By Patty Talahongva

    There’s laughter in the room and some good-natured joking, but very little crying, as a group of about a dozen people gather in the basement of Banner Good Samaritan Hospital on east McDowell Road. Most are survivors of esophageal cancer (EC) and some are family members, supporters and cheerleaders for those battling this type of rare cancer.

    For almost two years now they have met monthly to talk about how this disease has changed their lives. The group was formed by North Central resident Terry Ratner, a registered nurse who lost her husband to esophageal cancer a year ago this month. “We are one of only two EC support groups in the United States,” Ratner points out.

 

As the group chats about their personal experiences, a man speaks up and says at the worst part of his treatment, he kept a journal about it and dated his entries. When he went back months later and read those entries he was shocked to read his thoughts on suicide. Kris Cooper, the clinical psychologist leading the discussion assures the group, “You have to honor where you were at that point. It’s real. Life does change in horrible ways and fantastic ways.”

    Coping with health checkups and tests means managing your own care, points out another survivor. He tells the group he refuses to have any tests done after Wednesday to avoid having to wait the entire weekend to hear back from the doctor.

    The most urgent tests are needed at the very first signs of EC which, for so many people, may simple be ignored and overlooked as just heartburn. “Family doctors need to get on it,” emphasizes one survivor. His doctor never tested him so for 10 years he was on Prilosec, which is used to treat heartburn—one of the key indicators. If you have heartburn for more than one month, you need to tell your doctor to do a test, either an X-ray or an Upper GI, to see if there’s an issue with your esophagus.

    Echoing the warning to be alert, Ratner says, “Endoscopy is the key test. We’re all taught how to feel for a lump (for breast cancer) but we’re not educated about this deadly disease at all.”

    The week her husband was diagnosed, Ratner witnessed him having a hard time swallowing. What tipped her off was when he regurgitated a small piece of carrot he was trying to eat. She’d never seen him do that in all their years of marriage. So Ratner made an appointment with their doctor. Four days later she knew what they were dealing with.         Around the same time, North Central resident Deanne Poulos was dealing with the death of her brother, James, from EC. She read about the newly formed EC Support Group and decided to attend. She had so many questions about the disease that she was moved to go and meet some survivors and learn from them.

    “I was concerned about dragging down survivors because my brother had died, but I was warmly received,” Poulos recalls.

    She’s been attended every meeting since then. Her message to anyone who will listen is to get tested as early as possible. By the time her brother was diagnosed the tumor was so large they think it had been growing for two to three years. “If the doctor isn’t receptive (to doing more tests) then go to someone else,” she urges.

    Ratner says the people in her survivors group are willing to speak personally to those who have just been diagnosed or have just gone through surgery. “We’re there for them,” she emphasizes.

    You also can join the group for a catered dinner meeting every third Thursday of the month. They meet in the Health Sciences Library at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, 1111 E. McDowell Road, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. For more information, visit either  www.samaritan.edu/ECSupport or www.terryratner.com. You can also reach Ratner at 602-839-4970.