Esophageal Stricture from Radiation

amy_evan2005 said:

When you go to site in
When you go to site in search bar put complete esophageal blockage. I believe that will take you to it. I'm glad you found this site. We had no idea what to do or ask. Just from the things we learned on here we were able to tell them what we wanted done instead of asking them what to do. It speeded up the process greatly. If you don't like what your doctor tells you find one who will. We had to.

Good luck,
Amy & Evan

I am having problems with a stricture
My mouth was very bad thru rads and I couldn't eat or drink anything for about five months. My mouth was just destroyed. When I finally did try to eat nothing would go down. Swallowing study revealed a severe narrowing and radiation damage. They dialated me the first time from 2mm to 9mm. I had a hard time and they went thru my peg tube the first time to stretch me out. It did not help for food. Still could not swallow any food. Still to tight. I was scared because they have to put me on a ventalator and I am hard to intubatr and I guess things got hairy with the proceedure. I was really scared but had it done again. Still not easy and it went a little better the last time. I have some limited success with eating mushy foods. They asked me if I wanted to try again keeping in mind the risks and my complications. When I said I didn't want to risk it again the doctor who was in the proceedure said she didn't blame me.

I also had a dialation further down a couple of years before my cancer. That one was more routine and no big deal. I guess that it is fairly common to have damage after rads. Should I not be able to eat at all again then I suppose I will have to risk it again. But ya normally it is a pretty easy proceedure.

dennis318 said:

throat stretched
I see you had your thraot stretched sweetblood, but it didn't help, I feel i could breathbetter with this trach and the hole plugged, like dealing with too many exits...what caused your throat to feel small feeling? How ya Been? Havent seen you arounf lately..Dennis
P.S Mine was also caused per over radiation

I am okay. How are you?
I am okay. How are you? Have the hyperbaric treatments helped you at all? My internet service still stinks. I have been peeking in on my iPhone here and there.

I can't say my throat feels any different. It just doesn't have a very big opening for stuff to go down. If I eat macaroni salad (mixed with mushed avocado seems to make it slide down better) I can only chew one elbow macaroni at a time and it takes four to five little swallows to get that one noodle down. If I try to swallow more than that tiny bit I choke. I tried salad the other day but the dressing burned and I couldn't chew up the pieces small enough to swallow. I have always hated lettuce anyway. Lol. But I try. Ate two little mushroom ravioli the other day. I put alfredo sauce on it. Shoulda just did butter and some truffle oil. The saltiness in the Alfredo burned my tongue. I so want non mushy real food. Yesterday was hard. My step moms family was visiting and I sucked it up and sat at dinner with everyone. They were eating steak, fries and salad. I had half an avocado and potato salad. Had to sit there and smell it, listen to how good it was. Then Aunt Rose is like, what's with u don't u like steak? Grrrr. This is why I stay in my room. I didn't get much down. It was too hot and muggy and I was getting cranky and uncomfortable. Then they took out the camera and wanted pictures. Did not want to take any and my grandmother was saying I was being b@$(y. I am dealing with some withdrawal symptoms because I stepped down on my Fentanyl patch. So yeah. I am crankier than usual. At least the relatives seem to think I " look better and less sickly than last year". Yea. Lol.

ed, great news on the scan.
ed, great news on the scan. I am 8 mos post trmnt and I'm able to eat now but the food still gets stuck sometimes even today. It can take as long as 20 min for me to get it unstuck. I think you just have to be patient and believe me, I know how hard that can be. You are in my prayers, hang in there.
God bless you friend,
debbie

santa6 said:

It should get better
Ed, odds are you'll be fine in time.

I had neck cancer with primary source unknown. So, they had to blast everything from below my eyes to my collar bones. I also had Erbitux. Treatment completely devastated my mouth, gums, tongue, throat, esophagus,etc. Also wiped out all saliva which further complicates eating/swallowing.

Good news is I'm doing great. I'm 8 months out of treatment. Started trying to eat at about 4 months out. It was very tough and I was convinced I would live the rest of my life with the PEG. I started seeing a speech pathologist for exams and he gave me a number of exercises to do to get things stronger and stretched out some. To be honest, as frustrated as I was, I only did the exercises less than 50%. But I forced myself to try to eat every meal, my taste came back to about 75%, I choked a lot and blew very strange things out my nose, but in time got to the point where I didn't use my tube for 4 weeks. Had it removed(that's an experience) and eating gets better every day.

There are some things I just probably will never eat again, like popcorn, alcohol, chicken is tough for some reason, chocolate burns my throat, ice cream hurts my teeth, but beyond that I am eating really a large portion of what I used to eat and I'm perfectly content - even without the saliva - just have to sip with every bite and pay attention to what I'm doing.

You'll be fine before you know it.

