Has anyone had surgery to remove scar tissue?

There has to be some kind if scar tissue removal..I mean they do it other places.... to me I refuse to have a permanent threachea..I lett them put one in for treatments and a feeding tube I had stage 4 my radiation was 15 minutes for 48 days and chemo 12 :45 mins long every 5 days for 4 months ... I feel like crap 3/4 of the time ... but, apparently the doctors says I don't feel that bad .. I can't figure how they know how we feel when they didn't go through it. But, everything had to come out if I wasn't cancer free .. said I will only go through it once.

Thanks so much, Lilyann! You're right--when life becomes mostly one struggle or another--waking up at night (me, too--not coughing, but this sense of almost strangling with the dry throat) and eating the way you are--that can't taste good or be very appealing--what are we fighting so hard to survive for? Knowing the cancer has reached your vocal chords has to be heart-breaking. Having come this far and faced the aftermath of treatments, none of the options look really good. Thanks for taking the time to respond!! Thinking of YOU this evening, too!

hi pegimac, i truly feel for you. i understand your negativity. i'm not doing any radiation or anything right now. i just had to write to let you know. so far i can breathe, eat, swallow. thing is i just seen the general surgeon who says he won't do my thyroidectomy because he feels the cancer has reached my vocal chords. so he has said he will arrange for me to see a specialist but i have to drive further away. so who knows what will be next for me. i do know that there will be a lot of things i won't consider. things is, when your going through stuff like you are going through, who knows how you will feel as far as trying to survive. its hard.. i have been mashing up alot of my food with the food processor, i have to watch the dry foods. i wake up about every hr. on the hr. have to get something to drink as i have these coughing spells. always feel so tired. can you find another dr. who does not shrug! i don't like shrugs! should not be. wishing you the best this evening. you will be in my prayers.

I can feel myself turning a frightening corner--toward a negative outlook for the future. Feels like there will always be more Long-term Effects of Radiation to battle, and that my doctors will always just shrug and say, but you're alive. Yes, but it's beginning to feel like I'm going to watch myself slowly suffocate as my throat loses elasticity and the ability to function.

I hate to admit that every night is a struggle to sleep for an hour or so before waking to try and lubricate the throat, to no avail--and all day I struggle to eat because it's so hard to swallow and nothing tastes good. It's hard to take in enough calories to maintain a weight nearly 20 pounds less than my doctor prefers. And for what?

Sorry to be so negative!

hi richard1990, wishing you the best and i have to agree with you as far as age. however, my endocrinologist says they don't look at age when i mentioned having thyroid surgery being an octogenarian, wow, the realization of being in the "superelderly" how about that. learn some new words for my age as far as surgeries go. i meet with the surgeon this morning to discuss things. so i will let all of you know even though i am on the throat cancer page. wishing wellness and happiness to each and everyone and you better believe prayers are said for each and everyone of you.

thomason, thank you for telling us exactly what you will not find on the internet except from the person that has esperienced it for theirselves. so sorry for you and your friend, i thank you both for educating us. you just never know what someone has been through. i do agree with you in your advice to stay close to our maker to find peace. prayers for you and your friend.

Hi. I don't know whether you've lost your voice, but if you have this could help. My right vocal cord died and I could only whisper. I had a "box" surgically inserted into my throat area. It has fine hairs or threads (sorry I 'm trying to make sense of this) and when I speak they flutter to produce sound. It does work. The voice is about 65% which is better than nothing. An ears, nose and throat specialist performed the surgery. It is a permanent fix which is good. Hope this helps. Hang in there!

I am a 3+ year survivor of Stage IV ESCC. I am totally non-PO due to extensive esophageal strictures. I've undergone 10 dilation but my esophagus is now too friable to attempt further dilations as it would repture. I am totally dependent upon my G tube for meds, nutrition and hydration. I was treated with aggressive chemo-radiation to try to control my disease. Unfortunately, one of rarely discussed side effects of radiation therapy for esophageal, throat and head and neck cancers is reactive fibrosis. While radiotherapy kills the cancer, it also produces free radical reactive oxygen species (ROS) and inflammation which cause tissue fibroblasts near the cancer lesion to produce increased amounts of connective tissue. This results in increased tissue stiffness and rigidity as well as strictures. The throat and esophagus may be amenable to dilation but the relief may be temporary as fibrosis and strictures inevitably recur. For severe fibrosis and large strictures, surgery is generally not advisable or effective as the tissue is generally friable and there may be too little viable tissue for effective healing.

This is an unmet medical need for esophageal, throat and head and neck cancer patients. I wish that radiation oncologists, oncologic surgeons and gastroenterologist would explore the use of co-administration of various antifibrotic agents, approved or experimental, to determine whether they might reduce or prevent radiation induced fibrosis and stricture formation.

It makes sense that the issue would be worse if they went in again. The surgery I will have on Oct 27 is made considerably more difficult due to the 37 sessions of intensive radiation.

I have not had the scar tissue removal sugery. However I do have swallow and restricted breathing (short of breath) problems. I went to Emory in Atlanta to again have swallow study and the scope procedure to check the scar tissue which is present. I have been told by the the throat Doctor and my Heart Doctor that the scar tissue was a factor in my breathing problem. Both are of the opinion that surgery to remove the tissue could make the situation worse in the long run. The reason being that surgery could produce worse scaring as a result of the surgery. I had throat cancer in 1990 and have speaking problems worse now that before, still have swallow and breathing problems, I just live it day to day. I would be interested in others that have had the scar removal surgery. I think because of my age (79) they just don't have the interest they would have in a younger person.