Post Surgery

ShellyAS
ShellyAS Member Posts: 24
in Esophageal Cancer #1
My husband was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer in Feb of this year. He is 44 years old. Both of his parents and an Aunt all had this disease as a primary cancer and died from it. My husband, David, was diagnosed with Barrett's Esophagus 16 years ago. David went through 17 hours of surgery to remove his esophagus last week. He has approximately 3 inches of the esophagus remaining. We received his pathology report and he was a Stage l. The cancer was contained in the esophagus. No chemo or radiation. I am amazed at how much better he is doing one week post surgery. Hopefully he will be home from the hospital by Monday or Tuesday of next week. Shelly

Comments

  • jgwright
    jgwright Member Posts: 242
    #2
    Early Catch
    Great that they caught it so early. Hope that everything continues to go well, and that in the many years to come, he'll keep seeing NED -- No Evidence of Disease.

    Thanks for the info. Good news is ALWAYS welcome.

    --Jerry
    Stage IV, Diagnosed October 11, 2011.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #3
    This comment has been removed by the Moderator
  • captdave
    captdave Member Posts: 153
    #4
    Shelly, David's story
    Shelly, David's story sounds very similar to mine. Barretts for many many years then during routine surveillance cancer detected. What a blessing to be diagnosed so early and to be aggressive with the treatment. There will be quite a bit of adjusting David's lifestyle early in recovery then before you know it he will be going full tilt and doing everything he did before.

    Where did David have surgery? Who performed the surgery and what type of surgery was it?

    Just a quick word of caution for David. When he gets feeling good or back to himself encourage him to still work into activities slowly and not over exert or push it to hard. I say this as I had THE in January and just got home from the hospital Friday from having a hernia that developed in my abdominal incision repaired.

    Dave
  • ShellyAS
    ShellyAS Member Posts: 24
    #5
    captdave said:

    Shelly, David's story
    Shelly, David's story sounds very similar to mine. Barretts for many many years then during routine surveillance cancer detected. What a blessing to be diagnosed so early and to be aggressive with the treatment. There will be quite a bit of adjusting David's lifestyle early in recovery then before you know it he will be going full tilt and doing everything he did before.

    Where did David have surgery? Who performed the surgery and what type of surgery was it?

    Just a quick word of caution for David. When he gets feeling good or back to himself encourage him to still work into activities slowly and not over exert or push it to hard. I say this as I had THE in January and just got home from the hospital Friday from having a hernia that developed in my abdominal incision repaired.

    Dave

    Dave had his surgery at
    Dave had his surgery at Royal Oak William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan not far from our home. His surgeon's name is Dr. Sang Kim. He is the partner that saw my husbands mom many years ago. He is specially trained with Minimally Invasive Surgery.

    David has a history of gastric problems. He had pyloric stenosis which required surgery when he was 3 weeks old. The scar tissue from that surgery went all the way to the gallbladder which created complications when trying to pull the stomach up. Also the Barrett's went all the way up into the neck.

    The first day of surgery (13 hours) was Minimally Invasive. The next morning they made an abdominal incision and one in his neck. The next day his surgery lasted approximately 4 hours. His chest and side look like he was on a battlefield.

    Dave will not be able to come home tomorrow as he has a leak in his neck. His Dr. says it will be a couple more days so they can keep an eye on his neck. His Dr. told us due to how far they had to stretch the stomach into the neck this is a common problem.

    David is a cabinet maker by trade. We are curious to see if he will be able to return to his current occupation. His job is very physical with a lot of lifting and being on his feet all day.

    Any information on life after surgery would be great. We have an idea of dietary changes but just not sure on anything else.

    Take care,
    Shelly
  • JReed
    JReed Member Posts: 428
    #6
    ShellyAS said:

    Dave had his surgery at
    Dave had his surgery at Royal Oak William Beaumont Hospital in Michigan not far from our home. His surgeon's name is Dr. Sang Kim. He is the partner that saw my husbands mom many years ago. He is specially trained with Minimally Invasive Surgery.

    David has a history of gastric problems. He had pyloric stenosis which required surgery when he was 3 weeks old. The scar tissue from that surgery went all the way to the gallbladder which created complications when trying to pull the stomach up. Also the Barrett's went all the way up into the neck.

    The first day of surgery (13 hours) was Minimally Invasive. The next morning they made an abdominal incision and one in his neck. The next day his surgery lasted approximately 4 hours. His chest and side look like he was on a battlefield.

    Dave will not be able to come home tomorrow as he has a leak in his neck. His Dr. says it will be a couple more days so they can keep an eye on his neck. His Dr. told us due to how far they had to stretch the stomach into the neck this is a common problem.

    David is a cabinet maker by trade. We are curious to see if he will be able to return to his current occupation. His job is very physical with a lot of lifting and being on his feet all day.

    Any information on life after surgery would be great. We have an idea of dietary changes but just not sure on anything else.

    Take care,
    Shelly

    Wishing you and Dave an easy recovery
    Shelly:

    We are Michiganders also (Marshall/Battle Creek area). 17 hours of surgery - wow! So glad they caught it early.

    Eating is going to be so different - but in only two and a half months post op - Don (my hubby) is eating everything he wants with the exception of sugary foods. He just eats smaller amounts more often during the day and drinks gatorade or water between meals. Don has maintained his weight very well - he lost a little over 20 lbs during treatment and dropped another 10 after surgery, but has gained about 8 or 9 lbs back - so all-in-all that's pretty good. He would like to gain another 5 lbs. but I will be happy if he manages to stay where he is.

    We introduce any new foods he wants at home - so as to be close to the bathroom just in case - but he's only had a couple of those bouts. He has overeaten 3 or 4 times and vomited from that. In general he eats about one cup of food every two hours - someone on this site advised that and that seems to be working very well for him. Eat by the clock.

    Best wishes for a speedy recovery and come back here often to ask questions or seek advice - everyone on here is so helpful.

    Hugs,
    Judy

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