Charlie Allen

First post: May 15, 2017 Latest post: Sep 25, 2017
Welcome to our CaringBridge website for Charlie Allen. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.

As many of you know, Charlie had stomach cancer in 1987. At that time the protocol for his type of cancer was to remove the stomach. This procedure would no longer be done for anyone who had the same diagnosis today because of great strides in cancer research and treatment since then.

Charlie has had some issues over the years related to the surgery that removed his stomach, for the most part everything had been manageable or treatable. Over the past year he has progressively had difficulty in swallowing, he has not been able to eat, and he lost a great deal of weight. Since February he has had to rely on a feeding tube for sustenance. It has helped him to put on some of the weight that he lost.

He’s undergone a series of tests and through these it was determined that his esophagus is essentially “burned out” and no longer functions for swallowing. There is no reversal for this.

On May 3, 2017, Charlie met with thoracic surgeon, Dr. Rice, at MD Anderson in Houston to discuss options. The next step will be a complicated surgery that involves removing the lower part of his esophagus and using his lower intestine as a replacement. Three surgical teams will be needed to do the surgery: the thoracic surgeon (Dr. Rice), a general surgeon to take care of scar tissue that exists from previous surgeries Charlie has undergone, and a plastic surgeon to work on vascular rerouting and blood supply concerns.

We will update here on this CaringBridge website once surgery is scheduled, and we will continue to update once the surgery takes place, and through the recovery process.  We appreciate your thoughts and prayers. 


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