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Just diagnosed with esophageal cancer.
Esophageal Cancer | Last Active: May 27, 2023 | Replies (46)Comment receiving replies
Hello group, I hope everyone is doing well and will enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend. I had the privilege of talking to a woman a few days ago who had the same esophageal cancer I do, in the same place and her surgeon was the surgeon I’ll have.
Ass you can guess, I had a lot of questions for her which she gladly answered. After talking for over an hour, I had one major concern, both having cancer where the esophagus meets the stomach the surgeon started with chemo and radiation, then surgery. Instead of taking the bottom portion of the esophagus he removed her entire esophagus. Is this standard practice and has anyone else experienced this? I meet with the oncologist and surgeon in two weeks and to say I’m pretty scared about losing my entire esophagus is putting it mildly. Thanks for any information and I hope everyone has a safe weekend.
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My wife’s tumor was in the lower portion of her esophagus. Her surgeon removed almost the entire esophagus. Surgery was minimally-invasive. Her operation was on Feb 2 of this year. She is living almost normally today.
Only serious problem she had related to her J-tube, which was incorrectly positioned inside her body and caused an infection while she was in the hospital recovering from the esophagectomy.
She and her doctor decided to go straight to oral feeding and not use the J-tube at all. That has worked fine. She eventually had the J-tube removed, never having used it again once the initial problem had been discovered and resolved.
I wouldn’t worry about how much of your esophagus they remove: the more the better, in order to reduce the chance of recurrence, I think.
You might consider talking to your surgeon about oral feeding sooner rather than later. My feeling is that that has been beneficial to my wife’s recovery and return to near normalcy.
Wish you well!