Paula's Story

My Name is Paula. I am a 41 year white female, married, & have 4 children. I smoked cigarettes and pot at a very young age, and also was addicted to Methamphetmine for 20 years. I smoke that too. I've been clean and sober now for 5 years. In 1997 I began choking on food. It would happen occasionally, but became worse as the years went by.

By the year 2000 I could not hold anything down. Food would go down and within minutes I was gagging and sticking my fingers down my throat to get the food unstuck. I thought it was because I had very few back teeth.

Water would go down and then my throat would spasm and it would come back up. I ended up eating yogurt and ice-cream for a year and lost 50 lbs. The choking was becoming such a problem, I could not eat in public anymore, and my family was so worried. It also became a problem at work. I would sip on my coffee, while speaking with a patient on the phone, and start choking, It was awful.

I went to my Primary care Doctor at my HMO who referred me to an ENT DR. He had scoped my throat and said the was nothing "remarkable about my throat" He then cut a piece of my lip to rule out Srogrens disease. I had barium swallows, I then was referred to a Rheumatoid Arthritis Doctor. Finally my DR said "Paula there's really nothing wrong with you" She recommended a behavioral scientist. I thought I was about to faint. I couldn't believe she was saying this.

Luckily I have two different insurance's and in my line of work (Respiratory Care) I knew a lot of Doctors. I went to a Gastroenterologist in Oct of 2001 and had an endoscopy done. That day I found out that I had a tumor the size of a lime in my upper esophagus, that wrapped around my thyroid, and also deviated my trachea.

I was admitted into the hospital a day later. I was diagnosed with stage 3 squamous cell carcinoma. With no metastasis. My treatment plan was chemotherapy Taxol + Cisplaton 4 days a week 24 hours a day. And Twelve week of radiation 5 days a week. I had to have a j- jostomy tube put in for feeding. I was in the hospital November, December and part of January.

I did very well with the therapy, only lost a little bit of hair in the back of my head. I just got real tired at the end of the treatments. I did have to have 2 blood transfusions due to the chemo was killing my red blood cells in my bone marrow.

Nov 29, 2003 -
It's now been a year, and I had another Endoscopy done yesterday. So far so good. I decided not to get the esphagectomy operation because I would have lost my voice box. So the Doctors are just keeping a close eye on me.

I really feel blessed that I've come this far. All in all the whole experience with the treatment was not all that bad. I don't fall into the "statistics" so I guess I'm there miracle baby. That's my story, I'm alive, working 6 hours days, eating my brains out!

Paula Watt

The other Hospital that misdiagnosed me is being sued

Photo: Paula Watt (background) with her best friend Jayne, who passed away May 30, 2002 of cystic fibrosis.