Timeline to Esophageal Cancer Diagnosis

by karenulijohn

On March 20th, 2016, we were visiting our daughter and her family in San Mateo.  We decided to go out for lunch and while eating, Harvey appeared to be choking.  In fact, he was having trouble swallowing, but when he finally regurgitated the offending morsel, he felt so much better, and we didn’t think much more about it.  Almost exactly one month later, he was officiating at the Lincoln Rotary Club meeting, and (I was playing the piano), I noticed that he left the room a couple of times.  He probably would not have told me had I not asked him, that he was having the same problem of not being able to swallow.  The moment I got home that day, I made an appointment in the afternoon with our primary doctor.  Dr. Schneidewind proposed that it might be an esophageal spasm, but to be certain, he ordered an Upper GI Series.

On May 2nd, Harvey had the Upper GI with contrast and the blockage was discovered.  He was immediately referred to Dr. Jan at Sutter in Sacramento and on May 10th underwent an Endoscopic procedure.  Dr. Jan was very gentle in telling us that cancer that forms in the glandular cells of the esophagus is known as adenocarcinoma. This is the most common type of esophageal cancer.  He suggested that we see our oncologist.  I told him that we have been seeing Dr. Suhag throughout the study for melanoma and Dr. Jan seemed to know of Dr. Suhag because he said he would contact him and discuss the diagnosis.  On May 16th we had ann appointment with Dr. Suhag who actually telephoned us himself and moved the appointment up several hours.  He told us that this cancer was in no way related to the melanoma or the treatment Harvey received.  In fact, he said this was just ‘bad luck.’

In order to determine if the cancer has spread, Dr. Suhag ordered a PET scan which was immediately scheduled for May 20th.  At our follow-up appointment on May 23rd, we were given the good news that there was no other sign of cancer: no lymph nodes were affected.  In order to be on top of the prescribed treatment, Dr. Suhag put in a referral to Radiation Oncologist, Dr. Jones.  This morning, Dr. Jones’ office telephoned to set up an appointment at 12:30PM.  We also have an upcoming appointment on June 1st with Dr. Graves, the surgeon who will be the final voice in how we proceed.