Yippee! Just had confirmed 2 more health related talking points; with which, I can bore the pants off everyone I meet. How lucky is that?

[Bribin]

First off, be assured that although I post rarely, I do regularly read and digest the all the posts here. I have benefited from the wealth of knowledge found within the threads.

Much as I would like to indulge in relating the nitty gritty of my new talking points. I will restrain myself and try to stick to the bullet points.

* 6 rounds of FCR in 2014 with continuing good CLL partial remission. After 6 months of monthly consultation, my 2 recent consultations have been 3monthly.

* Last evening I had an; not too unpleasant, Endoscope appointment quickly followed by an Endsocopy Report.

Report-

1) Hiatus hernia (It's alright, I can live with that but, it will be hard for me to keep a conversation about it going, for a boring hour or so)

2) Barrett's Oesophagus, now that's a different kettle of fish (imagine the hours I could ramble on about that!)

My gastro consultant, much like my hemo consultant on my first visit, was quick to point out that, although not pre-cancerous I'd probably die of something else before my Barrett's turned bad. (I've the good flavour of leukaemia and best case Barrett's)

Hidden within Dr Google's world of doom and gloom, I stumbled upon the comfortingsnippet below from ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/980....

However more interestingly, delving deeper I discovered that Barrett's has an association with B cells.

I have yet to meet my hemo consultant (next month) to discuss this development and do not intend to live in fear or trepidation either now or after my meeting with her.

My query simply is - Has any of the CLL'ers here, had an acquaintance with Barrett's Oesophagus?

Snippet -

Rapid progression of Barrett's esophagus to metastatic esophageal carcinoma in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Hsu CW1, Krevsky B, Sigman LM, Thomas RM.

Author information

Abstract

Barrett's esophagus is a common premalignant condition that predisposes to the development of adenocarcinoma of the esophagus through a process of transformation from metaplasia to dysplasia and then carcinoma. Periodic endoscopic surveillance with multiple biopsies is adopted by most physicians to detect dysplasia or early carcinoma. We report a case of an 80-year-old white man with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who had periodic endoscopic surveillance without any evidence of dysplasia or cancer, and who died of metastatic carcinoma of the esophagus only 18 months after his last upper endoscopic examination. We suspect that the relative immunosuppressed state resulting from his CLL was the major contributor to the rapid progression of the Barrett's esophagus to cancer. Patients with CLL have higher risk of second cancers, and several cases of aggressive carcinomas have been reported in association with CLL. This is the first case report of metastatic esophageal cancer arising in Barrett's esophagus in a patient with CLL. This case suggests that we might need a more aggressive surveillance strategy for Barrett's esophagus in patients with CLL or other immunocompromised conditions.

[ygtgo]

Yippee! ...

I carry a medical card ... it makes it easier when I'm seen by a new GP ... I just hand over the 'list' ... saves a lot of time.

On the plus side ... I suppose I've learned a lot of new words for games of Scrabble ...

Stay well

... and keep your eye on the ball .... well you have to when ' juggling ' health issues.

ygtgo

[Newdawn Administrator]

Oh wouldn't it be so easy to become a medical bore folks.

I always recognise my medical records at the hospital because they come on a trolley as opposed to being carried by a health care assistant!

Sorry you've got another couple of ailments to add to the list Bribin and hope they never cause you too many problems.

Newdawn

[Bribin in reply to Newdawn]

Greetings, Ygtgo and Newdawn

Isn't it nice to know we stand out from the crowd. It’s a bit elitist when your Health Professional greets you by name without referring to their files.

John

[PaulaS Volunteer]

Hi Bribin,

I've had a very on and off acquaintance with Barrett's oesophagus. About 5 years ago I had a gastroscopy (in Sheffield) that supposedly showed I had it. Then another local doctor looked at the samples and said it wasn't Barrett's, though there were some abnormalites.

In Oct 2015 I had another gastroscopy (in Leeds). Report said that I had Barrett's, and would need annual checkups in future. Just over a year later I had a repeat gastroscopy (back in Sheffield) and the report said "No evidence of Barretts".

I don't know if Barrett's can come and go spontaneously, or whether different doctors have been assessing my oesophagus in different ways!

I didn't realise there might be a connection between Barrett's and CLL, apart from our higher risk of secondary cancers generally. But having read your post, I think I'd like to continue with the annual gastroscopies just in case!

Best wishes,

Paula

[Bribin]

Hi Paula,

Interesting that you have ‘now they see it, now they don’t’ variant of Barret’s. (I could have days of conversations with that!),

I am heartened that my post has had some value. The exchange of information in this forum is invaluable. I considered my post as trivial and an opportunity to moan. Yet it transpires; that for you, it is a bit of an eye-opener.

I do hope my ‘snippet’ has not caused you concern, but rather raised your awareness.

John

[PaulaS Volunteer in reply to Bribin]

Your "snippet" didn't worry me John, just made me realise I should take my "now they see it, now they don't" variant of Barretts Oesophagus a bit more seriously. Which is a good thing. We never know when posts which might seem trivial to us, won't be so trivial to certain of our readers.

I was a bit worried when I was first told about the Barretts a few years ago, but put it out of my mind when a second opinion said it wasn't that after all.

Fast forward to October 2015, and I was in hospital with abdominal pain and fast-dropping blood pressure. A bleeding ulcer was suspected but a gastroscopy showed stomach was OK except for Barretts.

Blood pressure continued to drop, I developed gross abdominal swelling, and a CT scan showed a ruptured spleen that had bled a lot... Emergency surgery followed later that day. Any concerns about the Barretts were greatly overwhelmed by other matters...

I didn't really need to tell my spleen story here again, but it reminded me that it had at first been confused with a stomach ulcer problem. A point that might be useful for someone else, one day...

Thanks again for your post, John,

Paula

[G1llHa1n]

Thanks for the heads-up though but obviously I do hope I never need to know more than I do now.

I do wish you well and hope this condition causes you no worse than an additional page in your notes.

[Peggy4]

Ho John. Thanks for the info. Definitely something to be aware of.

It's nice to share experiences, sometimes things that we consider trivial spark a thread that interests many. Plus, even a moan can be invaluable and just takes the edge off things a bit on a bad day.

Peggy