My husband had an esophagectomy a year ago. No chemo or radiation, because the cancer was just in his esophagus. His first surgery was robotic surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering. At first, we thought it went well, but he developed scar tissue that needed to be removed. The doctor did a thoracotomy for this procedure, and in doing so, created a hole in the conduit. At that point, he was unable to eat or drink anything. He then had a J-Tube inserted. From the hole in the conduit, he developed a fistula into the right lung. Hence, another thoracotomy was performed to close the hole and remove part of the right lung. Well, the fistula was fixed, but they could not get the hole in the conduit to heal. He remained in MSK for 6 months, finally coming home this past June. They have tried everything they could, from dilation to stents, to help him eat; unfortunately, he developed massive amounts of mucus and thick phlegm, which causes severe coughing, vomiting, and aspiration. He does his tube feedings at night, but because of the severe coughing, he has no energy to do anything but stay in bed. Well, just when you think that it's as bad as it can get, they wanted to do a colon interposition surgery for esophageal replacement surgery. When they started working him up for the surgery, they found he had metastatic liver and lymph node cancer. Surgery obviously was canceled, and he is beginning Chemotherapy. I'm telling you this story because not everything works out for everyone. However, we still have hope that the chemo will work and he can eventually get the colon interposition surgery and someday eat and drink again. There is always hope.