Thank you so very much for the replies you all are giving me. The doctor reccommends the IVOR_LEWIS surgery rather than the Transhiatal one for my husband and he is scheduled for it the 4th week of April. We are praying all goes well and they get all the lymph nodes in the area at the same time as the surgery. I have been told this is the least invasive of the two major sugeries for EC but that when they have to push the ribs apart that is the part that has the most pain after waking up. I was also wondering if anyone is having trouble with leaking around the J-tube site? It has always leaked a bit but now that he has finished with his treatment of chemo/rad and back to eating (thank God) for a while at least it is leaking more. We are wondering if it has to do with his eating more by mouth now because it seems to happen more when he finishes a meal. He changes pads several times a day now and is trying to just hold out with no more surgeries until he goes in for the IVOR and they can maybe fix the J-tube at the same time. Thank you again. And God Bless each of you with this nasty disease and your caretaker(s) and your families. It is a stressful time and our heads swim at times although it has gotten better with research and with finding sites like this one. Doesn't seem so foreign now!