Sue's Story

October 2010 I had a "significant bleed" this was sudden needing emergency treatment with 2 units of blood. In the subsequent investigation to find and stop the bleeding a gist was discovered at the top of my stomach.

I was referred to the Royal Preston Hospital who performed a further endoscopy and a laparoscopy to make sure they knew everything about the tumour, position, size, etc. before surgery. The pictures were most interesting!

November 2010 I underwent surgery. This was open surgery as the tumour was quite close to the esophagus and the surgeon was not able to achieve a sufficiently good join with keyhole surgery (he did try!). The tumour was 6.5 cm and "very active". I was in hospital for 8 days. Within 4 weeks I had made a total recovery, eating as much as usual (which is quite a lot!) riding horses, mucking out stables, running a busy household with 14 for Christmas, etc., etc.

For the past 2 years I have had quarterly CT scans and appointments with the Oncology Team at Preston. This entails a 100 mile round trip twice, once for the scan and once to see the consultant, but is well worth it as both the surgical team and the oncology team have been marvelous. Happy to say that now on to 6 monthly scans and appointments. Anyone being diagnosed in Cumbria or Lancashire I would heartily recommend the Royal Preston Hospital.

For anyone just diagnosed be of good cheer and I hope you are as lucky as me. I have had no problems (so far), my only disappointment is that being on nil by mouth for almost a week during surgery I only managed to lose a measly 4 lbs weight!

Sue

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