Back in March I celebrated one year post treatment with apointments with my ENT and RO and both were as pleased as could be . . . as was I of course. My ENT wanted me to get a scan in order to contribute it to a library of post-treatment scans he is compiling to better understand the high incidence of false positives in PET/CTs. So I got a scan . . . and all was well (sort of). No indication of cancer. Yeah!!, right?

Sort of. The scan showed some mild glycolitic activity in the lower esophagus and some thickening of the distal wall. So off I went to the GI doctor and and endoscopic exam. That showed umbilicated nodules, gastric ulcers and Barrett's esophagus.

The good news is that all of the biopsies came back clean of cancer, the bad news is the Barrett's. While I understand that very few people actually get cancer, I can't help but wonder whether I am predelicted to SCCs (of which esophageal cancer is one). Any one know?

In the end, everyone is pretty much agreed that the Barrett's and other stuff was a result of the chemo and associated heartburn that never really went away, though it was never more than an off and on annoyance and didn't interfere with life at all.

In any case, please, if you are suffering from heartburn during treatment tell your doctors and if possible schedule an appointment with a GI if it doesn't go completely away after treatment. Saves on anxiety.

Tim