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Living life after treatment and surgery for Esophageal Cancer.
Esophageal Cancer | Last Active: Sep 9 6:07am | Replies (150)Comment receiving replies
Hello from Australia, Good to read your comments as above. I’m 14 months post surgery and have been able to gain 6 kilos (13 lbs) after losing 16 kilos (35lbs) in total by the time I was able to recommence a normal diet. Appetite is different, perhaps because gastric stretch receptor function has changed. This also means you have little or no idea when you’ve eaten enough. You quickly get to trust your visual assessment of manageable portion size. After 12 months, I started getting quite severe reflux and started taking Esomeprazole (PPI) - the dose required to control reflux is 60mg which is quite high. My surgeon has said that the reflux has to be controlled as it may cause a new bout of esophageal cancer. He also said that gastric tissue usually stops producing acid for 12 months or so after surgery. Has anyone else had problems with reflux and if so, how are you managing it? Some foods now need to be avoided or eaten in very small quantities - fatty / oily foods being the worse.
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Many of us do a few different things. And we have a few Aussies and Kiwis here and there who pop on our twice-weekly free Zoom calls.... next call is Sunday at 6am for me in California... which is 11pm Sunday evening in Brisbane... and 9pm Sunday evening in Perth.
Anyway... some of us switch PPIs to Omeprazole... or Pantoprazole... as maybe these work better. Some of us switch up the dosages by taking one 40mg pill in the morning... some take two 40s a day... one in the morning and one before dinner or a bedtime. Some switch to taking two 20s a day instead of 40s. Some also take Gaviscon Advance before bedtime to quell the acid in their tummies.
And oddly enough... we have some that go against convention and don't follow the rule of NOT eating within 2 or 3 hours of bedtime. Instead they do the opposite and eat a bunch at bedtime.... maybe a sandwich or bagel or whatever... it fills their new stomaphagus and basically acts like a seal... keeping the acid and bile in their tummies so it can't come up towards their windpipe (trachea). If you come on our Zoom calls you can talk to these folks.
Gary