Jeff Wood

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.
I have chosen to have a common site for friends and family to stay active in our journey as we look to other for support and inspiration. 
As some background as to why we are here is as such: In July/August of this year Jeff had mentioned a few times that he felt like he had food getting stuck mid-chest when he ate. It was causing some discomfort until the food passed. While we talked about going to the doctor we ran into a few obstacles in getting him seen as well as there was no active MD at his current Dr Office. 


 On Sept 3rd while I was out of state Jeff called me and was in pain while eating and his chest pain was getting worse.  Since I was out of town our son Garrett took him to the ER and he received some relief and referrals to Dental (lump in mouth) and to and Gastroenterologist and a PCP.  Since it was a holiday weekend we had to wait a few days to start making phone call and hit many speed bumps in trying to be seen. Eventually after many many phone calls we were able to have Jeff seen by the Gastroenterologist Dr Chris Stanke, MD. Jeff was seen on September 20th the day after my birthday and the day before his. Dr Stanke suggested we do a upper endoscopy to see what was going on and scheduled Jeff for the next morning to have the procedure done at the hospital. (what a way to spend his birthday).
After a slightly longer than normal wait Dr Stanke gave us the findings. ESOPHAGEAL CANCER. Not the new anyone wants and not on your 55th birthday.  


Biopsies were taken to find out the type of cancer and the next week we found out it is adenocarcinoma . It's a common but aggressive form of cancer.  We were schedule for both CT and PET scans to find out location of cancer and if metastasis of cancer was in other organs.  On Sept 29th we had the CT scan which we would get results the next week.  We meet with the oncologist on October 2nd to get results and start a treatment plan. The CT results showed metastasis/movement into the liver. This makes Jeff an non-surgical candidate but instead a chemotherapy candidate. 
We arranged for PET scan on 10/4/17 and would get results 10/10/17 at follow up visit. In the mean time we  were contacted to see if we might be interested in a research drug study if Jeff qualifies. We met with the research team and went over the study and medications. The study is in phase 3 and shows good promise. The only negative we see at this time is that the wait to start one of the 3 randomly chosen treatment plans is that they must evaluate his biopsies to see if he will qualify.  

We met with Dr Sharman our oncologist yesterday to get results of PET scan and talk about treatment. The scan shows the cancer is in the liver and possibly other areas but unsure of results. Jeff is already schedule for a removal and biopsy of the lump in his mouth next week. Currently to day we are talking about what path to take. Do we start regular Chemo next week or wait an additional week to see if he qualifies for the research study. So over the next few days please keep us in thoughts and prayers as we decide what path to take. I appreciate all the love and support we have gotten and please realize that while we try to communicate with everyone we are busy with work, spending time with the family and talking things through, so our response may be delayed, but we appreciate all the communications and encouragement we have received.