(upbeat music)
- I would say that I was fairly active most of my life.
Built this house and I'm a wood cutter and splitter
and I work in my shop on automobiles.
Lifestyle habits change.
I kind of retired fairly early
and I didn't have a lot of hobbies
or projects going that I needed
and I found myself just
sitting a lot and not being active.
Around 50 I started gaining some weight
and then toward the mid 60's I got quite heavy,
about 250 pounds.
Pretty much all my adult life I've had acid reflux.
Of course, early on they didn't call it that.
They said heart burn, heartburn.
Holidays, of course, or special days,
anytime of the year, the turkeys
and the gravies and all of the dishes
with onions and great salads and alcohol
bother a great deal because it's a lot
of acid you're putting into your stomach
and of course you over eat and fall asleep.
So, and that's not particularly a good thing to have happen.
- [Narrator] Like millions of Americans,
Jack self medicated with over-the-counter antacids.
His symptoms went away and he thought
he was free of acid reflux
until his doctor made an alarming discovery.
- I was in and I had an e-scope
and the doctor discovered that I had barrett's disease.
- If that lining of the esophagus is burned away
by acid reflux, the body, in some cases,
will replace the normal lining of the esophagus
by the type of lining that we find in the intestine.
So, when the normal esophageal lining is replaced
with intestinal lining, that is given the name
barrett's mucosa or barrett's esophagus.
- [Narrator] When barrett's esophagus is left untreated
it can lead to a type of esophageal cancer
called adenocarcinoma.
This is a serious condition which is growing
at an alarming rate.
The incidents of esophageal adenocarcinoma has increased
by a startling 350 percent over the last decade.
Making it the most rapidly increasing malignancy
among white males.
For many patients diagnosed with esophageal cancer
their best treatment option is an esophagectomy,
removal of their esophagus.
The University of Michigan is a national leader
in the development of an operation to remove
the cancerous portion of the esophagus
and reconnect the stomach using a less invasive
approach than that originally used.
- The procedure that we have developed and refined
here at the University of Michigan
is called a transhiatal esophagectomy
where the abdomen is opened, the stomach is freed up
from the attachments that hold it there
and then the surgeon reaches up through the opening
in the diaphragm through which the esophagus passes
on it's way to join the stomach.
Frees up the esophagus working from the bottom up,
makes a separate two inch incision on the left side
of the neck, gets around the esophagus up in the neck
and reaching down from above and up from below
the esophagus is removed and the stomach is brought up
through the same position in the chest
where the esophagus used to be,
all the way up to the neck and is connected
to the esophagus up here in the neck.
This month we've finished our three thousandth
transhiatal esophagectomy.
It's an enormous operative experience with one procedure,
but it has unquestionably placed us
among the highest volume centers doing this work.
Nationally esophagectomy is one of the operations
that has been identified as being a procedure
in which volume performed is exceedingly important
in predicting the outcome of the operation.
- I had the total esophagectomy done
about 15 months ago
and I'm doing great now.
I've lost about 70 pounds,
which of course, you get a whole new wardrobe
and I have lots of energy
and I feel very good.