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Polyp in oesophagus

Paola21
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Hi,

I previously posted about my partner's health and I'm back with more news about him, sadly not so positive and I would love to hear if anyone's been in a similar situation or has any advice on it.

He had a gastroscopy on Monday and sadly, they found a polyp in his oesophagus. He's been having a variety of pretty intense symptos for about 5 months now. 

He had a colonoscopy in October because he's been having diarrhea, rectal bleeding and constant pain in the left side of his abdomen. The colonoscopy didn't show anything abnormal but his symptoms persist and we're now wondering whether the doctors might have missed some polyps in his bowel, considering that he had one in his oesophagus? They told us he still had some stools left in his colon when they did it but that they tried to flush it out.. 

Back to his oesophagus, he's also been having trouble swallowing for months, chest pain, feeling of choking on food.

He had a barium swallowing test which showed a subclavian abherrant impression, basically an artery anomaly and that he has a small hiatus hernia. We didn't worry too much about the endoscopy but they did find a polyp.

My heart sank when he told me the news. He's only 26. They really didn' give us much information on the polyp, other than the fact that it was a small one (3mm) and that they removed it. I'm now worrying like crazy and the wait is so hard. 

I'd like to find out more about oesophagus polyps but there isn't much information online. Is it possible to have cancer from one small polyp? If it was cancerous, would he have to have surgery and chemo even though they removed the polyp? 

The nurses told him the polyp wouldn't explain the swallowing symptoms because it was too far down, near his stomach and they blame the hernia and the anomaly instead. I'm worried though though because I read that those are also symptoms of oesophagus cancer.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

  • Hello Paola21,

    I'm sorry to hear that the doctors who performed a gastroscopy on your partner found a polyp n his oesophagus and that he has been feeling so poorly for months. What a stressful time this must be for you both.

    Hopefully, other members who have gone through a similar situation will pop here soon to give you advice. Until then, our lovely team of cancer nurses are available for a chat too if you want to speak to someone medically trained over the phone. You can reach them on this phone number: 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

    I hope this helps a little.

    Best wishes to you and your partner,

    Renata, Cancer Chat Moderator

     

  • Offline in reply to Moderator Renata

    I had a gastroscopy 4weeks ago they found polyps in middle and lower oesophagus, hiatus hernia 5cm plus polyps in middle body of stomach , biopsies taken of all polyps have had history of cancer previously. This was marked as urgent and 4 weeks on still no results? Naturally as having had previous cancer am worrying possibly unnecessarily? 

  • Offline

    Hi,

    I am an experienced Endoscopy Nurse and wanted to help alleviate some of your worries.

    Abberant right subclavian artery (ARSA) can indeed cause problems with swallowing (specifically called dyspagia lusoria). Hiatus hernia (information linked) can also cause discomfort and difficulty while swallowing.

    The very small (3mm) polyp is unlikely to have caused problems swallowing simply because it's so small. While I didn't see the polyp itself, I doubt it's anything to worry about. You probably would have been informed already if the team thought that it was suspicious.

    Going back to your partner's colonoscopy, things can be missed, especially if there is a lot of solid stool left in the bowel. Endoscopists will normally wash away any stool they can to examine as much of the bowel as possible. When this happens, the Endoscopist will usually request another test if they are unhappy wuth what they have seen (or not seen).

    Hope this helps.

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