Please help my family find a surgeon for my father.

[Guest guest]

I was so happy to find this achalasia support group last night! I am hoping

that this wonderful group can help my family find a surgeon for my father who is

in need of a esophagectomy.

My dad is 65.

He has suffered from achalasia for at least 30 years.

In 1987 he had a esophageal dilation that resulted in a esophageal rupture that

went undetected for 8 hours and had emergency surgery through his back & ribs to

repair this damage. He still says his ribs hurt - 25 years later.

Throughout the past 25 years he has gone in for occasional dilations and botox

injections. He has not be pro-active about his care - with no insurance he

would sometimes let the situation get to the point where he just wished to die

before he would seek treatment - which always means a trip to the ER and a

couple days in the hospital to clean out the completely blocked esophagus.

14 months ago he was advised that his only option was a esophagectomy, but he

refused because he was terrified of the post operative recovery, and for a while

he did ok with a soft food only diet.

at that time last year he had a study done and he has no motility at all and the

esophageal sphincter has no relaxation. He has slept upright in a recliner for

as long as I can remember now. His " treatment " plan when he has chest pain and

feels like he is blocked up is a combination of vinegar & baking soda -

basically causing an explosion and allowing him to throw up what is in his

esophagus.

He has massive scarring throughout his thoracic cavity due to the initial

rupture and other surgeries for hernia repair. He has a blood clotting

disorder, and has had pulmonary embulisims and DVT. His allowing his esophagus

to get blocked so many times has resulted in shelves/pockets in his esophagus -

more easily allowing food to become trapped instead of being forced via gravity

into his stomach.

He is not a candidate for any mimimally invasive surgery. He is currently in a

hospital in St. Louis, MO while we do this search for a surgeon who regularly

performs OPEN esophagectomies. Most of the places we find are associated with

cancer centers, and we've put in calls to a few, but we don't think he would be

accepted as a patient since he doesn't have cancer.

As you can probably sense my dad is not the easiest man to deal with and finding

a doctor that does this type of surgery is going to be hard enough, much less

finding one that he can get along with.

I would certainly appreciate any recommendations that you have for surgeons that

could possibly perform his esophagectomy. Most of my family is located in

Missouri, and I am in Houston. We are open to traveling to just about anywhere

if the surgical team and recovery team match up with the unique situation that

is my dad.

Many thanks,