Al Noah

Welcome to our CaringBridge site. We've created it to keep friends and family updated. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement during this time when it matters most.
Al was having trouble drinking his beloved coffee.  He was experiencing heartburn and didn't like that too much.  An ulcer was suggested and after talking to the kids, we thought that sounded logical.  He quit drinking coffee for 3 weeks and sure enough, it was much better.  We had called the Dr and set up an appointment on March 17th to have an EGD (endoscope procedure).  They did find an ulcer but also a mass at the end of the esophagus where it meets the stomach that they biopsied.  This wasn't what we wanted to hear.  When we left from the procedure, the Dr told to me to "fatten him up."  A week later it was confirmed CANCER.  
Since then we have been at the clinic/hospital 3-4 days a week preparing us for what is to happen.  Currently he has a Hickman Catheter in place and last week had a mediastinoscopy to biopsy new nodes found during the PETE scan that were suspicious in the trachea.  Those ended up to be negative for cancer.