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Anyone out there performing self Esophageal dilation
Esophageal Cancer | Last Active: Feb 16 5:04pm | Replies (6)Comment receiving replies
I was stretched within a month after surgery. The connection closed up to the point I couldn't swallow my own saliva. Multiple (excess of 20) dilations followed for the first year and a half. My stomach, what was left of it was pulled up also. The cancer was in my stomach lymph nodes also, so I had quite a bit of stomach removed. My bougie is 48FR (16MM) so we are close to having the same diameter. My surgery was Oct., 2019, so yes we are not quite a year apart.
Replies to "I was stretched within a month after surgery. The connection closed up to the point I..."
@v132077, in this video, Mayo Clinic gastroenterologist, Dr. Magnus Halland, M.D. talks about esophageal self-dialation for patients dealing with swallowing difficulties due to narrowing of the esophagus,
- Esophageal Self Dilation Therapy: An Effective Alternative: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/blog/gastroenterology-and-gi-surgery/newsfeed-post/esophageal-self-dilation-therapy-an-effective-alternative/
@walisky @rlp63 @jmfarris @peggyschr @drupoint also share their experiences in the comments.
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Ok... so the big question... when was the cancer seen in your stomach and/or surrounding lymph nodes? I would think if in the confirming scan prior to surgery, the surgery would have been called off. If your post-op pathology showed positive lymph nodes or at the margins of what parts of the stomach and esophagus that were removed... then you would have done a ton of adjuvant chemo. Did you do these treatments post-op?
And did you not wake up with a J tube post-op? Something you could lean on as you recovered from surgery? This would have helped immensely.