Hi everyone - I've mainly been dealing with my new prostate cancer diagnosis lately and have therefore not been around much here, but my thoughts are still with all forum members.

Now, a new problem.

A month ago I had a throat dilation. I've had many over the last 10 years and thought this one was working. But it seems not to be. My new ENT mentioned that if it were not to be effective he would have 2 additional things to try: botox injections, and actually cutting the throat muscle.

My question: has anyone had either of these and can you tell me how they worked?

Thanks, all
David

Hi David! It has been awhile since we spoke, and I’m sorry to hear your new diagnosis with prostate cancer, and wish you the best with that!

I’ve been having the throat dilations about the same time. if not slightly less. Thankfully, I never had a problem with any which were done by my GI doctor. They found from biopsy that I have barretts esophagus, precancerous, so I need them at least once a year to do a biopsy since the condition can turn cancerous in a small minority.

I did see a voice specialist as suggested by my ENT cancer surgeon, who’s an otolaryngologist also. He was going to do an injection, forget the type, into the voice box to help strengthen it. Too much was going on at the time, and had a recurrence, so I never went back.

As far as surgery, I haven’t been approached with that type. My surgeon wanted to do lip reconstruction after the nerve was cut during a mandiblectomy, so the left side is slanted. The surgery would lift the lip. I brought up about reconstruction under my swollen neck, and he could do that too, but after thinking, I would rather do one thing at a time,m. So far I haven’t done anything since something always happens to delay this.

Sorry, I don’t have much information on the surgery or type. Instead of these surgeries becoming eady got me I have become more cautious, and have delayed some.

Hi David,

My husband had two magnets placed in his throat (one on each side of the blockage). He also had a feeding tube then and that’s how they accessed the bottom end of the blockage. The magnets came together and it opened up the blocked esophagus. He was then given dilatations.

I don’t know if this procedure will work with your situation. What’s more, i’m In Toronto, Canada. If you would like more info about the doctor, please pm me. I’m also thinking along the lines of your doctor consulting the interventional radiologist who pioneered my husband’s procedure.

Best of luck with everything.

Hi David!!!

Nice to see you posting but Im very sorry you are having issues!!!

Ive read a great many posts about the dilations and have spent time with several friends who have had this done. Seems like overall most will agree it does help. The only drawback is many complain about having to redo the process to maintain the desired results. A close friend had it done and like you didnt have much of a change so she opted to repeat the process about a month after the first one. That did the trick and she was ok for quite a while until it wore off and she redid it, Im guesstimating about a year later. This time it only took one attempt to obtain the desired results.

Hope that info helps you!!! We all know what works on one wont work for another but Im hoping you are similar to my friend and doing it again will make a big difference and be a success.

Good luck with everything!!!

Thanks, folks. I appreciate the suggestions. I recall that my earlier dilations did indeed help for a year or even more before I'd have to go back for another one. This time was different. I'll continue to research options, and wish everyone good health.