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Part 6 of POST OP LAP NISSEN...Please continue to post!!!

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GERD & Acid Reflux
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Posted 12/17/2008 12:55 AM (GMT 0)
Hello All

 

I am going to lock up Part 5 but will leave link here.

 

Link to Part 5:  https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=45&m=1196229&p=5

 

I will start this thread with a few of the most recent threads from Point 5.

 

Thank you so much.

 

Kitt

Posted 12/17/2008 12:59 AM (GMT 0)

 Posted Yesterday 1:48 PM (GMT -6) by Elaine K

Hello.

I thought I'd drop by since I'm 10 days post op. Surgery apparently went fine. I've got 5 little cut scars - plus I think one in my belly button too, and some bruising around 3 of the little cuts. That's the only signs from the outside!

Inside.... well for the first 24hours after surgery I could not move. I felt like I'd bean kicked on the stomach really really badly. After about 2 days I was up and about albeit very slowly and quite often walking with a stoop! After about 5 days I could sleep on my side again - previously it hurt like hell to sleep anyhow other than on my back. Each day that passes I feel better and better. I am now totally mobile, and raring to go! The bruising has almost gone from the cuts, and I don't feel the internal bruising at all now. I can burp still, I can fart still - haven't felt the need to vomit yet so can't say about that!

It's he eating that getting to me. I thought I could stick to a soup diet or the 2 weeks.... but I can't. I'm too hungry! I've tried scrambles egg as that's soft - but they got stuck, as did rice pudding and mash potato. When they say liquid they mean it! The problem I had was understanding the diet - I wrongly thought if I could swallow it - it would not get stuck. I was so wrong. If anyone is about to have it done - please don't make the same mistakes I have! You don't realise straight away that the food has got stuck. You swallow - fine, leave it a few seconds, take another swallow - same again.... repeat about 5 times.... THEN you realise it's stuck. Not just the 1st swallow - but all of them! There's nothing you can do (apart from stop eating!) apart from sip warm water to try and ease it through. It's taken about 15 minutes on the 3 occasions I have eaten what I shouldn't have to get the food through and it hurts like hell. I'm obviously not ready fro any kind of food of substance.

Plus side - I have not had one single bit of acid or heartburn since I woke up from the op! Also, due to the diet I've lost 14lbs in 10 days!!!!

All in all - I'd say so far it's been very worthwhile having it done and would recommend it. Any problems are of my own making with rushing onto solids too soon. As for long term I'll have to keep posting.

Elaine.


Posted 12/17/2008 1:02 AM (GMT 0)

Posted Today 6:14 PM (GMT -6)  by Happlywrapped

ElaineK -

Congratulations! I hope all continues to go well for you. I do remember wanting to eat more than liquids because I was so hungry. Those meal replacement drinks helped quite a bit for me. Not the diet ones, but the Boost or Ensure that have more of the stuff your body needs right now. They kept me satisfied a bit longer than soup.

Best wishes as you recover.

Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New year.

Posted 12/17/2008 9:31 AM (GMT 0)
Elainek-

Thanks fort that tip- I will be looking for your advice since I get a lap Nissen Dec 22nd. This is a re-do and I pretty much can't eat after 12 noon right now if I want to sleep. So I'll gladly accept the Ensure for some sleep. The good thing is that you're getting better. I will post as soon as I can. Good luck with the recovery and i sure will try to remember about solids.

Posted 12/20/2008 11:24 PM (GMT 0)

I just wanted to stop by and say hello to everyone and I hope you all have a Merry Christmas! blush

rbrunet - good luck with your surgery...unfortunately the lap nissen did not work for me and only brought on a number of new problems I never had before. But I DO wish you the best of luck! wink

For everyone else... what the heck should I do? my gerd is back to getting worse & worse everyday I am almost in the EXACT same spot as this time last year it was Christmas when I was in the ER for the EXTREME gerd and pain, had the lap nissen in march 08 and it has failed... taking prilosec when my insurance decides to cover it but it does not help much anyways and I have tried every other acid reducing med there is. I sit here right NOW with severe shoulder pain which I believe is from my surgery as it was the same pain I woke up with though mine has spread a bit... doc tells me it's musle spasm's and they don't know if its related no way to find out... odd? some days its worse then others no idea what triggers it but it hurts and OTC pain meds do not even touch it! I want to just scream  shocked now I have the fear I will end up progressing to esphogical cancer and the acid just continues to erode away what do I have left to do? very down n out hope I can enjoy Xmas dinner as I didn't get to last year couldn't even keep water down... but I am getting VERY close to being back at that point. shakehead

