please help: severely swollen throat and esophagus with difficulty in eating and talking

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Sam - 29 Mar 2004 15:48 GMT

A family member was diagnosed with the esophagus cancer ("poorly
differentiated adenocarcinoma" at the upper section near throat) three
weeks ago. She has been undergoing radiation and chemo therapy for
three weeks now. The doctor's plan is to have her re-examined in a
couple of days and then switch to the treatment with the linear
accelerator. In the past two weeks she has had the side effects of
swollen throat and esophagus. She is having difficulty to eat and
talk, and can only have fluid intake. Do you have any suggestions to
reduce this side effect? Will the problem be lessened with the linear
accelerator? Thank you very much for any input!

Sam

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Steph - 29 Mar 2004 17:01 GMT

> A family member was diagnosed with the esophagus cancer ("poorly
> differentiated adenocarcinoma" at the upper section near throat) three
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Sam

You need to talk to the oncologist about it.
The side effects you describe are common, but sometimes infections can make
them worse.

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ballstoyourpartner - 30 Mar 2004 19:01 GMT

Dear Sam,

> A family member was diagnosed with the esophagus cancer ("poorly
> differentiated adenocarcinoma" at the upper section near throat) three
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Sam

Are you aware of the excellent Esophageal Cancer discussion group
which
is available through http://www.acor.org (the Association of Cancer
On-line
Resources). This is a group of over 1200+ caring and supportive
individuals
who either have cancer of the esophagus or are caregivers/supporters for
someone
who has it.
Another excellent way of accessing this 'listserv' is by going to
Cathy's
EC Cafe at http://www.eccafe.org and having a look at all of the
information on
EC that is there, including many practical suggestions and inspiring
stories. The suggestions will cover things like medications/exercises to
help with swallowing and dealing with radiation induced difficulties and
something like 7 years of discussions can be accessed and searched in the
Archives.
Maybe see you or other family members on the EC Group in the
not-too-distant future?

Best Wishes,
Balls

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