We're going away to the beach in RI for a few days the last week of July. It's only about 45 mins away from home so we don't need to worry about anything if Jeff had any problems. I can't wait to relax. So that's it, that's where we're at. The healing time they told us about has been right on schedule. I'm so happy he's able to eat again. I hope all of you are doing well ❤️

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Hi Lynn
My dad was diagnosed a few weeks ago and we are on 2 chemo and getting ready to start radiation soon. I was curious how your husband is doing and if he had surgrey to remove the part of his esophagus or if the chemo took care of it?

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1 reply
s6819103 | @s6819103 | 3 days ago
In reply to @treh00jamc "Try hyoscyamine first ( it helped my spasms of my esophagus which also made me throw..." + (show)
@treh00jamc

Try hyoscyamine first ( it helped my spasms of my esophagus which also made me throw up every time I drank or ate any amount of anything), then I tried phenergan suppositories also for the nausea. Worked great! This went on about 2 weeks after radiation/chemo then subsided as the radiation calmed down. No one in my GI office would do an endoscopy because after radiation the surface is like ground meat and very fragile. They said it was very easy to perforate the esophagus with the endoscope. Ended up I didn't need it. I'm a little over one month since the end of my treatments and I'm eating most of what I want just smaller amounts. Still have some coughing occasionally which is also normal. My surgery is slated for July 16.

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Was the hyoscyamine given to help with the mucous? My dad has to constantly spit up large amount of saliva.

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1 reply
Lynn | @cometsmom | 3 days ago
In reply to @s6819103 "Hi Lynn My dad was diagnosed a few weeks ago and we are on 2 chemo..." + (show)
@s6819103

Hi Lynn
My dad was diagnosed a few weeks ago and we are on 2 chemo and getting ready to start radiation soon. I was curious how your husband is doing and if he had surgrey to remove the part of his esophagus or if the chemo took care of it?

Jump to this post

Hi, he wasn't a candidate for the surgery so the first time he was diagnosed in 2018, he did 2.5 years of chemo alone and got to no evidence of disease. When he had the recurrence last February, he did 6 chemo treatments and 28 radiation. He is currently doing really well, back to NED. We're hoping to never see this again...best to you and your dad!

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pliddle | @pliddle | 2 days ago
In reply to @s6819103 "Was the hyoscyamine given to help with the mucous? My dad has to constantly spit up..." + (show)
@s6819103

Was the hyoscyamine given to help with the mucous? My dad has to constantly spit up large amount of saliva.

Jump to this post

I confess I know nothing about hyoscyamine, but I've probably spit up gallons of saliva/mucous in the last few months with a tumor blocking my stomach entrance. It is sometimes pretty foul-tasting and altogether a bothersome condition. I carry a plastic hospital mug and Kleenex around with me at all times and have avoided going out in public with the exception of hospital visits--chemo/radiation starts next week. My sympathies to you and your father, but hopefully this too will pass.

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