Lotta Karlsson eats every day. She chews, savors, and enjoys every bite.
But minutes later, that same food appears in a bag attached to her neck. It is neither a trick nor a strange anecdote. It is the result of years of battling a tumor that first appeared in her lung in 2014 and that, over time, led her to lose a kidney, her spleen, part of her colon and pancreas, and to have a large portion of her esophagus removed.
Since then, she has lived with a cervical esophagostomy, an opening that connects the remainder of her esophagus to the outside. That is why she can eat for pleasure without relying on that route for nourishment: her calories and nutrients reach her intestines directly through a tube. Her cancer, a rare malignant inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor, has been treated daily since 2019 — and she continues swimming, dancing, and showing that life has not stopped.