The Road To Recovery
I am an athletic guy who never smoked. But on April Fool's Day, 2002, an ENT specialist I consulted about a throat problem told me I had a cancer at the base of my tongue.
In quick order I learned that I would have to have radiation and chemotherapy, that I would have to have a stomach tube inserted in my stomach in case the radiation to my throat was to affect my ability to swallow and that I might have to live with it for the rest of my life. That was a serious blow to someone like me, a serious eating and cooking enthusiast.
The prediction came true.
After just 10 days of radiation, I lost my ability to swallow. I continued to cook tasty dinners for my wife - whose patience, cheerfulness and courage helped me through my cancer ordeal - but could not share them. When we went to restaurants, I had to make excuses to the waiter and watch others eat.
The stomach tube saved me from malnutrition - or worse--but I wanted desperately to be off it and eating like a human being again.
The prognosis, though, was grim. Exercises that had been prescribed to strengthen my swallowing muscles were of no help. Six months after the end of treatment, I was still unable to take anything by mouth. At that point it dawned on me that I had to become aggressively proactive. Consultations with a cancer surgeon and a speech pathologist at Yale-New Haven Medical Center lead me to University Hospital in Cleveland in search of VitalStim, a new therapy that had just been approved by the FDA.
During the very first one-hour session I was able to swallow ice chips and pieces of cookies. My wife's jaw dropped.
Around me, as I went through additional sessions, I watched other patients, one by one, finding that they were able to eat again. Among them was one young kid who was eating again within three days - and whose own doctors had also told his parents he would never eat again.
Still, because the cancer therapy had severely damaged my esophagus, I did not progress much further, even though I went through 10 hours of treatment. A gastroenterologist at the University Hospital suggested an esophageal dilation. That and my newly strengthened swallowing muscles allowed me to drink thin liquids. Progress at last! Soon after, I was able to start on foods such as eggs and cereal.
Gradually, I was weaned off the stomach tube and then finally had it removed.
True, the esophageal dilation, as well as some medications prescribed to reduce swelling of the esophagus and to get rid of mucous in the canal all contributed to my recovery. But the VitalStim was key. VitalStim started me on the road to recovery. It showed me that it was possible to swallow again, even if all the odds seemed against it.