I think that I have Esophageal Cancer, I am extremely scared

pcschult4131

I wanted to reach out and receive some opinions/assurance on a couple issues that I am having and see if you can alleviate some of my concerns.  I am a 29 year old male, average build.  I do not smoke or chew but do drink alcohol.

 

I have reason to believe that I might have esophageal cancer. And the reason that I say that is because in December of last year, I had an episode in which I tried to swallow a mouthful of food and it just got stuck in the back of my throat.

 

I tried to wash it down with some water and the water basically pooled on top of the food and didn't allow for the food to pass. Eventually I have to throw the food back up. Now since then. there has been 3-4 instances in which the same thing has happened to me. Although these instances were not as severe as the first time (I didn't have to vomit the unregurgitated food), I did find it to be weird.

 

Fast forward to today, I haven't had any issues with the swallowing of food, but i'm not convinced that it won't happen again. In addition to the issue with the food swallowing issue, I just got over a cold in which there was a cough. The cough has not gone completely away and it's not a consistent cough.

As far as burping goes, I noticed that when I eat or drink i will have little burps here and there.  They aren't super loud or deep, its like air is just escaping from my esophagus.  I was reading that frequent burping can be a symptom?

 

I also have a dull pain in my back in-between my shoulder blades, not sure if that is a cause of the possible cancer or if it is an issue of poor posture.  I was reading that the pain in-between the shoulder blades can be a symptom of EC?

 

Any help would be great, I am very scared and don't know what to do.  I am scheduled for an upper endoscopy next Monday, but I'm scared and would like a little reassurance.

Thanks for any kind words, my thoughts are with everyone in this group.

LorettaMarshall

Pcschult~Let's hope your Endoscopy will produce negative results

Hello “pcschultz”

Thank you for being so honest about your drinking.  Hope you won’t mind if I give a little “grandmotherly advice” along the way since I have grandchildren in your very age range.  You’ve probably been reassessing the priorities of your life by now since you believe there’s a possibility that you may have Esophageal Cancer.  It is good that you’re honest enough to tell me that you use alcohol.  Guess you know that alcohol is one of the culprits that is believed to be a strong contributor to Esophageal Cancer.  So I would say that you might want to reassess the wisdom of the use of alcohol.  Frankly I’ve witnessed a lot in my 78 years and I have yet to see the benefit of alcohol consumption.  I will say that the possibility of EC is a sobering thought.  Many a life has been ruined and a meaningful life forfeited by alcohol.  And so I do hope that you are not addicted at this young age.    

Now I will tell you that having monitored this site for the last 15 years that it is not unusual for someone your age to be diagnosed with this cancer, although it is diagnosed far more often in others older than you, and in more men than women.  Since I’m not one to mince many words, I will tell you that the symptoms that you describe are eerily similar to one who may be found to have Esophageal Cancer.  So at this point, I, for one, will not try to cheer you up by attempting to “reassure” you that you have nothing to fear.  You may—or you may not.  That’s an uncertainty at this point.  Knowing what I know, and what I know that other veteran survivors on this forum know, you are wise to have scheduled an upper endoscopy next Monday, April 10, 2017.  So I, for one, will certainly want to know the results of that test. 

Difficulty swallowing is certainly a frequent problem that finally causes a person to pay a visit to their doctor.  In my husband’s case, I noticed that he was consistently having one hiccup when he took his first bite of food.  After that, everything seemed normal.  He had no other symptoms that would lead me to think there was something wrong.  However, after observing this for a couple of months, I said, “We’ve got to go to the doctor and see what’s wrong with you.  I haven’t had the hiccups since I was a kid.” 

So off we go to see our wonderful Internist of 30 years plus.  We had absolutely no clue that a hiccup was a symptom of Esophageal Cancer.  We had never heard of that cancer.  Well, the Internist said, “I have no idea what your problem might be but I would say it’s most likely gastric related.  You need to be seen by a Gastroenterologist.  And so, he called up one of his cohorts and set us up an appointment for the very next day.  So on a November day, close to Thanksgiving, 2002, we find ourselves at a place we’d never been before, to see someone we had never met before, and had no clue as to what a Gastroenterologist would find. 

