My father with EC...

GreenEyedLady · New User Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Posts: 6

I'm kind of new, but I wanted to tell my story and maybe get some insight. So, here goes: My father was complaining of back pain and went to his Dr. who said it was just arthritis. After about a month, it wasn't getting any better and he kept going to the Dr. who said maybe he needed some physical therapy-he's 72 years, by the way. Well, my dad wasn't having it and asked the Dr. to schedule an MRI. Well, the test results came back as a large mass on the spine. So, he was immediately admitted to the hospital and more tests were run. A CT showed a thickening around the esophagus, so an endoscopy was ordered. The endocrinologist came out of the exam room within 15 min. and told us there was a tumor behind his esophagus with 2 lymph nodes also affected. He said it was not operable, so I'm assuming it must be large, although he hasn't had problems swallowing. The oncologist came in and talked to us and ordered a biopsy on the tumor on the back, since it made no sense to him that it has possibly metastisized to that area and no other. The biopsy came back as malignant, so a PET was ordered. The PET showed no other tumors or lymph nodes anywhere else and the spinal cord is clear-no bone mets I assume? He immediately started radiation therapy strictly to the spine and that has been every day since Nov 30, 2007, except weekends. He started chemo (carboplatin with taxol) on Dec 20 and has had 2 complete rounds (1/week) since then. Today they said they were going to stop rads for a month and go from here. He has another 4 weeks of chemo scheduled so far. He has already been able to cut down on TR Morphine to 1 a day and he takes Percocet as needed which is about 3 times a day. Sorry this is so long, but I'm just a little confused with this whole thing and was hoping someone could help me?? Thank you all in advance!

GreenEyedLady · New User Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Posts: 6

I thought I'd give an update on my dad. I went with him to his chemo treatment the other day and got to hear straight from the Dr.'s mouth what was going on. They did not find anymore tumors anywhere. This is a good sign. He said the tumor on his back is from the esophageal cancer, but it wasn't a straight shot-so it must be in his bloodstream. However, he doesn't know that for sure, either. He said my dad's case is unusual, to say the least. They are still treating him with the Taxol and Carboplatin and they will begin radiation on the stomach/chest area by the end of the month. This totally eased my dad's anxiety about this whole thing. They also gave him a blood transfusion and I spoke to him today and he said he's felt better today then he has in the last 3 months! He even went out to the Ford dealership and looked at the new cars for 2008. I hope this trend continues. Anyway, I just wanted to update and if anyone has any input, it would be greatly appreciated.

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