Posted 12/23/2008 11:03 AM (GMT 0)
Hello all,

I am a 33 year old from the UK and I have been 'lurking' around here for a while snooping at posts as I am scheduled for Laparoscopic Fundoplication on 9th January. I am really frightened of the operation and its outcomes but have to try and trust my surgeon and his ability and advice. My story is that I was diagnosed about 2.5 years ago with a hiatus hernia and gerd. This was diagnosed after I complained of a lump in the throat (globus) and I was given a barium meal. I had a gastroscopy straight after and that showed some oesophagitis and a completely open LES. I was then given a 24 hour acid test and mannometry test. The 24 hour acid test came back really bad and it was showing that for 91.2% of the 24 hours I had acid present in my oesophagus (normal people have it around 4%!) and that the acid was coming very high up into the oesophagus too. I then buried my head in the sand for two years and sporadically took Omeprazole and Nexium and then midway through this year I pulled my head out of the sand and realised I was getting through a hell of a lot of Gaviscon! My symptoms have changed over the years and the globus is completely gone. I now have a pressure in the centre of my chest, I throat-clear a lot and have a little bark-like cough and I have a lot of shortness of breath which in turn seems to give me terrible headaches. I went back to my gastroenterologist and she ordered another gastroscopy which came back slightly less inflammed than my first one two years ago- thanks to the sporadic PPIs. Her view is that I will need surgery at some point to correct this broken valve as I am still young and (fingers crossed) could end up taking tablets for a very long time. Her and also my surgeon think I am a very good candidate for this surgery as am youngish and am within my normal weight parametres.

It is a very hard to find anything postive about this surgery but I feel this forum is the most honest I have seen and people seem to come back and tell their story which is what I hope to be able to do and I am praying my story will have a good ending. Thanks for listening and thanks to all you guys that keep this forum going.

D
Posted 12/27/2008 10:02 PM (GMT 0)
Best off luck!

I am scheduled for the 8th off january for a Nissen lap myself and I can say I share your fears.

Posted 12/27/2008 11:08 PM (GMT 0)

Delilahuk

Welcome to the wisest group of people I have met who have had your procedure.  I am glad you lurked and that you were able to find out info that helped you and I am sure made you anxious too.

I understand your fear of the surgery and know I will be offering prayers for you to have a successful procedure and that you will be back here soon, sharing your post op  story with us.

Again Welcome to HealingWell.

Kitt

 

Posted 12/27/2008 11:11 PM (GMT 0)
roeljeukens


Welcome to HealingWell and the GERD/Heartburn forum. I will be praying for you on Jan 8th and I know you are going to come through this surgery and do well.

You will find all the members here very caring and wise.

Do feel free to start a thread of your own.

Take care

Kitt

Posted 12/28/2008 12:14 AM (GMT 0)

stkitt said...
roeljeukens


Welcome to HealingWell and the GERD/Heartburn forum. I will be praying for you on Jan 8th and I know you are going to come through this surgery and do well.

You will find all the members here very caring and wise.

Do feel free to start a thread of your own.

Take care

Kitt


Well Kitt,

All I can say is Thank you! I appreciate this very much, I hope I will be able and granted to help at least a single other with my personal experiences. (yes I'm scared to death for this op) sad

best off regards Roel

Posted 12/28/2008 5:46 PM (GMT 0)
hi Roel,

who`s going to perform your surgery??
don`t be scared,you will be fine.
most people i know who had there nissen done in holland are very satisfied.
good luck to you.
Posted 12/28/2008 5:54 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Guys!
I'm now 10 weeks post op and so far so good! I've had 1 check up with the consultant which went well and am due for another one in 2 months time.
So far my diet is going well only had trouble with scrambled eggs! I have noticed that my taste buds aren't working properly due to the lack of variety in my diet.
I work shifts and christmas has been a very busy time so the only thing i can eat quickly is chicken nuggets and a flask of soup. not a good meal but it's food!! This week I decided that with my work (bar person/waitress) that if i carry on as i am i'll probably faint or collapse so started taking complan...not the best thing to do but wise as i'm not getting the nutrition i need for the energy i'm using.