And probably anyone who has read any of my comments will already know this part of our story.  After the “upper Endoscopy” (which is only the beginning of tests if cancer is found), we came home not knowing any more than when we came.  The doctor, nor nurse, told us anything that day.  The nurse did say, “Now don’t let him drive for 12 hours or so, and he might have a sore throat.”  Okay that was no problem, and so we came home.  We were not overly concerned about the outcome of the test, it just seemed like a “routine” test to be sure “nothing was radically wrong!” 

Well, the next day my husband and I were both sitting at our computers, when the phone rang about 2:30 P.M.  I remember most every word, but the very first ones were the ones that sent SHOCK WAVES through me.  My heart sank to the floor, when the person on the other end said, “This is Dr. Ryan calling.  I do wish you had stayed around yesterday.  I needed to talk with you.  Your husband has cancer!”  Now that’s traveling at the speed of light, from a hiccup to cancer in 2 days!  Then I started asking questions and he answered truthfully with words I couldn’t even spell, much less understand the severity of them.  I asked, “How do you spell Esophageal?  Squamous?” 

So the following day, we returned to see our Internist because he wanted to see us as soon as the results were known.  As we sat at his desk, he placed a call to the Gastroenterologist and said, “Are you sure you have the right William Marshall?”  The answer came back in the affirmative first by the tears in our doctor’s eyes, and then in the words he shared.  From there, our world was turned upside down, and the trauma, the tears, the testing began.  Our calendar was filled with appointments with people we had never met before, and we had to place our lives in their hands.  I say, “Our” because I said, “When my husband has cancer, I have cancer.”  No doubt, others who have a spouse with cancer feel the same way.  Incidentally, my husband was 65 at the time and we were raising 4 grandchildren! 

So now that I’ve raised your anxiety level, I will tell you that our story has a happy ending.  After all the tests, his cancer was determined to be Adenocarcinoma at the Gastroesophageal junction.  (GE junction—the place where the lower end of the Esophagus and the stomach meet.)  It was considered to be in the advanced stage—that is “T3N1M0”. 

The “T” stands for tumor—the “N” stands for nodes—the “M” stands for metastasis which means spread to another organ.  For instance, when a person has been found to have the primary cancer in their Esophagus with some lung involvement, the name of the cancer doesn’t change.  In that case a person’s diagnosis would be Esophageal Cancer, Stage IV with metastasis to the Lungs.  That’s just an illustration.  But the treatment will be vastly different for a Stage IV diagnosis that involves one or more other major organs than for a Stage III or under. 

Well, “pcschult” now that I’ve done everything but put your mind at ease, I will tell you that my husband had a First and Second Opinion.  He had neo-adjuvant chemo of Carboplatin/5-FU and 25 rounds of radiation.  (Neo-adjuvant meaning “before” whereas “adjuvant” means after)  So at the end of his treatments his PET scan (part of the workup for suspected cancer) showed the tumor and the 2 local lymph nodes had been totally eradicated.  However, we had already been told by the thoracic surgeon, that even if the tumor had been totally eliminated that an Esophagectomy for removal of the diseased Esophagus would be necessary.  And now we understand why.  Sometimes the scan does not detect the full extent of the cancer, and during surgery more cancer may be detected.  And so we were prepared to go forward with surgery, even if all cancer seemed to have been eliminated.  Thank God when surgery was performed no additional cancer was found—nor was it found in 22 of the lymph nodes also removed for pathology purposes.  

Now, just in case you do have Esophageal Cancer, you need to know that there is more than one type of surgery to perform the Esophagectomy.  The best way is to find an excellent Thoracic Surgeon trained to perform the totally laparoscopic procedure known as the Ivor Lewis Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy.  It is called the MIE for short.  And may I say, “Liking your doctor and wanting to stay close to home” should NOT be the main criteria for where you have treatments!  That is unless you live close to a major medical hospital that performs the Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy as one of their “specialties”.  Why subject your body to large incisions, more pain and a longer recuperation period when it isn’t necessary?

My husband had his pre-op chemo/radiation treatments here at home, and then traveled to have his Minimally Invasive Esophagectomy at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on May 17, 2003.  The surgery was performed by Dr. James D. Luketich who pioneered this totally laparoscopic surgery back in the mid-1990s.  We are happy to say that just last week, my husband had his most recent PET scan as part of a semi-annual checkup, and there is still NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE.  We are still celebrating our “resurrection” now almost FIFTEEN (15) years later.  William is now 80 years old. 

