Belated update

Sorry for being absent for a month. Needed something worthwhile to update you all on.

I’m very fit and well. I have energy levels back to normal; sleeping has improved and don’t have daily naps anymore and seem to be maintaining my weight between 76-78kg, 10-12kg less than what I was before surgery.

The average diameter of a mature adult’s oesophagus is between 25-28mm. This allows food to pass through quite easily. When I came out of surgery, the “join” between the base of my throat and my new stretched up stomach was about 10mm plus any swelling. That’s not very much when you want food to pass through and not get stuck. Early September I had a “stretch” with a balloon to increase the diameter to 13mm. At beginning of October another stretch to take it up to 16mm. Their goal is 20mm and expecting another stretch in November.

Due to the restriction, I often get food stuck, as you will see in one of my earlier posts – the stuck potato. Nearly every meal I have, I am experiencing an item that gets stuck. But instead of hospital visits I have learned to clear it with a bit of persistence, water and throwing up water from my stomach to dislodge the food. Gross eh.

I am also eating pretty much anything as long as it’s soluble (as in it will break down with water and time), so for example a dried Apricot is NOT soluble! (I speak from experience!). This is something I presume I’m going to have to live with for life now, unless they stretch the “join” sufficiently to avoid anything getting stuck.

I went back to work full time on 9th September. They have been very supportive and flexible during my transition back to work, but now I’m back to normal on that front and have been travelling to London a few times and working all day. It was good to get back and get some normality in my routines.

Ilke and I spent a few days in Devon and Somerset in September for a break for just the two of us. It was so good to be free.

I also resumed flying general aviation, but can’t fly solo until I get the CAA to reissue my medical certificate, which got automatically revoked when I had surgery. It’s a bit of a paper trail to go through which involves my surgeon doing most of that.

I also ordered my new car in September, a new Tesla model 3, an upgrade to the 3 I have had for past four years. That should come end of October.

I support Heartburn Cancer UK (HCUK) and they have published my story on my cancer journey. I am also writing up an article for another University in the UK on my cancer diagnosis and experience.

So there you have it, an update. I’m doing very well post-surgery and consider myself incredibly fortunate to be where I am today.