OT -Take GERD (acid reflux) seriously - a PSA

lkapigian

JethroVA said:

Bump for an update.  Due to a variety of factors, I skipped a couple of my preventive endoscopic screenings to keep esophageal cancer away. (well, technically Barretts with high grade dysplasia was stage 0 cancer).  So, tomorrow I'm having an esophagectomy with gastric lift.  I'm having nearly all of my esophagus removed and my stomach will be reshaped into a pipe to replace the esophagus.  Yep, I'm at least stage T1b, maybe higher once lymph biopsies.  

I'll be intubated in ICU for 1st 24 hours then another ~6 days inpatient.  Feeding tube for a month. I'll never be able to eat a large meal again. 

Please take GERD very seriously.  Esophageal cancer occurs about 10x in men vs. women.  I have a decent chance of living a long life, but only because I was getting screened. 

Fair winds and following seas...

Jeff

Speedy Recovery,Prayers 

alaskanassasin

Wow so sorry to hear that man. Thanks for the psa 

WeberWho

Prayers with you and your family and a quick recovery!

Ybabpmuts

Damned Jethro. That sucks. I wish you luck with everything. I'm at dr's office and various hospitals all the time, for all of my myriad health problems. About a month ago I was in a waiting room to have my legs X-rayed (concerns about my knee replacements peeling away from the bone and one of my hip replacements being damaged in a fall I took going down stairs), The guy sitting next to me starts telling me his story ...  

He was at his sister's house for a cook out, and as he was leaving he opening the grill and there was a small crispy piece of Kielbasa on there that'd been there for a while. He popped it into his mouth, it was crunchy but also very hot, so he quickly swallowed it. He felt awful pain when it went down, so off to the ER he goes. Turns out that the piece was so sharp that it tore his esophagus on the way down. He was rushed into Boston, where they operated on him for 11 hours. They could not repair the tear as it was too torn up. He woke to find he ended up having a esophagectomy. All from a piece of kielbasa.

I've had,  I think .. 14 major surgeries (plenty of minor ones too), well over 30 trips through mri machines, 8 ctscans, 6 bone scans, bone density tests,  kissing scopes (endoscopes) twice (down from the top, up from the bottom), just had 12 custom ceramic crowns put in and two full implants (jaw bone problems), tomorrow I'm having cataract surgery on my left eye and two weeks later they'll do my right eye (due to heavy steroid use. Steroid induced cataracts). I'm currently doing physical therapy twice a week to build back my leg muscles (atrophy). Need one ankle replaced by end of year, the other one is more problematic as the dead bone (AVN) in that one is in the heel bone and apparently a fix isn't obvious for that side. This has been going on for well over 15 years now. I'm extremely grateful that they can fix my bones as they crumble inside my (all the big bones in my body) but it's absolutely bonkers trying to go through all the appointments and various procedures. For instance, my hands and feet (all the little bones) have psoriatic arthritis in them which can be really painful when it flares up, but is mostly held at bay by remicade infusions at home every four weeks and I inject methotrexate once a week for that as well. The Remicade messes with your immune system, so I can't be on it when I'm having an operation, so when I need something fixed I go off the PA meds for at least a month before (and a month after), which means that as I'm getting a joint replaced, or a morphine pump put in (and taken out etc), my arthritis is flaring up and my feet and hands are really hurting. I also take a ton of medication, heck I have medications that I take for side effects, of medications that I take for side effects, of the medications that I take for the original problem. Crazy sauce. Best thing I ever did though, was get off the oxycontin. Over thirteen years straight on that crap, all through the same pain dr, same pharmacy, all legal, and all for the pain, but still..... for the last 5 years of it, I was taking 600-700 mg's a DAY. Had to go to a detox place up in Maine to quit it, but I got off of it in four short days. I also lost 37 pounds over the next few weeks because of it. 

Ybabpmuts 

dmchicago

JethroVA said:

Bump for an update.  Due to a variety of factors, I skipped a couple of my preventive endoscopic screenings to keep esophageal cancer away. (well, technically Barretts with high grade dysplasia was stage 0 cancer).  So, tomorrow I'm having an esophagectomy with gastric lift.  I'm having nearly all of my esophagus removed and my stomach will be reshaped into a pipe to replace the esophagus.  Yep, I'm at least stage T1b, maybe higher once lymph biopsies.  

I'll be intubated in ICU for 1st 24 hours then another ~6 days inpatient.  Feeding tube for a month. I'll never be able to eat a large meal again. 

Please take GERD very seriously.  Esophageal cancer occurs about 10x in men vs. women.  I have a decent chance of living a long life, but only because I was getting screened. 

Fair winds and following seas...

Jeff

Good luck. You’ll be in my thoughts. 

Botch

Dang, Jeff.  Hope the surgery goes well.  

HeavyG

Sorry to hear this @JethroVA .

Godspeed!!

CTMike

Good luck with your surgery and recovery. My wife had a gastro tube for a couple months following her heart surgery. I hope you have a good caregiver - it’s a decent amount of work to set up for enteral feedings, break it down in the morning, etc. 

We typically did the feedings overnight so she could move around during the day without having to be hitched to a pump. 

Kayak

Keep fighting the good fight! That diagnosis and some other issues were more than my BIL felt he could handle. His sister and his kids really could have used him over the years since.

loco_engr

Thank You for your great PSA!

JohnInCarolina

I hate this for you Jeff.  I hope all goes well and that you get that long life on the other side.  Very gutsy of you to let everyone here know what was going on.  

caliking

@JethroVA - Wishing you well for surgery, recovery, and the better outcome that all this is being done for. 

Photo Egg

gdenby said:

If you are having repeated heartburn, say like any time you eat a pizza, buy some tumeric extract, called curcurmin. Some years ago, I was having really bad stomach acid problems. Started taking curcurmin on a daily basis, and it went away. I still need to eat some at least every 2 days out of 3, but acid indigestion and heartburn are held at bay.

Can you ping me on the side a little more detail about the curcurmin please. Thanks 

Eoin

JethroVA said:

Bump for an update.  Due to a variety of factors, I skipped a couple of my preventive endoscopic screenings to keep esophageal cancer away. (well, technically Barretts with high grade dysplasia was stage 0 cancer).  So, tomorrow I'm having an esophagectomy with gastric lift.  I'm having nearly all of my esophagus removed and my stomach will be reshaped into a pipe to replace the esophagus.  Yep, I'm at least stage T1b, maybe higher once lymph biopsies.  

I'll be intubated in ICU for 1st 24 hours then another ~6 days inpatient.  Feeding tube for a month. I'll never be able to eat a large meal again. 

Please take GERD very seriously.  Esophageal cancer occurs about 10x in men vs. women.  I have a decent chance of living a long life, but only because I was getting screened. 

Fair winds and following seas...

Jeff

Good luck.

GATraveller

Hope all goes well. 

johnmitchell

@JethroVA Praying for you and in my thoughts, please keep us posted on your progress