For all of us here... having difficulties swallowing, and especially if we're older now... get an endoscopy... a quick and painless procedure. Being diagnosed with esophageal cancer is still pretty rare... but nothing to mess around with. Like all cancers, the sooner it is found, the better your chances. And physically going in to have a look-see is the easiest way to know if something's amiss. And if things don't look right... 3 things are usually done to get a complete EC diagnosis (dx). A biopsy of what doesn't look right inside will be done... and looked at under a microscope. Then, a more advanced endoscopy called an EUS (with ultrasound) will be done, where the GI doctor can take a deep look around... seeing thru the esophageal layers, looking at nearby lymph nodes and other structures. If cancer, this doctor will see exactly how invasive it is and this will lead to more accurate staging. And finally, scans will be done, CT and/or PET scans... to see if there's any spread outside the esophagus. This will also provide a baseline for where the patient is at... since if you do have EC, you will be scanned many more times in the coming months and years (I've probably had 10 already, at 3 years post-op).

And mucus problems... yes, we all pretty much see this somewhere on our EC journeys. A pain in the ass... but pretty much normal. Even when we're totally healthy, our bodies are constantly producing mucus (a quart or two a day!). We just don't know it, it's doing its job... we swallow lots of it without even knowing it. Mucus is our flypaper that catches everything... and helps us dispose of things that irritate our insides, things that cause inflammation, etc. And obviously our EC irritates things inside us. And so does chemo... radiation... surgery... immunotherapy. So... get ready, it's coming, sooner or later. Excess mucus may last a few days, weeks, even months. But it will pass.

Be well everybody.

Gary