My wife had an oesophagectomy about six weeks ago. I am delighted to say that things went very well, and continue to do so: I am profoundly grateful to all the medical staff who have helped us.
I now have a couple of questions related to the recovery period. These are very minor matters in the overall scheme of things, and I would have asked them of the medical staff directly - but, since the coronavirus outbreak is now causing huge disruption, additional risks, and the necessity for cancelled appointments, I thought I'd pose them here in order to see what other people's experience has been. So:
1. Since the operation, my wife has developed a persistent dry cough, which seems to be aggravated by either eating or speaking. Have others suffered from this post-operatively? Can it be expected to go away? Is there any way to ameliorate it?
2. My wife is still taking small amounts of nutrition overnight via a jenunostomy. We hope and expect that such feeding will be completely phased out within a couple more weeks, but I have been wondering:
a. For how long after this operation have other people used a jejunostomy for feeding?
b. For how long after it was no longer needed was the tube left in place, 'just in case'?
c. Is final removal of the tube something which requires a clinic appointment of some kind, or is it a relatively minor matter which could be safely dealt with by a nurse on a home visit (or even, thinking about it, by ourselves)? In asking that, I am simply keen to avoid the need to visit hospitals or clinics during the period of the current crisis.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions or personal anecdotes!
