The beginning

In August 2019 my first symptom was difficulty in swallowing food at the start of the meal accompanied by a succession of hiccups. The rest of the meal was OK. The problem returned randomly when eating other meals, the problem seemed to be meat, beef, pork and gammon and in the early days I soon learned to chew very well before swallowing. However, something clearly was not right so I saw a Dr.Lewis at our local surgery who prescribed Omeprazole which is the standard first off medicine for acid reflux and he said if it didn't clear up he could double the dose. Well it didn't so I then saw my own doctor, Dr.Pullen, on the 13th September. He arranged for a gastroscopy. From my patient notes, based on my symptoms, I later learned he suspected an upper GI cancer.