Update - 3rd November 2009

My cancer has returned and is not curable. It has come back in the peritoneum (the membrane that surrounds internal organs). Devastated!

I am waiting to find out what treatment can be offered - basically it will be some sort of palliative chemo.

History

I was diagnosed with Stage III gastric cancer (proximal adenocarcinoma if you want to get technical) on 28th November 2007. I was just 33 years old and weighed 82kg when I was diagnosed. I was put in the "potentially curable" category, which really means that doctors think I have a chance of living 5 years or more. Nodoby would give me a figure but I understood from online papers that around 2/3 of people with gastric cancer have "potentially curative" treatment and around 1/2 of them survive beyond 5 years making the 5 year survival rate around 30-35%. So I know that although I am doing well just now I have this hanging over me..

Anyway, here is what I went through as primary treatment:

I was treated at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital (Surgery) and Cheltenham General Hospital (Chemotherapy) between December 2007 and August 2008 . My treatment involved 3 x 3-week cycles of "ECF" (Epirubicin, Cisplatin and 5-FU) chemotherapy, which started on Christmas Day 2007. I dropped to 75kg following the chemotherapy.

I then had a bit of a break and then had a major operation on 26th March 2008 to remove my entire stomach and some surrounding lymph nodes and peritoneal tissue (aka a total gastrectomy). I droped to 70kg following the surgery and it took quite a long time to recover from this.

Following this operation I had another break and commenced a further 3 x 3-week cycles of ECF chemotherapy. This was very hard as my body was weak following the operation. I went down to 66kg.

I completed my treatment in August 2008 and I was off work for 8 months. I put on a little weight over the next year or so but it was a real struggle without a stomach as digestion just doesn't quite work properly.

If you would like to discuss this at all please feel free to send me a message. If you are affected by gastric cancer, or any other type of cancer I wish you all the very best on your hard and often heartbreaking journey..