Good experiences... are you joking?! All we go thru to hopefully be rid of our EC just ain't much fun! Compared to many, I went thru very little... only 5 chemo (Carboplatin and Taxol) and 23 radiation... then esophagectomy and then one year of Opdivo immunotherapy. Post-op I had a tight anastomosis (that some of us patients get as our scar tissue needs a little stretching... I was stuck at 5mm). I started a series of 4 stretches at 6 months post-op... one per month... and then I was eating well again and put on weight very quickly!

I'm almost to 5 years now... so that's the enjoyable part I suppose. But for all of us, the EC journey is fraught with some mental and physical misery along the way. Toss in a heaping helping of uncertainty and depression... yep, that pretty much describes it. So now that I'm pretty much back to normal these days (even sleeping flat and normal... i sure didn't see that ever coming!), I spend most of my time helping others now. The only thing that makes sense to me to do... brings me some satisfaction with all I went thru. I've learned so much talking to hundreds of other EC patients and caregivers. We now have twice-weekly EC Zoom calls. What a crazy ride I'm on now! Be well.

Gary