I just got home from a 20 day stay in the hospital. This was definitely not expected or planned, but they never really are, are they? So, why was I there...well....

In 2024, I had radiation to my esophagus because my breast cancer metastasized there as well as my lungs and brain. As time has gone on, I've developed scar tissue causing sever strictures in the esophagus slowly narrowing the opening in which i can comfortably swallow food. The opening in my esophagus was 8mm in the damaged area and the beginning of the normal range of opening is 13mm. In August of this year, I did have a balloon dilation procedure to try and stretch the esophagus. It did give me a 12mm opening as a result. However, by this time, I wasn't eating well because food was getting stuck, and I was choking, trying to dislodge the trapped pieces of food. This became traumatic due to pain, not being able to breathe, spasms while my stomach and esophagus tried to purge the food trapped in there. The result, I was reluctant to eat, witched myself to very soft food, if not liquids and over time I began to become malnourished.

A couple weeks before going to the ER, I sought help from a dietician who specializes in oncology patients to assist me in finding ways and foods that I could use to help myself. She had some great ideas and I thought it was going to work. Then my body had another plan for me. It started to protect itself, was the worst thing it could do. My esophagus and stomach started spasming every time i tried to swallow anything, even water. It got to the point that I couldn't keep even a sip of water down. I could no longer swallow any of my medication including ones that I took for pain. The last straw was when I tried to take a nap and the spasms happened to just purge my own saliva our of my esophagus. I told my husband it was time to go.

Thank goodness I did. After 4 bags of saline, I was finally able to pee. I was so severely dehydrated. They admitted me and soon after all the bloodwork and results came back, they confirmed that I was probably within days if not hours from a cardiac event, that could have ended my life. This was beyond scary for me.

So what was to be done? Eventually, after a few days of getting me strong enough, I had a G-tube put in so that no matter what I was going to be able to receive nutrition even if I couldn't swallow it the traditional way. I have 8oz cartons of nutrition, which are really like beefed up protein shakes, that I push into the feeding tube every day. That covers my main sources of everything I need. That, along with water flushes also takes care of my minimum hydration too.

The plan moving forward is my Thoracic Surgeon will put in a temporary stent that will hopefully stretch my esophagus over the course of 4 weeks. If successful, this will allow me to eat some foods again, even if its just soft foods. The hope long term is that I can re-gain the use of my esophagus and I can have the tube for backup, where as now its the reverse.