Esophageal Cancer

[sissummer]

My mother 74 was diagnosed 2 weeks ago with esophageal cancer after abou 3 - 6 months of complaining about and getting symptoms looke into. The upper GI revealed a mass with cancer cells. Last Tuesday she had her esophagus removed and today we learned that thier is some metasis of some sort in 1 lymph node. The doctor had said she has stage II, I am assuming after learning the pathology results this morning that it would be II B.

What should I be asking the doctors?
The nurse did not see a current order for an Oncologist should I be pushing this ASAP and/or should we shop around on Oncologists?
Is going thru Chemo or radiation worth it?
Any suggestions for getting doctors to communicate when a family member is with our mother, esp since she is on a large amount of pain killers right now?

Any input would be appreciated?

Thanks,

June

[aladley]

Dear June,
This is a forum moderator responding. I am sorry to hear of your mother's medical condition. We have published two patient helpers that I thought may be useful for you.

Questions to Ask Your Doctor about Your GI Condition
http://www.gichannel.com/patient-information-gi/index.shtml

Questions to Ask Your Doctor About Your Cancer
http://www.oncologychannel.com/questions.shtml

Best of luck to you and your mom!

[dcp2008]

June:
My father in law was diagnosed with Esophageal and Gastric Cancer last June 2007. My wife and I have been active in his treatments. We received good information from the ECAA and the president of the association's husband had a different treatment that we had not heard of. Go to our website [moderator note: website address has been removed] and click on the "Helpful Links" page. Click on the ECAA link and I believe this will give you good info as well as someone you can speak with.
Hope this helps and you can always e-mail my wife or myself [moderator note: e-mail address has been removed]
Best of Luck.

Todd

[sissummer]

thank you