Hi tricia you are probably worried sick love and I can't blame you. My husband was diognosed with oseofogeal cancer stage 4 and lympnodes stage 3  this was 6 years ago. Yes he had all the treatment they could throw at him and he's still here and cancer free. Please try not to worry too much I know it's hard and the waiting is the worse thing but stay positive love. 

Thank you so much for your reply.

I'm so glad to hear your husband is cancer free, that is amazing. Definitely helps ease my stress levels too x

Hi Tricia 

Am sorry that you are having this worry and I really can relate to this. Sorry about your mum too. I am having exactly the same problems and had them for a couple of years. 2 years ago I noticed that my chest feels kind of irritated most of the time like a slight burning. I also suffered from excessive burping and gastritis like symptoms. I still have bouts of this. I did not connect my chest burning with my stomach at all and I didn't even realise that problems with swallowing and food kind of stuck in your throat or chest is not normal. The GP put me on  omeprazole and told me it's probably Gerd. They could not refer me because of the Covid lockdown. I did googled it then and all I read was cancer. I started panicking too! I do have private insurance through my work and thankfully 2 month later I had an endoscopy which revealed a slight oesophagitis. The consultant said its really only very mild. He put me back on omeprazole which did not work whatsoever. I still had the problems with swallowing and chest irritation. The GP tried me on orodispersible lansoprazole (can't swallow proper capsules) and they seem to help a bit better.

What I am saying with this wall of text is that Google will tell you that you have cancer when you have swallowing problems but this is most of the time not the case. Esophagitis and GERD have the same symptoms. Of course you will have to get this checked and treated and keep an eye on it because Esophagitis can develop into cancer in some cases but please don't panic. You are now in the system and they will check you out

Diannett, thank you so much for your reply. My mind is all over the place and it was so nice to be reminded that it could be something other than the dreaded cancer.

It's been a really tough few months and I think because of what I went through with my mam it's just made it even harder.

I really appreciate you taking the time to reply and sharing what you went through x