Hello everyone,
Evan is
Hello everyone,
Evan is swallowing small amounts still, but at least he's swallowing. He has a few different problems with his. He still has too much saliva and it is so thick he still can't swalllow it. Swallowing food is easier than swallowing liquids for him. He can get a bite or two of something down, but hurts throat alot still. Most drinks burn his throat. He can't swallow things like pudding or applesauce very well, but ate two nutterbutter cookies today. Milk products seem to make saliva thicker. Right now, he pretty much takes a bite or two of my food whatever it is,to see if he can get it down. He was dilated several times in about a two month time period. Now we are waiting a couple months to see what happens now that he is finally able to swallow some.
Take care everyone and good luck to all.
Amy & Evan

Ed_PortOrange said:

Second Dilation Tomorrow
Glad to read that Evan is doing better with eating. I had a significant improvement after my 1st dilation, I could swallow my pills without crushing or cutting. Also, I am able to eat soft foods without it getting hung up in my throat. The 1st dilation opened my esophagus from 11mm to 15mm with the norm being about 20mm, per my gastro doc. He's hoping to get me to 17-18mm tomorrow and feels that may be about max with the amount of scar tissue present. I still had throat lesions that were healing and a swollen epiglotis 15 days ago when the first procedure was done. Still drinking my 6 Ensure +'s each day plus some softer foods to maintain my weight, have not gained yet. Hoping I can eat more normal after tomorrows procedure and able to cut down on the Ensures. I'll post an update next week.

Read posts daily and I'm pulling for everyone to show steady improvement. It took awhile for me to realize that I wouldn't feel like myself the day after treatments ended. It's almost 4 months now and my body is taking baby steps to the finish line, but it is progress.

God Bless
Ed

Endoscopic dilation?
My mom is having an endoscopic dilation on July 23...they are getting a pediatric endoscope for her and told her she should be fine by the next day. Is it painful? Thanks
Dani

Ed_PortOrange said:

Second Dilation Tomorrow
Glad to read that Evan is doing better with eating. I had a significant improvement after my 1st dilation, I could swallow my pills without crushing or cutting. Also, I am able to eat soft foods without it getting hung up in my throat. The 1st dilation opened my esophagus from 11mm to 15mm with the norm being about 20mm, per my gastro doc. He's hoping to get me to 17-18mm tomorrow and feels that may be about max with the amount of scar tissue present. I still had throat lesions that were healing and a swollen epiglotis 15 days ago when the first procedure was done. Still drinking my 6 Ensure +'s each day plus some softer foods to maintain my weight, have not gained yet. Hoping I can eat more normal after tomorrows procedure and able to cut down on the Ensures. I'll post an update next week.

Read posts daily and I'm pulling for everyone to show steady improvement. It took awhile for me to realize that I wouldn't feel like myself the day after treatments ended. It's almost 4 months now and my body is taking baby steps to the finish line, but it is progress.

God Bless
Ed

Ed, unfortunately we don't
Ed, unfortunately we don't realize how much time after trmnt is finished for our throats/bodys to be even close to normal. I am nine months past trmnt and I still have food that gets stuck in my throat. It sometimes takes me 20 minutes to get it unstuck. It is scary but at least I can breath. I'm just afraid that if it moves, it could stop my breathing, depending on where it moves to. Just another worry...lol. Anyway, I hope your throat continues to get better.
Evan, I hope your throat also continues to get better.
God Bless you all,
debbie

Ed_PortOrange said:

Second Dilation Tomorrow
Glad to read that Evan is doing better with eating. I had a significant improvement after my 1st dilation, I could swallow my pills without crushing or cutting. Also, I am able to eat soft foods without it getting hung up in my throat. The 1st dilation opened my esophagus from 11mm to 15mm with the norm being about 20mm, per my gastro doc. He's hoping to get me to 17-18mm tomorrow and feels that may be about max with the amount of scar tissue present. I still had throat lesions that were healing and a swollen epiglotis 15 days ago when the first procedure was done. Still drinking my 6 Ensure +'s each day plus some softer foods to maintain my weight, have not gained yet. Hoping I can eat more normal after tomorrows procedure and able to cut down on the Ensures. I'll post an update next week.

Read posts daily and I'm pulling for everyone to show steady improvement. It took awhile for me to realize that I wouldn't feel like myself the day after treatments ended. It's almost 4 months now and my body is taking baby steps to the finish line, but it is progress.

God Bless
Ed

Stricture

Hi Ed

My husband finished radiotherpy in June. He is back in hospital with a stricture, they did biopsies last Wednesday, still waiting on results. More tomorrow behind his tongue. So scared right now, fearing the worst, more cancer.

Kind Regards

Maria

lornal said:

Stricture - new discussion

Maria, you probably want to start a new discussion.  Under the Head and Neck Cancer page, there should be something at the top for starting a new forum.  There are many out there that could provide input of this happening shortly after treatment. 

I am 6 years out of treatment, and last summer I started having problems swallowing.  This year, the GI doc determined I have a stricture - and I have since had 9 dilations, and ended up with a feeding tube.  None of the doctors, though, did or recommended a biopsy.

 

 

Stricture-new discussion

Thanks Lornal, Iwill do that.

My husband had a nasal gastro tumbe inserted last week while sedated for biopsy, they had attempted 5 times previously but unsuccsessful due to stricture.

I assume the biopsy is to check for more cancer, think they do this for everyone who has a stricture over here.

Wishing you the best of luck

 

Maria