Bad Family News

Dear Sisters,

I have neglected telling you that my husband George was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in January of this year. It was a few days after Christmas that I noticed a charge to our healthcare center in our checking account. I asked him why and he told me he had trouble swallowing for over 3 months. I was angry that he kept this to himself for so long.

After an exploratory session by his gastro doctor he was found to have a tumor that was totally blocking his esophagus about midway down his chest and something else large pushing into his stomach. The tumor was biopsied and found to be squamous cell cancer. This is the result of too much alcohol and cigar smoking. He had a bone scan and that was clean. He last had a PET/CT scan and cancer was found to be in many of the lymph glands around the esophagus, a large clump of enlarged cancerous lymph nodes above his stomach and one enlarged lymph gland out of the area on his shoulder near his neck. He has advanced stage 4 esophageal cancer. If you do any searching about this cancer you will find that the chance of survival is low and he has stage 4.

For the last two months he has had radiation every weekday and 1 week of chemo each month. April 4 will be his last day of radiation and it can’t be repeated in his lifetime.

We won’t know for a few months where he stands after the treatment ends.

I was in shock before his diagnosis after I found enough information online to convince me that he had esophageal cancer. I since have found that going through this with him would delay my negative emotions. Who knows what the outcome will be? The doctors have clearly stated that they are not going for a cure but containment or control.

George has been on disability since February so we haven’t had to dip into savings like we would have if he quit. After he heals from the radiation he may feel good enough to go back to work. He won’t qualify for disability then and he will have to make a decision to quit or continue work until he either starts chemo again or he feels too ill to continue.