Very worried about esophageal cancer

[Nzxt27]

$2000 seems pricey to stick camera down your throat and that's just 50% of it? I got colonscopy and it was only around $3400 out of pocket. That was hospital bill and dr bill combined. I'd think a colonscopy would cost more then this. But what do I know besides our health care system is messed up in the US.

[TimeSoup]

I utterly feel for US citizens. I had an MRI going several days ago and I'd just had to pay 150 euros from my pocket, that including the contrast med and the radiologists interpretation. Health should be basis for every one in none third world countries. I mean basis; you run into cancer, you get the right for at least the first line of diagnosis and treatment. How could it not be.

To shift back to our friend, I hope he is feeling better and-or had family help kicking in as to achieve the endoscopy that he needs.

Let just be said that oesophageal cancer is one of the most "life stlyish" of them all. Very seldomly will it hit someone who is not a) heavy drinker b) heavy smoker c) hot drinker (aka too hot a tea and coffee drinker) d) patient with long reflux history and -or presence of leukoplakia on the tractus.
a, b, c, d will add up for the worst risk.

If our friend is out of this chart, he can relax a little. This cancer strikes for good reasons and very rarely out of the blue.

[Hypo27]

Hey everyone been awhile since my last post. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get the endoscopy because I didn’t have insurance. I did have a barium swallow in March I believe. My symptoms have unfortunately progressed constant burning pain between the shoulder blades issues swallowing and excessive burping... I’ve terrified at this point I’m almost positive it’s esophagus cancer now I have all the classic signs... Would the barium swallow showed signs of cancer?

---------- Post added at 19:39 ---------- Previous post was at 19:37 ----------

I utterly feel for US citizens. I had an MRI going several days ago and I'd just had to pay 150 euros from my pocket, that including the contrast med and the radiologists interpretation. Health should be basis for every one in none third world countries. I mean basis; you run into cancer, you get the right for at least the first line of diagnosis and treatment. How could it not be.

To shift back to our friend, I hope he is feeling better and-or had family help kicking in as to achieve the endoscopy that he needs.

Let just be said that oesophageal cancer is one of the most "life stlyish" of them all. Very seldomly will it hit someone who is not a) heavy drinker b) heavy smoker c) hot drinker (aka too hot a tea and coffee drinker) d) patient with long reflux history and -or presence of leukoplakia on the tractus.
a, b, c, d will add up for the worst risk.

If our friend is out of this chart, he can relax a little. This cancer strikes for good reasons and very rarely out of the blue.

I unfortunately have a lot of risk factors o smoked for around 20 years I drank heavily every weekend for about 10 or so years I did chewing tobacco for a couple months also..

[Hypo27]

What else could explain these progressive symptoms then? It can’t just be simple gerd I’ve been taking medicine for that..4

[Midnight-mouse]

What else could explain these progressive symptoms then? It can’t just be simple gerd I’ve been taking medicine for that..4

It could be as simple as that and you need a different meditation as the one your on isn’t working as desired?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jason74]

What else could explain these progressive symptoms then? It can’t just be simple gerd I’ve been taking medicine for that..4

I'm going to come at this from the perspective of someone who developed GERD very suddenly last year, and went through the whole Esophageal cancer panic as a result (indeed, it's what kicked off my HA but that's another story).

GERD is a funny thing. The level of pain it can cause is out of all proportion to it's short term seriousness. And neither the pain you feel nor the fact that the medication hasn't worked as you'd like rule out GERD.

And as others have said, if you'd had Esophageal cancer with major symptoms untreated, for this long, you'd be likely to be seriously incapacitated (ie pretty much unable to do anything) by now.

And as for your question about how likely is it for someone your age to have it, the answer is very unlikely indeed. Here in the UK, there are detailed stats for how many people get each type of Cancer at various ages. And for a man in the 25-30 age group, for the most recent reporting cases there were an average of 3 (yes, three) cases per year. That is literally a 1 in a million likelyhood (and I mean literally, the incidence rate is 0.1 per 100,000).

So while nobody on here can say definitively that you don't have a particular disease, all of the available facts suggest that OC is in your case extremely unlikely indeed.

