803. When Wayne found out he had esophageal cancer -- and he survived almost 6 months after that.
This is a picture taken May 15, 2015, about 3 months before we found he had cancer. We were at the Temple for our grandson Sam's wedding. He had on the tie he loved, that our son Wayne had handmade especially on his mission in Ecuador, 40 years before. It was hand woven, and had woven in the back "From your missionary." Our son Wayne now has that tie. Wayne wore it on special occasions.
This was first posted on August 29th, 2015, after we found out Wayne had esophageal cancer. He survived almost 6 months after that, even though he had radiation.
Wayne D Eckman, and his 9 lives! He will be 85 this September 18th, and on September 24th we will have been married 60 years. I want to record our latest adventure with my husband Wayne D Eckman, and add updates often. He started radiation for esophageal cancer just yesterday, and had a treatment again today, and also today will have a dialysis treatment. This entry below was only the 3rd entry I put in my new blog, which I started Nov. 14, 2013. Then I will add some recent history.
------------------Wayne and Blaine were born identical twins on September 18, 1930 in Murray, Utah. I was born October 6, 1934, in St. George, Utah. The twins were not expected to live the night and so were given a name and a special Priesthood blessing that night. They were blessed then to live a mature life, and fulfill their missions on this earth. Blaine fulfilled his and has passed on to a better place. Wayne has had open heart surgery, a hip replacement, cancer, and a 12 day stay in intensive care with respiratory failure. But at 83, he still does two Temple shifts each week in the St. George Temple, and we both do a lot of indexing. We'll tell more about that later. It is late on November 14, 2013, and I want to start blogging. I'm not sure how to do this, so we'll experiment!
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That is all I wrote that day! I'll reprint next an e mail that I wrote to many family and friends just 2 days ago. But we have friends all over the world, as all who read my blog are my friends, even though we don't personally know each other. I always will welcome comments, and encourage you to e mail me if you'd like at: paralee.eckman@gmail.com I promise I will write back if you do! I'd like to get to know you and your challenges in life. This is the e mail yesterday:
Tonight Anita planned a "Radio Active" party, (the night before Wayne starts radiation) in which she, David, Delsy, and Wayne and I had a dinner with food Wayne can eat -- mashed potatoes, with Cream of Mushroom soup for gravy, hard boiled eggs, applesauce, yogurt, broccoli, and pudding -- soft stuff he can eat. He had to have his broccoli liquified in the blender! We played 5 Crowns for a while. The family is trying to plan fun things to keep Wayne's spirits up.
Tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. he will have a feeding tube put in, but he can still eat as much as he can. Then at 3 p.m. he will get his first radiation. It will be 28 sessions, with 5 each week, Monday through Friday. But the dr. wanted to get a head start so he will have both Friday and Saturday this week, and miss 3 days next weekend for the holiday.
I'm going to give a very brief beginning, for some that may not have read my e mail before. Wayne has been on dialysis about 4 months, and been feeling good. About 3 weeks ago it became hard for him to swallow. We had an apt. with Dr. Perino, a gastroenteroligis and he ordered an endoscopy on his throat a week ago Monday, and they told us he had esophageal cancer, malignant. He has continued to feel okay, but has had a harder time swallowing, so smoothies, and very soft food is what he can get down, and has to crush all his pills, (medicine). This morning he had a PET scan, which showed the cancer has not spread anywhere else, which is good. So because it hasn't spread, Dr. Ray Richards, a radiation oncologist, has felt we need to immediately start radiation, so his throat doesn't completely close off, which it would if we didn't do something.
He is on dialysis Tues. Thurs. and Sat. mornings, but he will change to afternoons, as he will start radiation on this Friday and Saturday. Then he will have radiation 5 days next week in the mornings about 8 a.m., and go to dialysis around noon -- for 4 hours. The radiation will make him very tired, and hopefully he will be able to sleep during dialysis some. Dr. Richards is really on the ball, and today before we left his office, he had called Dr. Mercado -- the kidney specialist, and he said "go for it" -- on the radiation. He also called Dr. Perino, and he will put in a feeding tube directly into Wayne's stomach on Friday morning, before he has his first radiation that afternoon. He is really a fine dr. also, and wanted to do it as soon as possible.
Our daughters Anita and Delsy went with us, and asked a lot of questions. Here are some of the answers -- The radiation will most likely keep his throat from closing, (he may need the feeding tube during radiation -- which will last for 28 days -- 5 days a week -- done the first part of October if all goes well.) After that he should be able to eat almost normally. Of course, it really isn't normal as his diet for dialysis has to exclude foods high in potassium and phosphorus, such as bananas, tomatoes, and potatoes. They will check him every few days, during radiation, and analyze how difficult it is on him. Dr. Richards said sometimes when your immune system is down with radiation, (and also dialysis) people can pass away from pneumonia, heart problems, etc. etc. When Anita asked what time period we are thinking of, even with radiation, Dr. R. said from 6 to 18 months. He was hesitant to even say that, but said that radiation will most likely buy him some time, and ability to eat. That is about it.
For the time being, we have to put almost everything he eats in the blender. He can't swallow his pills, and we got a pill crusher, and it is a job to crush all he needs to take each meal. He has certain pills for heart, blood pressure, and 2 large pills each meal for dialysis which bind potassium and phosphorus so they don't harm him, as dialysis doesn't take that out of his body. He isn't in any pain these days. We hope that doesn't change. He doesn't have a lot of energy, and can't walk long distances, and doesn't drive much at all. I do the driving. I try to think of foods that are healthy, but it's hard to try and make them taste good. He can't eat meat at this time -- can't chew it, and I haven't really tried trying to puree it.
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