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Bubbling in esophagus when eating acidic foods
Esophageal Cancer | Last Active: May 12 6:09am | Replies (10)Comment receiving replies
Just thought of a couple more things. You say “30 inches”. The dilator is not quite that long from end to end. You might mean 30 cm, which would be the “white 30” on the dilator. You also say you have 3 different dilators. I am assuming they are different sizes. You should only need to use one and it would need to be the correct size (mine is 48FR/aka 16mm). How did the doctor measure you for your dilator?? In my training, the Doc started me with a smaller size (around 42FR), and gradually increased the size until I could not pass the dilator through the “connection”, which in my case was 51FR. That is how I settled on the 48FR and have been using it since (2 years +). If yours is hanging up at the “connection” it may be a little too large.
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Hi there, you made doubt myself so I went and measured the dilators.
They measure exactly 30 inches or 76 centimeters. My stenosis is between 19 to 21 cm from the incisors according to surgical records and endoscopies. I misspoke when I said doc wants me to insert down to 35 inches, it is to the number 35 (for centimeters) and I can only stick it in to 30cm which is where it seems to get stuck. In my opinion if my stenosis is at 21 cm and I am inserting down to 30 I am going well past the stenosis but doc said to try to get it farther down to 35. When I did it with the doctor the very first time, HE slid it down and I think it went down to about 35 or 40 cm. It may have helped I had just had endoscopic dilation a couple days begore that. In any case this May 12th will be two months without getting an endoscopy so this is working for me. It still bothers me when the tip scratches my throat and then still get gagging but I am getting the hang of it although I don't usually last more than 40 seconds or so with dilator inside my esophagus. Any tips?
In answer to your question the doctor didn't measure for dilator. I read my endoscopy report which said they dilated me first to 18, then to 19, then to 20 mm in a space of two minutes each time and that is what I am trying to replicate at home. I first bought a 17.2 mm dilator and asked the doc to teach me how to use it so he put it in 2 times, then told me to do it myself which I did. After that I bought the 18.5 and the 20mm dilators (52fr, 56fr, 60fr)) and I do the dilations using all three staring with smallest obviously. I do this every three to 5 days so my throat can rest a bit. I use KY jelly and a throat desensitizer sometimes.
I just want to say to anyone reading this you should seek your doctor's advice when using dilators (because after reading you I realized I kind of self-medicated when I made the decision to buy the dilators) although I did ask my doc to get them for me so he is well aware)
Reading back your message it seems you also insert to 35 cm so same as me. I think you could try dilating one day and then resting one day and see how it works. I am going to increase the frequency to see if that improves things for me. You might ask for a second opinion to see if you can use a thicker dilator now that you can handle the 16mm. I am not sure how narrow /complicated your stricture is but mine is a "simple" 1.5cm stenosis. In any case that is something you could consult with your doctor. Cheers!