Stents in the throat????

GolfingDeb
GolfingDeb Member Posts: 8
edited March 2014 in Esophageal Cancer #1
My husband is having a heck of a time recovering from trtment of chemo/rad/lap surgery. Diagnosed stage 4 in July. His surgery was 11-28-08 and he is still hospitalized. He's got a fistula aka leak which has formed a pocket above his lung and they have a drainage tube which is draining green gunk. They just did an xray where they injected a contrast dye and then took pictures. We're waiting for results but they're talking about another endoscopy to put a stent down his throat to by pass this fistual(aka leak)to allow him to drink something. yes, he's been unable to put anything down his throat since surgery.............we're going crazy. Anyone with a similar situation????

Comments

  • crecia50
    crecia50 Member Posts: 2
    #2
    stents
    Yes. My brother had a "stent" place in the esophagus in an attempt to open it up to improve the quality of life. he only had it 4 days before he passed away. he was diagnosed on the fri before thanksgiving 2008. he passed away the following fri in the early am. it has been a devastating experience. he had complained to his mds that he had a problem with his throat and keeping food down but no one would listen due to no health coverage. he was approved for disability the wed before seeing the md about his throat due to a heart attack the previous feb. i am not sure if the few months would have made a difference or not. saw pics of the stent after placement and it truly did open the esophagus, but not sure if it didnt cause too much pressure on the tumor.
    all in our family were praying for him as well as all his church family. in the end, he didnt suffer in the way that the drs had told us he would. wether it was a heart attack or the ca that took him, i am thankfull that his suffering never got to the stage it could have. good luck with your family member.
  • GolfingDeb
    GolfingDeb Member Posts: 8
    #3
    crecia50 said:

    stents
    Yes. My brother had a "stent" place in the esophagus in an attempt to open it up to improve the quality of life. he only had it 4 days before he passed away. he was diagnosed on the fri before thanksgiving 2008. he passed away the following fri in the early am. it has been a devastating experience. he had complained to his mds that he had a problem with his throat and keeping food down but no one would listen due to no health coverage. he was approved for disability the wed before seeing the md about his throat due to a heart attack the previous feb. i am not sure if the few months would have made a difference or not. saw pics of the stent after placement and it truly did open the esophagus, but not sure if it didnt cause too much pressure on the tumor.
    all in our family were praying for him as well as all his church family. in the end, he didnt suffer in the way that the drs had told us he would. wether it was a heart attack or the ca that took him, i am thankfull that his suffering never got to the stage it could have. good luck with your family member.

    I am so very sorry to hear
    I am so very sorry to hear of your loss. It's just a reminder that we are very lucky my husband is doing so well. Kaiser in San Diego, jumped right on this. They have a great team here and they are hopefull that my husband will beat the odds.
    Thanks again for your input and again, I am sorry for the loss of your brother. Not much else can comfort. I will put you and your family in my prayers tonight. Debe
    Your response was the only response, so I'm guessing not many people get these stents.
  • judyloo
    judyloo Member Posts: 40
    #4
    GolfingDeb said:

    I am so very sorry to hear
    I am so very sorry to hear of your loss. It's just a reminder that we are very lucky my husband is doing so well. Kaiser in San Diego, jumped right on this. They have a great team here and they are hopefull that my husband will beat the odds.
    Thanks again for your input and again, I am sorry for the loss of your brother. Not much else can comfort. I will put you and your family in my prayers tonight. Debe
    Your response was the only response, so I'm guessing not many people get these stents.

    STENTS
    Hey GolfingDeb - my husband has had his one year anniversary from his esophagectomy but did have a difficult time with an esophageal stricture that would just not stay as open as everyone wished. Many problem eating and keeping the food down so our surgeon decided to put him on a schedule to dilate/stretch the anastomosis - I think he had about 7-8 of these procedures before the word stent was mentioned. However the doctor was not keen on putting one in he said my husband and one other guy were frequent fliers when it came to needing this procedure. The other guy had it and Steve did not - and during one of our trips into have yet another dilation we passed the other fellow getting the stent taken out (it had caused severe irritation) but at least it had not migrated somewhere else. (another stent complication) Obviously the reason for the stent was not due to leakage as your husbands was so I hope if he did get it & it has helped to take care of that nasty little problem. Steves problem seems to have resolved with 14 dilations (no he did not set the record) but at least no stent! (we would have taken it in a heart beat if there was no other way to fix this) So let us know how your husband is doing, if the stent worked and if he still has it. Best wishes to you both,

    Judyloo
  • Tonia11
    Tonia11 Member Posts: 57
    #5
    judyloo said:

    STENTS
    Hey GolfingDeb - my husband has had his one year anniversary from his esophagectomy but did have a difficult time with an esophageal stricture that would just not stay as open as everyone wished. Many problem eating and keeping the food down so our surgeon decided to put him on a schedule to dilate/stretch the anastomosis - I think he had about 7-8 of these procedures before the word stent was mentioned. However the doctor was not keen on putting one in he said my husband and one other guy were frequent fliers when it came to needing this procedure. The other guy had it and Steve did not - and during one of our trips into have yet another dilation we passed the other fellow getting the stent taken out (it had caused severe irritation) but at least it had not migrated somewhere else. (another stent complication) Obviously the reason for the stent was not due to leakage as your husbands was so I hope if he did get it & it has helped to take care of that nasty little problem. Steves problem seems to have resolved with 14 dilations (no he did not set the record) but at least no stent! (we would have taken it in a heart beat if there was no other way to fix this) So let us know how your husband is doing, if the stent worked and if he still has it. Best wishes to you both,

    Judyloo

    Just visiting
    I'm visiting from the Stomach cancer group. My husband was dx with stage 3 stomach cancer in Jan 2009. The tumor was unresectable at the time of dx. His first round of chemo had no effect on the tumor. He just wrapped up 4 weeks of radiation. The tumor is located at the very top of his stomach right below the esophagus. He had a stent put in mid-May because the tumor was not allowing him to keep food down. Since then, he's eating a little better. He hasn't lost any additional weight but he hasn't gained any either. The main downfall to the stent is that you cannot sleep laying down. Since the stent opens up the passage way from the esophagus to the stomach, acid and bile would flow back up if he laid down completely. So he has to sleep in the recliner. He now complains of a sore back and neck because he can't really lay down. Since his radiation has ended, he's lost his voice and has this dry cough. We're hoping it's a side effect from the radiation but we won't know until he has his scans next week.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #6
    Tonia11 said:

    Just visiting
    I'm visiting from the Stomach cancer group. My husband was dx with stage 3 stomach cancer in Jan 2009. The tumor was unresectable at the time of dx. His first round of chemo had no effect on the tumor. He just wrapped up 4 weeks of radiation. The tumor is located at the very top of his stomach right below the esophagus. He had a stent put in mid-May because the tumor was not allowing him to keep food down. Since then, he's eating a little better. He hasn't lost any additional weight but he hasn't gained any either. The main downfall to the stent is that you cannot sleep laying down. Since the stent opens up the passage way from the esophagus to the stomach, acid and bile would flow back up if he laid down completely. So he has to sleep in the recliner. He now complains of a sore back and neck because he can't really lay down. Since his radiation has ended, he's lost his voice and has this dry cough. We're hoping it's a side effect from the radiation but we won't know until he has his scans next week.

    This comment has been removed by the Moderator
  • Tonia11
    Tonia11 Member Posts: 57
    #7
    unknown said:

    This comment has been removed by the Moderator

    Thank you
    Thank you so much for your reply. I did actually look at some wedges but hadn't decided on one yet. I'll take a look at the links you gave as well and go ahead and get one.

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