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Once Again>Esophageal Ablation UPDATE (There was a problem before the procedure and it has been rescheduled)

JonesCarpeDiem
0 17 12

One more thing smoking contributes to:

Smoking contributes to acid refulx/gerd by loosening the valve between your stomach and esophagus which can let the acid back up into your esophagus and burn the cells until sometimes, they can mutate into a whole different type of cell that does not belong there and can become cancer.

A short explanation of  G.E.R.D  and Barrett's

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy0JiHMIhMk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdK0jRFpWPQ

The procedure is shown below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ6a4arjFdE

I was diagnosed with Barrett's with high grade dysplasia  in May of 2012. I started bleeding in my esophagus and after a 3 day weekend, had lost 25% of my blood. Had to have a transfusion and tests resulting in it's discovery.

I have been under watch since that time and treatment started about a year and a half ago.

They knock you out, stick the catheter down your throat and burn a layer off the damaged inside and scrape off what they burned.  In time they hopefully get it all and the mutated cells are replaced with normal ones.

If you have regular heartburn

Best thing you can do is not eat within 3 hours of lying down, and pitch your bed so the head is higher than the foot end. I have to take a quadruple dose of acid supressants daily and have these treatments every 4 months.

Wish me well. I'll try to be back here in 10 hours or have Nancy give you an update.

PS I didn't realize I had such severe acid reflux so it went untreated for years. If you regularly have heartburn, have your primary dr. refer you to a specialist. Esophageal cancer can take your life in less than a year.

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About the Author
Hello, My name is Dale. I was quit 18 months before joining this site and had participated on another site during that time. I learned a lot there and brought it with me. I joined this site the first week of August 2008. I didn't pressure myself to quit. HOW I QUIT I didn't count, I didn't deny myself to get started. When I considered quitting (at a friends request to influence his brother to quit), I simply told myself to wait a little longer. No denial, nothing painful. After 4 weeks I was down to 5 cigarettes from a pack a day. The strength came from proving to myself, I didn't need to smoke because I normally would have smoked. Simple yes? I bought the patch. I forgot to put one on on the 4th day. I needed it the next day but the following week I forgot two days in a row I put one in my wallet with a promise to myself that I would slap it on and wait an hour rather than smoke. It rode in my wallet my first year.There's nothing keeping any of you from doing this. It doesn't cost a dime. This is about unlearning something you've done for a long time. The nicotine isn't the hard part. Disconnecting from the psychological pull, the memories and connected emotions is. :-) Time is the healer.