To those of you who are due to go in for the op don't be scared, this op was the first time i'd ever been in hospital and i was soo alone but i got through it. Can't remember a thing!! it's the best decission i ever made. I was so close to backing out when they asked me to lay on the table but i thought i'd left it too late. glad i went ahead with it ;)

Delilahuk, I'm glad you've come across this forum...being from the Uk myself I've had so much contradictory information from professionals in our health service it's unbelievable!! There's always someone one here who knows exactly what your going through so don't hesitate to ask whatever questions you want...even if they do sound barmy! You wont be the first and never the last!
Posted 12/28/2008 8:09 PM (GMT 0)

Hi Bruta,

Dr Nicole Bouvy is the one who is performing my surgery, I asked for her because I understand she is one off the best surgeons for this.

bruta said...
hi Roel,

who`s going to perform your surgery??
don`t be scared,you will be fine.
most people i know who had there nissen done in holland are very satisfied.
good luck to you.

Posted 12/29/2008 7:31 PM (GMT 0)
hi roel,

i know that surgeon very well,she did my first surgery(esophyx).
make sure that you get anti nausea meds,they didn`t give it to me so i was vomiting a couple ours after surgery because of the morfine and the anesthetic.
good luck to you.
Posted 12/30/2008 9:52 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks so much for your responses to my post I really appreciate it. As the date is getting nearer I am getting more and more freaked out and have even started dreaming about surgery!

Roel, I will crtainly be thinking of you on the 8th and I hope we can both post our recovery stories on here together.

Happy New Year to you all.
Posted 12/30/2008 10:24 AM (GMT 0)
I saw dr Bouvy yesterday because I still had questions on all kind off aspects concerning this surgery and I allso wanted to discuss the possibility off a laparascopic repair off the hernia combined with an endoluminal fundoplication.

Endoluminal is out off the question for me having a 3,4 inch big hernia and the highest refluxvalue she ever saw in her career. (happy me! I am a winner rolleyes )

@Delilahuk,

Thank you, I will think off you too (stored it in my PDA) and sure we will get back here to tell our stories!

Dr Bouvy said "Well Roel this is perhaps not the nicest way to start a new year, but it will be a great improvement regarding the quality off your life!"

Let us hold on to that thought.

Happy New Year to everybody (and please pardon my spelling if not proper)

 

Posted 1/6/2009 8:51 PM (GMT 0)

Hello everyone.

I'm a returning poster from this forum like from part 2 or 3. Shout out to BoPeep. I hope your doing well.

I had my Nissen Lap surgery 5-30-08. The surgery it's self went fine (so i was told) but my body didn't want to cooperate with everything that was done so I was in the hospital for a lovely 4 day 3 night stay with bed side accomodations tongue

After coming home with much nausea and pain I was not totally bed ridden but needed rest to recoup.

I stuck with my liquid diet then restricted foods for 30 days and seemed to be doing fine. I had no heartburn or vomiting and it was like a slice of heaven to have relief.

Around August I started having some pain and sluffed it off. It increased and got worse month by month.

To make a long story shortened, through more testing IE. Barium swallow, x rays, endoscopy and that awful mobility test (that I begged the docs not to make me take again) My wrap is undone!!!

But wait, not just that, they found a paraesophageal hernia (new doc thinks the doctor just overlooked it during first surgery)medium plus sized that when it acts up makes me feel like I'm having a severe heart attack.

So now I'm scheduled for hernia repair and a redo on the Nissen with the risks being much greater and boy em I scared shakehead

On the bright side I was so pleased for those couple months of no Gerd issues that I'm praying this second will go awesome and I'm placing myself in Gods hands.

I have a few questions, if I may. The doctor I have for the repair is placing mouse intestine tissue in me for the hernia as a net and I was wondering if anyone has had that done ? Has any of you that had a second had a hernia after the first surgery ? Anyone that has had a second Nissen please post with your experiences I would love to hear from you.

You all take care and I think I'm craving some cheese for some reason... j/k

Posted 1/7/2009 1:15 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Roel,

 

I just want to wish you all the very best for your operation tomorrow. I will be thinking of you and wishing you a very quick and easy recovery. I know you must be feeling so nervous as I am right there with you worrying about my own op on Friday! Big hugs coming your way from the UK. Speak very soon. Delilah xXx turn

Posted 1/8/2009 3:16 AM (GMT 0)
Roel and Delilah; wishing both of the very best in your surgeries; we'll be here waiting for you on the other side to help you with your recoveries.

As nervous and scared as I was, it really did make a big difference and my fears while not unfounded, were unnecessary! So good luck, sleep well!
Janice
Posted 1/8/2009 9:14 AM (GMT 0)
Thank Janice for your kind words and thoughts. I will let you know as soon as I am able how I am getting on and promise to keep posting updates as time goes on. I really have found this forum invaluble in the run up to my surgery and so hope to be able to help others in the future in the same way you guys have all helped me.

Big Thanks.

