2nd Anniversary Since Diagnosis
October 22, 2022 Yesterday officially marked 2 years since I heard the words, "It is cancer." So much has happened since then and strangely so much is oddly the same. I have been through countless diagnostic labs, xrays, Endoscopies, CTs, MRI's, and PET scans. I have had surgery to place a port, chemo, a month of daily radiation, a huge esophageal surgery that removed my initial tumor, my esophagus and the top 1/2 of my stomach. I have had 8-9 subsequent surgeries to stretch the scar tissue where my stomach was stitched up to my throat to become my "new esophagus" so I could swallow foods. I have had surgery to place a stent in that new esophagus to hold it open and a follow up surgery to remove it 8 weeks later. I have been intubated countless times, woken up on a ventilator, had a collapsed lung, aspirated during surgery, and have dealt with several bouts of pneumonia. I have a weekly aspiration events while sleeping since March 2023. At one point, I had 5 ...
