Peter was getting a little better yesterday (Tuesday 27 May). He ate some breakfast and a few mouthfuls of food I had brought in for him for dinner(as the hospital stuff is pretty grim, tasteless and dubious in the extreme). He finally had some bowel movements after 2 weeks (sorry for the graphic nature of what I have to report) which was also cause for better humour. However, then he started on chemotherapy in the afternoon and he has rung me this morning (before I go in to spend the day with him) to let me know he now feels pretty nauseous and terrible.

The chemotherapy cycle is as follows: he is on Cisplatin on day 1 and 5FU for day 1 - 4 (that is 24 hours a day via a pump) via a PICC line into the arm, then he has 17 days off and starts the 21 day cycle again. He will have radiotherapy on the next cycle for 10 days. There could be up to 6 of the 21 day cycles over the next 4 months, which will again be through winter which Peter hates.

At the same time he will stay in hospital until he can show he can take enough fluids and eat something but I am hopeful he may be able to come home at the end of this week as he has been a bit "stir crazy" on a few occasions (he's been in for 15 days now). However, we found out last night that the stricture in his oesophagus is right at the base of the throat and the opening of his oesophagus is about the diameter of a ballpoint pen, which means that this is why he has trouble swallowing and it is likely that it will shrink again and need another dilatation or a stent placed inside to keep it open - both of these have risks of perforation and other issues. The stent might be very uncomfortable as well given that it will be so high up in what is left of his oesophagus. So we go one step forward and several back on every occasion. Peter is trying to get one thing at a time to work so that everything can come together in harmony at some stage but unfortunately it's not working out like that at the moment.

He is ambivalent about being in hospital - knowing on the one hand that it is the right place to be for the appropriate drugs, IV drips etc, but also not liking or bending to the hospital regimen.

I will write again in a few days.