PLEASE NAG MY CHILDREN FOR ME

It appears that both of my children suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), more commonly known as acid reflux. This is alarming because I had it off and on throughout my life. Unfortunately for me it was never bad enough for me to seek medical remedies. I just popped Tums or Alka Seltzer as needed. GERD, over a period of time, can lead to a condition known as Barrett’s Esophagus in which the cells of the esophagus begin to be replaced by gastric and intestinal cells. Barrett’s Esophagus often leads to esophageal cancer, specifically adenocarcinoma which is what I have. It is not a certainty that GERD will lead to Barrett’s and it is not a certainty that Barrett’s will lead to adenocarcinoma but there are conclusive scientific links among the three. It is not a certainty that my adenocarcinoma originated as GERD. There is no proven scientific genetic contribution to the risk of adenocarcinoma however there is for Barrett’s Esophagus. It seems to me this would make at least an indirect genetic factor for adenocarcinoma but I’m not a scientist. Anyway it is very possible that my children are genetically predisposed to Barrett’s Esophagus from me. In addition, their grandfather on their mother’s side had a hiatal hernia. Virtually all GERD patients have a hiatal hernia which is believed to contribute to the GERD. What does all this mean for my children? Right now it’s not at all serious. GERD can be controlled and they both seem to know that they have to try to control it, primarily through diet. They have both been prescribed Nexium, the purple pill you’ve probably seen advertised. The important thing is that they monitor their esophagi (is that the plural of esophagus???). Periodic endoscopies is one way to do this but I’ll leave it to their doctors to advise them exactly what to do and how frequently to do it. The important thing is that they remember to be proactive and never let it get the adenocarcinoma stage. I will probably not be around to nag them as the years go on so I need those of you who are to nag them for me. A reminder….Have your doctor do an endoscopy on you whenever you have a colonoscopy done. It is not a routine screening that would normally be covered by insurance so tell your doctor you think you have acid reflux. Remember to burp. If you actually have or have had acid reflux don’t wait until your next colonoscopy. If I had known this and did it with my last colonoscopy they would have caught the cancer earlier which would have improved my chances of survival. On the lighter side…. You may have noticed from my last post that I was a little depressed. I was also weak so I scheduled myself for an extra session of hydration. It’s hard to say if that session helped the weakness but it definitely helped with the depression because I got a great laugh out of it. When the nurse pulled the neck of my shirt to the side in order to access the port-a-cath there was some kind of fabric covering the port. I looked at it and got confused. I was reasonably sure that she was the first person to go near the port that day but this looked like a piece a gauze. Had someone already taken blood? Was my chemo brain playing tricks on me? And then I realized what it was. A dryer sheet. We both laughed hysterically. I would have been embarrassed except she told me about the time she walked into the office and one fell out of her pants leg. At some point she made a comment like “you guys are all the same”. Don’t worry guys I defended us. I told her there was no way a guy would use a dryer sheet. In fact, we may not even use a dryer. We’ve been known to just leave the clothes in the washer. As long as mold doesn’t form they’ll be dry and ready to go in a week or two. And people spend too much money on laundry additives. A real guy doesn’t even need laundry detergent. We’ll just throw a bar of soap in there and let it spin. On the medical front…… I got an unexpected extra week off from chemo. The PET scan machine was broken so they couldn’t scan me on Monday as planned. It’s now rescheduled for tomorrow. The chemo treatment has to be done after the scan because the chemo stimulates cellular activity that would be seen on the scan and possibly confused with cancer activity. I would need three days after Wednesday for the chemo and since no patient is worth the medical profession working on the weekend the treatment was postponed until next week. I like having the extra week off but I worry that I am jeopardizing my chances. Strangely I don’t have scanxiety. I just kind of feel that it is what it is and what it is is in God’s hands, not mine. As long as I’m here I’ll nag my children about monitoring their GERD but there will come a time when I need you to carry on for me. Thanks. -------------------------------------------------