Esophagectomy and stomach pull up

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Comments

  • glibo
    glibo Member Posts: 3 Member
    #22

    Hello,

    Tell your friend that I was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer - adenocarcinoma at the EG Junction in October of 2007 and I am still here. I lost my stomach after an Ivor-Lewis surgery because of supposedly a nicked artery and then had a Rouyen-Y surgery. I am so grateful that I had the Rouyen -Y surgery!

    Gil Mays

  • glibo
    glibo Member Posts: 3 Member
    #23

    To further explain, they used parts of my small intestines downstream of the pancreas to replace my esophagus. I can almost sleep flat with no problems.

    Gil Mays

  • glibo
    glibo Member Posts: 3 Member
    #24

    My Pulmonologist said it was the best esophageal surgery she had seen in handling the lost lung capacity.

    Gil Mays

  • Peace_C_KR
    Peace_C_KR Member Posts: 4 Member
    #25
    https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1694820#Comment_1694820

    hi~I am wondering what has your experience with Opdivo been like? My husband completed chemo radiation , then Ivor Lewis 2 weeks ago. Opdivo starts in a few weeks. He tends to always fall in the percentage of people who have the odd side effects or extreme reactions to everything. The chemo radiation almost took him…We are so in the midst of it all. His care team has been excellent. We are very fortunate. Stage 3 adenocarcinoma.

  • Nanato11
    Nanato11 Member Posts: 1 *
    #26

    Hello, I am new here I was looking at the site and I felt compelled to write to you about your friend. I was diagnosed in 2018 with stage 4 ego cancer that had metastasized to my right lung and lymph nodes all stage 4. they took all of it out, the surgeries were not to bad but the after math is hell!.

    I never had great eating habits to start with, but after the surgeries the chemo and all the bouts of radiation it is very difficult to eat. your right your stomach now is a tube that sits in your chest, and I have pain every time I eat weather it is the size of a pea or a thanksgiving meal it doesn't matter the amount. Now I have a feeding tube that I have to hook to every night from 12am to 10am it's called for short a J Tube and it always hurts and breaks out my stomach due to the kind of tape they send and the fact it is always draining. It has gotten to the point that I am done, I am 60 years old and before all of this I was very active, I loved to cook and sew, making quilts was my thing. I was even renovating houses with my husband, not to mention having fun with my grandkids. Now I sit at this computer and do nothing but look at photos of what I had and could do and what my life has become, which is nothing. THIS IS NOT LIVING TO ME!!!, my Drs. tell me I have a death wish well maybe so, don't think I haven't thought of ending it.

    So, I guess to your friend talk to your dr. about maybe some options. try and hang in there, I won't tell you it will get better.

  • paul61
    paul61 Member Posts: 1,392 Member
    #27

    I had the surgery you are describing in 2009. It is definitely a MAJOR surgery and takes some time to recover but I am back to living my life normally with some lifestyle modifications. Those modifications include:

    1. I have to sleep on an incline with the upper portion of my body elevated by 30 degrees to avoid aspiration since I no longer have a lower esophageal sphincter.
    2. I eat seven small meals or snacks a day instead of the traditional 3 large meals a day
    3. I have to rest for about 15 minutes after eating to insure the food I have eaten does not move through my modified digestive system too quickly

    I need to chew my food very thoroughly and swallow slowly

    Other than those changes my life is as it was prior to surgery.

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