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Newly diagnosed with esophageal cancer: Where did you seek care?
Esophageal Cancer | Last Active: Nov 15, 2023 | Replies (10)Comment receiving replies
It’s obvious by your lengthy post-op period, that you have much more experience than we do. I would like to know if you had to deal with continuous nausea and vomiting—and if so, what you did to alleviate it—or is it even possible? The first sip of water in the morning causes nausea and often vomiting for my husband. Ditto with food and the only thing that seems to make him feel any better is to lie down until his stomach settles, which means that he is not sitting up for the requisite amount of time after eating.
Hubby’s vagus nerves were also severed but I understand that this is the standard operating procedure with this type of operation—nevertheless, it presents an entirely additional set of problems.
Hope you can give us some suggestions on handling the after-effects of this operation.
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I'd love to tell you of MY post-op journey, it has some meaning, some lessons embedded, but it is MY journey, and not your husband's.
But I have talked with hundreds of others... so hearing of their journeys has taught me much. I've seen the "bell curve" of these many journeys... the extremes and the averages.
So... what is to come for your husband? Hard to say. I'd certainly be more disheartened if he were 18 months along... as he should be doing a bit better.
If like to say it's predictable, what we all see and feel as we attempt to eat and drink post-op. Most of us see (in general) similar things early on post-op.
First off, our tummys hurt when we put food or drink in our new stomaphagus. And this can be anything to a mild tummy aches, that passes in less than 15 minutes... to a serious tummy ache that you must lay back on the sofa for maybe an hour. and i won't even try to explain these pains as being Dumping Syndrome or not. Now... does ingesting food and drink also cause nausea... and a vomiting reflex? Maybe... for some, but not usually. Most will tell you it's not possible to "classically vomit" as we did before an esophagectomy because those nerves (and muscles) have been cut. Now, to have that dry heaving reflex is one thing, but to actually swallow food, where it gets all the way down, and to then vomit it up... not supposed to be possible for us. But yes, I've had many tell me they can still vomit... and usually projectile vomit. Weird.
Now nausea... that's a strange one. It's all over the place. I know a few who are 3 years post-op, still NED, but they suffer from nausea a lot! And not just related to eating and drinking.
So... how to get rid of this nausea and vomiting? In my mind... you can take meds to help alleviate these things... like Zofran, Zyprexa, dexamethasone, etc. But obviously treating symptoms is not the same as curing the problem.
For me personally... I simply powered thru it (ignorant of everything in the world... I sought no advice at the time). I only knew EVERYTHING caused me issues. I had to keep shoveling food in and see if my new stomaphagus would expand over time (it did!), and my body would find a new way to get digestion done once again (in a somewhat acceptable fashion). And this happened as well... but it took a long long time.
Most of us see similarities. Eating early in the day is usually easier on the tummy... after 3 pm or so seems to hurt more. Volume is almost always a problem... eat less more often... far less tummy aches. Over eat even a bite or two... NASTY. Hot or cold drinks... can cause more issues. Sugars... maybe can cause more issues as well.
But things change over time. But don't be so quick to change because some particular food or drink seems to not be working as yet. Just keep exposing the new stomaphagus to everything. It will adjust... over the next year.