Dx
Posted 1/8/2009 3:02 PM (GMT 0)

Good Morning Roel and Delilah,

I have been following all the posts on the surgeries and I am so glad both of you are getting the wonderful words of wisdom from the members.

Talking with members who have had the procedure gives you a better understanding of what to expect.

I want to thank our members for the generosity they give of their time to share and support each other both pre and post-op.

Please know my prayers are with you as you head into your own surgeries and we are here 24/7, we may be sleeping once in a while but we are here.

May all your hopes and dreams come true
and your future be filled with happiness.
Gentle Hugs

Kitt

Posted 1/14/2009 10:22 AM (GMT 0)
Well I did it and survived! Had my fundoplication on 9th Jan and am so happy to report that they were able to do it laparoscopically turn . I came out of hospital on 11th and am off work for an expected 2 weeks. My surgeon believes that the operation went "text book" well so fingers crossed this successful outcome continues! I just want to write a few posts to try and help anyone going into this operation as this forum was a massive support to me before mine. Do not be scared of the operation like I was - once the anesthesia goes in I remember nothing! I awoke with some pain in the back of my neck and my shoulders (the dreaded gas pains) and I won't lie, they are uncomfortable but I was pain managed with Voltarol suppositories, Tramadol (sp?) injections and IV paracetamol. I had no patient controlled IV morphine or what not. It was only a few days later when the gas pains started to subside that I felt any pain in the op area (more uncomfortable than pain) and then it is only today - 5 days post op - that the incision sites are giving me any grief, I can honestly say that for me the post op pain is nothing (so far, touch wood) like how bad I thought it would be. Re: eating - night of op I had jelly and ice cream, next morning very soggy cornflakes and plain yoghurt, then steamed fish and mash potatoes for lunch and again for dinner. Since then I am having a weetabix for breakfast, soup for lunch and maybe fish or macaroni cheese for dinner. I have been told not to eat eggs or bread for one week and no white meat for 2 weeks and no red for another 2 weeks after that The only problemwith eating is that I can eat hardly any amount, literally about 2 tablespoons of food at a time but I am sure this will increase over time - well it had better as I can't really afford to lose much weight!! I wasgiven Moilium to help my stomach empty quicker. I am seeing my surgeon next tuesday to see how I am getting on so I will update again after that.

 

Thanks guys and if anone ever has any questions just pm me and I mean even years from now if anyone sees this post then just pm me - I mean it there aren't enough places to find info on this surgery when you are looking!

 

Kind regards

 

Delilah

Posted 1/15/2009 9:36 PM (GMT 0)
Just real quick to those that say they haven't heard much good...I am 24 and had the lap nissen surgery about 4 years ago. I have not had to take any medicine since for acid reflux and i can actually drink orange juice and eat pizza now. it is amazing and i would do it again in a heartbeat. The month after surgery was trying, but it was TOTALLY worth it. My advice is to start slow and don't overdo it. When the doc says liquid diet, he means it. You will feel it and in a not so good way if you go for solids too soon.

I hope the two of you that just recently had surgery have as much success as i had!

Hope this helps!
Aimee
Posted 1/22/2009 1:37 AM (GMT 0)
HI i'm a newbie and was wondering has anybody else had chronic nausea as the main symptom of GERD/Hiatal hernia, i have been taking reflux meds for probably 5 years and suffered chronic nausea for 2 years, i have recently had a barium swallow which showed hernia and reflux, surgeon did gastroscopy and said everything was normal and wants nothing more to do with me.
Reflux meds stop the burning feeling but not the nausea except if i am silly enough to drink alcohol which makes me feel like theres a nuclear meltdown in my stomach, have told doctors about effects of alcohol and all they do is say "don't drink alcohol" but surely this symptom points to some underlying problem.

I have been reffered to another surgeon and he has pushed me up the list to see him which is in complete contradiction to the first surgeon.
I'm scared of the idea of a nissen surgery because of so many bad outcomes including people who have ongoing chronic nausea after surgery, this really scares the crap out of me because my own doctor said i'll quite possibly be in even worse shape if i have the surgery.

Has anybody got any knowledge first or second hand that may help?
Posted 1/22/2009 10:42 PM (GMT 0)
sicky,

I had the Nissen done 2 1/2 tears ago. Even though I may have to have a redo here shortly I would do it again without hesitation. The relief from the pain is wonderful. Mine may have slipped or twisted. I firmly believe if you find a good surgeon this is a good repair. I didn't do my research the first time, but it could be from the times I tried to vomit. I forgot to refill my anti nausea medicine and have probably paid for it.

Bill
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