Stent

Hi my husband had his operation in may this year.  He had lots of issues following this as his gullet kept closing up.  So had 5 stretches.   Then a stent fitted on the 14 October.   He had a lot of pain and continuous hiccups straight after.   I mean 24/7.  They said it would settle down but after 3 days they readmitted him to check it hadn't moved or that he hadn't a tear in his gullet.   So gave him pain control and medication to stop hiccups.   He had the stent for 5 weeks.   All that time he was on a soft diet.  They said that he needed to be careful not to block the stent.   Although his hiccups stopped he was always in a lot of pain around the stent area.  So could always feel were the stent was located.   The stent has now been removed 2 weeks ago.   But already he feels that his gullet is closing up again.   He is bringing back some food.   Not quite as bad as before the stent but clearly not ok.  So is due another endoscopy in 2 weeks.   But looking like he will either need another stretch or another stent.   The consultant did say that this may happen.  I suppose my advice would be is the consideration of whether he wants to eat more normal food.   I presume that his stent will not be temporary but more long term.   Even though he had some problems with his stent overall he was able to get back to eating foods that were somewhat normal not just on a liquid diet.  Like mash, fish, broccoli,  chicken etc.   There were a lot more foods on the soft diet .  And he also didn't have to rely on his feeding tube.   Plus we even went out for lunch.  So that felt a bit more normal.   Clearly he had to pick and choose what to eat but it was such a joy to do something that was normal.   Hope this helps x

Thank you for sharing your experience. He has basically been on a soft food diet for a year but even that has been challenging. Basically back to the liquid diet he had before the radiotherapy.  Supplemented by feed through the tube. 

It would be lovely for him to go out to lunch. Going to hope for that. But have tried to speak to him today to expect pain.