[Fishmanpa]

Some PPIs work better than others and our doctor told us you can develop a tolerance for a PPI so it might be worth looking into something different. My wife and I both suffer from GERD. In fact, looking back, I've probably had it since my 20's. Anyway, we take a script PPI and follow the FODMAP diet. We also kept a food journal and eliminated or greatly limited foods that aggravated it.

We rarely have issues since we started. Also, I was taking OTC PPIs and eating antacids like candy. My wife was taking a prescription PPI but it stopped working. We currently take Protonix and it's been great.

Positive thoughts

[poppy77]

It could be a small hiatus hernia. They can be completely asymptomatic or can have extreme symptoms (and everything in between!). Things like chest pain and pressure, excess saliva/mucus (called 'waterbrash'), difficulty swallowing (due to the acid coming up and hurting throat, throat pain (like when a cold is coming on), burping, heart burn, sore feeling under rib cage....the list goes on.

Hiatus hernias are very common. They estimate over 60% of those 50 and over have one of some degree. It's difficult to estimate numbers under 50 as they tend just to prescribe a ppi rather than do an endoscopy as the risk of anything dodgy is so miniscule under this age.

If you do have excess acid problem or a hiatus hernia causing your issues they may give you some lifestyle suggestions like elevating the top of your bed by 6 inches or so, not eating within 3 hours of bed time, cutting down or eliminating caffeine and alcohol. The doctors may prescribe medication like Ranitidine (Zantac) or stronger acid repressants like ppis, I.e. Esomeprazole (Nexium). If you have some damage they may give you a double dose for a while to get it under control.

Also, do you lift weights? Hiatus hernias can be caused by weight lifting or constipation.

Good luck

[drachia]

I had reflux since I was a teenager (now 52) and some of that time it was controlled, others not. Anyway, I had worsening swallowing to the point where it would not go down at all even after a couple of hours. I had to go to the ER and that is when they told me that were going to do the endoscopy to get the lodged food out. I was scared to death because I was sure in my mind after all the years of reflux and problems that I surely had cancer. It didn't help when a relative had esophageal cancer and didn't even know it, though they caught it early enough and he's actually okay now. Like you, I didn't have insurance for practically all my working life, so being able to pay for the endoscopy was impossible. And so I suffered for years with the thought that I was one step into the grave, even though people kept telling me I'd be dead by now if I did have it. Anyway, the issue got forced when I couldn't swallow food or water at all. I had to go to the ER and they did the endoscopy. I was so scared because this was the nightmare I'd had for so many years. But when I woke up, there was no cancer, nothing to biopsy even. He just said I had some irritation. He also told me that in cases of having trouble swallowing before he took me to do the endoscopy that he'd had a lot of patients with similar problems, but only one or two that had anything beyond that, saying it's rare even in older people and almost unheard of in younger.

And another thing, as others have said, PPI's don't always work as well as you think they would. I had been taking the medicine consistently before I had to go to the ER and it just wasn't working as well as it needed to. So it's not a foregone conclusion that just because you are taking medicine for it means that it is not still lurking about. You may need a bigger dose or something different as was said.

Good luck to you. I hope I've offered some perspective on the idea that just because it feels like cancer, doesn't mean it is.

PS: My mother had a hiatal hernia with reflux and it really messed her up bad to the poiint she wound up in the hospital and even a wheelchair from the pain, but they fixed it, and she was fine afterwards. No cancer there either.

---------- Post added at 07:46 ---------- Previous post was at 07:28 ----------

PS you may want to check to see if there is a charitable or university hospital in your area that has something like MedAssist. They might be able to help you get the endoscopy at something you can afford.

[Hypo27]

Thank you for all the replies. What worries me the most is the difficulty swallowing. I just got done eating dinner which turkey was one of the things I ate. It kept getting stuck when I went to swallow it like it was catching. That has to mean cancer right? Simple reflux couldn’t cause these severe symptoms could they? Should I got to the er?

---------- Post added at 06:12 ---------- Previous post was at 06:08 ----------

Also when I try to burp I can feel something in my esophagus and it hurts it’s almost possible to burp for me anymore