Hi. John's treatments are going o.k. Things are starting to get rough with the "normal" side effects. John sees the Radiation Oncologist every Thursday and this Thursday he said he will be scoping him to see how everything is going. Is it to soon to see if the tumor is responding to the treatments? John is feeling pretty bad and I'm just afraid he will get discouraged if he doesn't hear positive news. Wanda

P.S. He has had 3 chemo (Cisplatin) treatments so far and today will be radiation treatment #14.

This is normal and it's as much about seeing what radiation damage may be occurring in his mouth as it is to see if there are visible changes to his tumor. He'll probably say something like " everything looks like I would expect them to look like at this stage" or something as non committal. You might want to clue the nurse in to tell the doc not to sound discouraging in front of John just in case.

Your husband is almost 1/2 way finished with treatments. When I went thru it, my doc checked me weekly. I usually saw him a few more times per week in passing where he just kinda kept an eye on me. Treatments are difficult. Only time I was scoped was by my ENT and that has been more times than I care to remember.

If you think your husband is easily discouraged, maybe you can suggest anti-depressants. Many OC patients need them temporarily during treatment.

They love to use those things. If they could I think they would carry them in their pockets and whip it out on the go. My record was 4 scopes in one day by 3 different docs at Moffitt. Fortunately all said about the same thing...."looks just about like I would expect it to."

Scopes aren't bad at all and it gives them a lot of information they need. I have been getting them since the end of 1995 and Only 1 time had a reaction to the anesthetic. I have been sore in my esophagus from the biopsies they always take. Other than that, smooth sailing.

Anesthetic for the scope?

Yes david the out you in la la land. It is very uncomfortable. The 1st one I had was when I was wide awke, he couldn't stop me and the gag reflex. and when they take biopsies, thy take them all the way down from different locations,.. I don't thin you would want to handle it nor would I

My ENT usually gives me a blast with a nasal spray that is a local anesthetic and opens up the path. I've had it done with and with out the spray, can honestly say I prefer the blast of spray. It could all be in my head though...

I had 4 in one day too, by 4 diff Drs. Seemed like every Dr had an intern that needed the training that day.

I get a blast of decongestant first and lidocane spray second. It does taste like Hell when it drips down into the back of your throat. My follow up doc, Bill Armstrong at UCI, uses about two miles of scope (it feels like) and looks even past my larynx, and that can be a chair arm grabber.

I was never offered anything like that but my scopes were shallow compared to what you are describing as they "stopped" when they got to my BOT and tonsil area (I guess) and they never lasted more than 20, 30 seconds. I also didn't have any surgery and no swallowing problems which I assume all can make a big difference.

My ENT uses the spray and I hate that stuff! She never really waits for it to kick in either. My RO doesn't use the spray at all because he says it narrows the nasal passages and makes it harder to get the scope down. My RO doesn't hurt when he scopes me, but my ENT kills me. I once got scoped by both of them about an hour apart (that was the last time I scheduled two doctors appointments on the same day!) and my RO got mad because my ENT used the spray when she scoped me and apparently he could still tell when he went to scope me. Oh the drama!

I owe someone an apology for using the wrong word LOL It should have been anesthesia and I like a dipstick put anesthetic LOL Man what intelligence I used. Sorry about that David and all. a little difference in spelling chanes the meaning big time .

The docs at our cancer center (both ENT/Surgeon and RO) seem to prefer the rigid, pistol-gripped scope with the 90 degree lens, rather than the flexible nasopharyngeal scope. Looking at films from each, it seems that the rigid one is a bit clearer, at least to my eye, and does have a larger field of view.

No anesthetic required, but you do need to remember to breathe to get past the gag reflex.

I must have been talking about the wrong scope . I get this one too whenever I see either my oncologist or the im-plant surgeon and they just use the spray,, It's the scope that goes all the way down and get the biopsies that they knock me out for. Then the recovery room. One time I came to in ICU from a bad reaction . Oh the fun we can have LOL Time to get over these childhood problems i would say.

You are referring to and esophageal endoscope. I get this regularly for a variety of reasons, and it is through this that I found my esophageal adenocarcinoma which saved my life again.

All our docs and nurses have been informed by me to sound encouraging when talking to Jim. I am not hiding anything from him, but a brutal approach would put him into a further depression. -- Claudia