Worried about dad with Barrett's Eusophagus

Hello,

Hope everyone's well. I'm just having a bit of an anxiety about my dad. He's got Barrett's Eusophagus, he was diagnosed about four years ago after some particularly bad heartburn and chest pain. There were no precancerous cells when he was diagnosed

Due to one thing or another, mainly COVID, he hasn't managed to have a second screening since then - he's been overdue for about a year/ 18 months I believe.

But last week, he ended up going to hospital because he had some recurrent chest pain and had checks there that he wasn't having a heart attack - all ok there, but they're doing some post-checks for angina and other heart problems. But if he does have them they should be manageable. I don't think this is a particularly new symptom - he was worried about a heart attack when he was diagnosed with BE the first time and ended up going to hospital then too. He does get acid reflux on and off and doesn't always manage it very well! But on the back of this, they have finally scheduled his next BE screening for next week.

I'm pretty sure he doesn't have any "new" symptoms like difficulty swallowing, hasn't lost any weight, no coughing up blood etc which I know are the telltale signs of it progressing. But I'm getting really panicky, I'm relieved that he is finally getting the screening but I'm panicking it's been left too long and it's going to be bad news.

Google (I know) is telling me that BE takes "several" or "many" years to turn into cancer. I'm trying to tell myself that probably worst case scenario it's precancerous and they can deal with it. But I keep worrying that it will have turned into cancer.

My stepdad (who I was equally close to) passed away quite traumatically from bladder cancer five years ago, so I do find this really really triggering and struggle to cope. My dad is very good at going to doctors, getting checks, taking medication etc (my stepdad wasn't), but it's just this niggling thought that the check has been left so long.

Does anyone have any experience with this condition and can provide some words of reassurance? Would be really helpful! Thankyou.