Every blog has a purpose…. This is the reason for mine.

December 4th 2007 was a crappy day. It was a Tuesday. On December 4th 2007 I was diagnosed with Esophageal Cancer.

In the fall of 2007 I experienced some problems swallowing food. It seemed as though food was stopping on the way down to my stomach. The occurrences weren’t regular enough to cause great concern as usually the food passed after a few moments of pain and I thought that maybe it might be the type or consistency of the food that might be the problem. The condition persisted for a few weeks until an episode that occurred while I was on a hunting trip. A bite of steak became lodged in my esophagus for nearly two minutes and was very painful and frightening. I had to basically vomit the food back up. We were about two hours from the closest hospital and if I would not have been able to pass that food back up I might have choked to death right there in Rucker Canyon. I made an appointment to see a doctor when I got home.

Like most men my age I don’t have a regular physician. At forty-one and in relatively good health (save a bunch of extra pounds and too little excercise) I had yet to receive a regular physical or have a need for anything other than an occasional antibiotic or sprained ankle x-ray, etc. I went over the Heuser Family Medical clinic that is part of the hospital where I work. Scottsdale Healthcare is a teaching hospital and the Heuser clinic is where much of that teaching gets done. I went in to see one of the residents for an exam. After the usual speeches about my weight, staying away from smoking etc, my doc referred me to a GI Specialist. With my periodic history of acid reflux and less than stellar eating habits the Doc seemed to think that this was nothing more than a side effect from the reflux or some other related condition. Esophageal Cancer was on her list but at my age and health she seemed to think that it wasn’t a probable cause.

The GI specialist scheduled two diagnostic procedures, a Barium Swallow and an Endoscopy. One sucked, the other was involved sedation with a very cool drug called Versed. Not everyone is a fan but if I could get a six pack to go I wouldn’t leave the house for two weeks. A barium swallow has you swallowing a substance that looks and tastes like wet chalk dust while standing in front of a fluoroscope machine. While you swallow the chemical the technologist can see all of the movements of the esophagus etc to see what the problems might be. The test was inconclusive. They saw the hitch in the muscle movement but no cause so on to Endoscopy. This is where the Doctor gets you stoned and put’s a tv camera down your throat into your stomach and large intestine. Best of all you have no memory of any of it. Just a blank stare and asking what’s for lunch? Oh, and by the way… Your conversations later that day might go something like this. "Honey when did we go to that restaurant that those leftovers are from?" "Today on the way home Dear, Don’t you remember?" An hour later… "Honey when did we go to that restaurant that those leftovers are from?" ..... Often times if the Doctor sees something out of the ordinary or otherwise interesting he’ll take a small tissue sample for testing. My test came back positive for Esophageal Cancer. Specifically, Squamous Cell Carcinoma at the junction of the esophagus and stomach.

December 4th, 2007 was crappy day number one.