A few weeks ago, I went for what should've been a pretty standard endoscopy, but during the procedure, my doctor noted that I have grade 4 esophagitis, which means more than 50% of my esophagus is either inflamed or covered in ulcers. As a precaution, he took a few biopsies. The cells in the middle of my esophagus are consistent with Barrett's esophagus, but the cells at the base of my esophagus, where it connects with my stomach, are the very early stages of esophageal cancer. Talking with my doctor, he thinks that the same ablation treatment that they would use for the Barrett's esophagus would be enough to treat the cancer. However, my insurance has decided that since there's no evidence that the ablation can be used to treat the cancer, they will only pay for traditional treatments like radiation and chemo. If I want to have the less invasive procedure that my doctor wants me to have, I have to pay a huge portion out-of-pocket. I won’t have to miss much work if any, it’s one or two sessions and done, I won’t lose my hair, and the recovery time is much quicker

As all of my film friends can attest, it has been an extremely slow year. I hate coming to you and asking for help with this, but I'm more than a little scared because esophageal cancer is what killed my dad.