Esophageal dilation, anyone?

ElleOnWheels

Hi all.

Well so far... almost a year into this exciting MBC adventure... I have had just about every freaking side effect possible. This one takes the cake.

My diagnosis came when I had a sudden onset of double vision. Seems I had 6th nerve palsy from a tumor in my neck. First course of action was radiation that quickly shrunk the tumor and cleared it up. Woohoo... moving on!!

But not so fast. I have developed, slowly over many months, much difficulty swallowing. I had a barium swallow test on Friday and have considerable narrowing of my esophagus. I don't have the final results yet but the very kind radiologist told me she believes it is scar tissue related to my previous radiation. In this bizarro world we live in I was actually relieved.

Soooo... of course I have done scads of "research" on Google and all signs point to an endoscopy and stretching of my esophagus.

Does anyone have any experience with this? I'm so upset as I was doing so well otherwise, but hey...there are worse things that could happen. I just hope they can do something...I am REALLY sick of Ensure. And people telling me I'm getting too thin.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

E

pajim

ElleOnWheels, I have zero experience with this except a friend who had Stage IV espohageal cancer went through something like it. He didn't say what happened.

I just wanted to let you know that someone heard you and is offering you many hugs.

I'm so sorry you seem to get the fun side-effects. That I can relate to. In the last 10 years my onc has said "I've never seen that before" maybe 3-4 times. All you can do is smile back at them. Then ask them to fix it, whatever it is.

blainejennifer

My MIL had this procedure done because of Barrett's Esophagus. I think that's near the correct spelling.

It seemed very straightforward. She was sedated, and they sent a balloon thingie down her throat to stretch it out. They woke her up, and she had a little discomfort, but nothing horrible.

I hope it works out great for you.

ElleOnWheels

Thank you both so much for your replies.

Pajim, I'm grateful to know I'm not the only one with the crazy side effects...and for the hugs! The more I look into it the more I realize it's really not that uncommon of a side effect from radiation. And they aren't totally ruling out more cancer. But hey, I already have that all through my bod...so what's another spot.

blainejennifer, thanks for the info. Always nice to hear of someone else that had a procedure done. Doesn't seem too bad in the grand scheme of things.

I have an appointment next Wed with my thoracic surgeon that did my bronchoscopy so we shall go from there!

dlz913

my sister had this exact thing. The only relief was found with a change in her chemo drugs that better controlled the progression of her cancer.

ElleOnWheels

Thanks dlz913!

All signs (so far} point to mine being damage from radiation. I have an esophageal dilation scheduled for Apr 17. Hopefully that will take care of it.

RonnieKay

Hi Elle...I was having difficulty, feeling like I had something stuck in my throat. I went on omeprazole for a couple months (I’ve been stable for a long while & tms & blood were normal). When that didn’t help, my ENT scheduled an esophogram first & said there was a possibility that if it showed constriction I may need dialation. That test showed dysmotility, esophageal nerve damage, most likely due to lots of chemo. He said it wasn’t severe enough to warrant dialation, but thought an endoscopy might help a bit. I think it did. He seemed to be confident that if needed, dialation would be a helpful procedure. Im sending good mojo & faith that it will be totally successful!

Beatmon

my onco has had it twice. He mentioned it happens a lot when I had some problems swallowing. Good lyc