So first of all, I would love to hear that your Endoscopy did not reveal any Esophageal Cancer.  But secondly, if indeed you are found to be diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer, I would love for it to be in the early stages.  Third—I would wish for you every success and some 15 years down the road when you’re at the ripe old age of “44”, you will be sharing a positive story with a happy ending with others who will surely be writing here and needing help. 

Loretta- William’s wife

P.S.  Since I’m not certain of how much you’ve already researched Esophageal Cancer, I will give you links to my answers to 3 different people who have written here.   They were all diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer.  And please let us hear from you after your test next Tuesday.  Truly we would wish that your fright will turn to delight when the doc says, “Nothing to see here!”   If you have further questions, we will do our best to help out.

1. http://csn.cancer.org/comment/1548791#comment-1548791

(Here is a letter that I wrote to “mister_eko”.  He has since had a successful surgery, this much I know, but he hasn’t kept in touch.  By the way, if you click on the picture or the user name in the “blue block” on the left side of the topic under discussion, you will be able to see if the person has told us anything “about themselves.”  In your case, as in most others, I only see the date you joined which is today.  If you post in the future, I will be able to see the last time you were reading on this site.  Often people are reading, but not necessarily posting anything.  I will tell you that personally, I wish the people who write on here would check back in from time to time to let us know how things turned out.)

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 2.  http://csn.cancer.org/comment/1539581#comment-1539581

Here is another post to “daddyshelper” with comments further down on the page for “rjollie”.   I’ll refrain from repeating all the links to this letter to you since it would make my post a mile long.  As it is, I try to limit them to a quarter of a mile.  But since you’ve not been yet diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer, I’ll just direct your attention to them to know more about what happens during staging, surgery and recuperation, etc.

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3.  http://csn.cancer.org/node/303304

Here is another long letter to “Pamellaann” with lots of info.  These references will serve you well should you come to have an Esophageal Cancer diagnosis.  However, at this point, since it hasn’t been established, I’ll let these letters with lots of reference links therein suffice.

Deathorglory

Hello

Hello,

Your instances of food getting stuck (dysphagia) are certainly concerning.  There are many things that can cause dysphagia.  Some are very serious like esophageal cancer and some are much less dire.  Gettting yourself checked is the smartest thing you can do.  That's where I started my EC ride.  I had food getting stuck in my throat and had to regurgitate it because it wouldn't go down.  Like you, I waited a few months and when it didn't get better, I went to my gastroenterologist and had an endoscopy done.  Hopefully, you get better results than I got.  I'd suggest you do a little research on dysphagia as there are many causes.  Hopefully, yours is one of the more benign.

Best Wishes on Your Testing,

Ed

janaes

I just got done fighting a

I just got done fighting a different cancer and that is what brought me to this cancer site.  I am on here quit regulularly for my other cancer but i just went into have an endoscopy this week and have been doing an endoscopy every three years for about 10 years.  This is because about ten years ago i kept getting food stuck in my esophigus.  It did take me a while to finally get it checked out but i am sure glad I did.  After my first endescopy my doctor found what was called barrets desease.  He also called it pre cancer.  It wasnt cancer it was pre cancer.  I was put on the prescription medicine for prilosec.  I have it checked every three years.  Even last weeks edoscopy didnt have cancer.

Go get it checked out by a doctor.  You never know

Dianesf

Get a Medical Diagnosis

Definitely insist on getting an endoscopy.  You need facts.  Not unknowns.

My husband's internist and gasterolongist were too casual regarding my husband's hiccupping, belching, spitting, and gerd-like symptoms. Delayed endoscopy for 2 months. Then, POW, we learned it was stage 4 ... too late for surgical intervention.

 Take a deep breath. Know that there is advanced diagnostic detection techniques and excellent treatments.

Wishing you all the best outcome

Babzscheff

Could it be Acalasia

Sounds a bit like Achalasia to me. I started with it as a teenager. I had surgery for it at 21 with mixed results and was a force feeder told I got Stage III esophageal cancer at 56. Then had Ivor-Lewis, chemo and radiation. It's 11 years later and I continue to have multiple problems. I think you shoul approach your gastro about Achalasia. It's rare. Good luck. Swallowing problems are so difficult.