Some time in September, Elliott started having trouble swallowing. Food would get stuck in his esophagus, sometimes even coming back up. It was not alarming to me because I had the same issue from time to time - I have GERD. After a couple of weeks it started happening with every meal and even liquids were hard to get down. I told him it sounded like a blockage of some sort and he should get to the doctor. He called his primary care doctor and set up an appt for the following week. She said it might be the autoimmune disease achalasia and referred him to a gastroenterologist. Two appts were set up: One for an esophagram and the other for an endoscopy. The esophagram or barium swallow was a little challenging with trying to get the thick substance down. He got enough down for the imaging and they saw something at the base of the esophagus. They could also see that the barium was not going down. Elliott could feel exactly where it was in his esophagus and he could bring it back up on demand. There were another 2 weeks without being able to eat and there was a noticeable weight loss. We got to the endoscopy and the doctor said he really didn't see a mass on the xray. He thought he might be able to pop the esophagus back open once the scope went in. He was still thinking achalasia. During the initial consult, he was very light hearted and jovial. He finished and said 'See you afterwards.' Well, afterwards, he was quite a bit more serious. There was no popping the esophagus. They discovered a large tumor at the base of the esophagus that was blocking the path to the stomach. He said he took samples for biopsy but he believed it to be cancer. I heard the words but at the same time, I was like "wait, what?" Trying to wrap my wind around what we were being told. He wanted Elliott to get an immediate CAT scan. He wanted us to go directly to the hospital for it. The nurse was already on the phone setting an appt. While we waited for confirmation of the appointment, other nurses came by with encouraging words. We had an appointment and we had just enough time to get there, but they are expecting us. So, off we went. Elliott asked if I was ok. 'I'm good, I'm good.' I said. 'It's good we didn't have to wait another week for this appt. They followed up with a PET scan and Elliott's stomach it up like a New Year's Ball. It wasn't just the tumor. His whole gastric system and the surrounding lymph nodes were infected too. The doctor explained that because the cancer jumped to outside nodes, I would only be able to get targeted radiation and palliative care. Surgery would not get all of the cancer. We left in silence as we tried to process everything.