Esophagectomy Post-Surgical Guide: Questions and Answers: Second Edition

The Esophageal Cancer Education Foundation (ECEF) www.fightec.org was formed in 2003 by Bart and Virginia Frazzitta. The initial purpose in establishing this 501 C 3 non-profit Organization was to help solicit funds for a CD ROM Project they had committed to fund for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The project had a cost of $75000. This was achieved and it served as the beginning of this Foundation geared to focus on a mission statement that covered three goals namely: - To bring awareness and educate the public and medical community about this disease - To walk the journey with caregivers and with patients who have this disease - To support research projects that will lead to a test for early detection of this disease and also to hopefully cure this disease. ECEF has always kept its focus of not having a major expense factor and as such it does not now have any employees and its only major expense has been its web site development and CPA costs to certify our Financial Statements. We needed to do this to handle the members and patients who have joined ECEF and have availed themselves of the services we provide. We will continue this approach as long as we have the volunteers needed to run an effective and efficient operation. Should this change our goal will be to keep all administrative expenses to no more than 20% of the revenue we have generated. Bart Frazzitta a co-founder and a stage III adenocarcinoma esophageal cancer survivor has been the driving force behind ECEF. He was diagnosed in 1999 and went through chemotherapy radiation therapy and ultimately Ivor Lewis surgery. He has co-authored a book called 100 Questions & Answers About Esophageal Cancer which provides patients and caregivers with not only the medical response to these selected 100 questions but also a response from a patients perspective which has proven helpful to the people who have read the book. Since this book is in part an introduction to this disease he felt it necessary to produce this guide so that patients who have gone through this surgery can have a reference guide to help them navigate the issues they may face as they journey beyond this disease. It is intended to help with quality of life issues and should be looked at with all the suggestions presented as a guide to talk to the patients physician. Please visit our web site www.fightec.org and see the services and information we provide to patients and caregivers and join us as we journey through this disease.