Yes, John, that was the complication I was referring to: when they opened my stricture, they ended up perforating the esophagus and air got into the outside of my chest cavity and when I came to in recovery my lung had collapsed as a result(I guess it must have happened after they unhooked me from stuff that would presumably monitor this in the operating room). They re-inflated my lung in the recovery area through inserting a chest tube (and this hurt like a SOB--taught me what the higher numbers on that pain scale they give you are for!)

Apparently with small tears, they sometimes just keep the person an extra day or two until they think it healed. But this was a large tear, and that can be quite dangerous. The primary danger being that if your saliva gets into the chest cavity with bacteria in it, you can develop a nasty, possibly even fatal, infection. So I was in the hospital for three days with a chest tube and suction so my lung wouldn't collpase again, and superstrong IV antibiotics (which gave me a nasty case of thrush which you think would be just as bad in terms of causing problems), they did a swallowing test and saw the fluid I swallowed was still leaking form the esophagus, and decided they needed to put a stent in my throat.

More surgery. And, I will not sugar coat it, the stent left me very very uncomfortable, sometimes with severe pain, especially in the area where it started and eneded, for a few months after that surgery. To top it off, another stricture started to grow over the stent so I could barely swallow about four months after that surgery. The thoracic surgeon who had inserted it had wanted me to try keeping it in a year, thinking that it would decrease the need for more dilitations when it was removed, but finally when I could barely swallow at all again, he removed it after about 5 months (I think 2 months was what it needed to be in to be sure the perf. had healed). Since it was removed I've had two more dilitations. A lot of surgery and pain for the small amount of swallowing ability I've regained some might say. But to me it is definitely worth it. Before I couldn't even swallow my own saliva. Now, if I find a place that serves the right kind of soup, I can even go out to dinner with my husband now and then.

However, I think what happened to me is a good argument for getting the procedure done in a top notch hospital where, as a doctor friend of mine put it, if they break it at least they can fix it!

Nelie