Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Going Bovine


I dislike posting unless I have an answer to the question, but I will make an exception here.  For a period of time I have had trouble in keeping food down.  It was sporadic and, to me, unpredictable.  I would swallow and somewhere along the way it would get stuck.  I'd would begin coughing and it would either free the obstruction or bring it back up, and I would swallow again and it would go down.  I thought that I was becoming a cow, occasionally chewing her cud.  But over time it has become worse and late Sunday night after returning from visiting my kids in Minneapolis for Christmas, I found that I could not keep down even one bite of mashed potatoes and pot roast.  It was rather concerning as I had a hearing on Monday and I didn't want to be there light headed, but even Monday I could not keep the banana bread down unless I nibbled it--so not enough time to finish before the hearing began.  Same thing during lunch break with a chicken pot pie.  So I subsisted for the rest of the day on butter rum Lifesavers.

I emailed my oncologist late Sunday night about this and spoke with my daughter about it after I got out of the hearing.  She thinks that the mediastinal tumor may be growing and pressing in on the esophagus.  I emailed her thoughts to Dr. Martins, and he responded Monday evening that he agreed with Sarah and will be scheduling a endoscopy asap.  If this proves out, I will have a stent inserted into my esophagus to open it up.  In the meantime, I will dine on soups and smoothies and try to chew my cud contentedly. 

4 comments:

odp said...

Oy, Regina. At least they can put a stent in (you and Prince Philip, eh?). On another note: does your oncologist pay your daughter consulting fees?

Hope you're soon chewing very contentedly!

Love,
Olive

Lynn said...

I hope that resolves the problem. Make sure you use plenty of chocolate in your smoothies!

Lynn

Anonymous said...

My brother in law has a cancer of the tonsils and he had chemo and radiation for it. He had this problem a year after radiation treatment, although they weren't sure if it was from the chemo or the radiation. He hasn't been stented, but has been on mostly soups and smoothies for months now. I don't know if you had radiation or not, but thought I might mention this. XO, Bonnie

moe99 said...

Bonnie, I've not had radiation so that's not the culprit.