My Christmas present to myself.

Anne and all,

Yes, I was very lucky.  However, I truly believe it was because I had a surgeon who is a bariatric surgeon.  If you haven't chosen your surgeon, please check them out.  This surgeon did my bowel resection and I had a very good experience there.  He was able to do it with laproscopic and hand assist. 

There are lots of surgeon doing the Nissen, but I beg you all to make sure that the surgeon had done tons of these with good results.

I have a slight problem with my esphogus being weak and the surgeon said he could offer me a loose wrap.  Said he was good a doing loose wraps.  Sounds cocky, but I would rather have one who is confident.

Best of luck to all.

Jayne

oh my god you got a week to get better i dont think they will do surgery if you have cold you need to get some tablets from doctor

That's how I felt all weekend Joy. Except I would wake up with a fever. It would go away as the day went on thought. I'm so anxious to hear how your surgery goes!!!

Joy-
All will go great. There are a lot of us who have done this and I am sure we all have felt as you do. I know I did, both times. Actually more so the second time knowing it was going to take over 4 hours to do.

Take care,
Bill

Joy- Thanks for your posts. I am really interested to hear how your nissen goes. I have been thinking about doing it for a while but have been a bit fearful of it. I have been watching how the esophyx procedure takes on but i fear it may not be dramatic enough for me. my gerd has been progressively getting worse over the past few years. i have a hiatal hernia and a non functionin les. The biggest concern has been the effect on my asthma. My asthma has been getting worse following right along with the gerd and has really exploded over the last year. Before the gerd took its toll, my asthma was pretty well controlled. Now, it is pretty much out of control and free falling. I am only 27 so it is a pretty big concern for me this early on in my life. Im am taking the highest does of advair hfa they can give me and it still is pretty rough sometimes. I use my nebulizer pretty frequently. Recently, and especially the last few days, I have been having some heart issues: high blood pressure, fast and really irregular heart beat and other symptoms, and have come to find out it is due to the salmeterol in the advair. I am young and have never had heart problems before so i shouldn't be having 152 over 120 blood pressure and a heart rate of 115bpm, with some really bizarre and irregular beating, like I did the other night. A little worried about it since i have to switch off of the advair to something without serevent, even though advair has really been the only thing keeping it a little bit under control. My asthma Dr has been one of the biggest advocates telling me how much I really need to get the surgery done and how dangerously gerd is affecting the asthma, regardless of the meds. High doses of asthma meds really aren't good for us either right? :) I have been putting it off for awhile, mostly out of fear since one of the tests showed delayed gastric emptying. My wife and I had a baby recently so more than just for myself, I need to take care of all of this for them too. I truly hope yours goes well and I look forward to anything you post about it. It is something I really should probably get done sooner rather than later. I just read what dencha wrote about her gerd/asthma and surgery so I am beginning to see some hope on the horizon. I really am intrigued to see how yours goes too! It looks like it is right around the corner so good luck and I sincerely hope all goes well for you!!! -Jonathan

Hi Jonathan,
I've been incredibly busy with my job recently, and haven't been able to post regularly. This forum saved my life (I think literally), as my asthma was totally out of control before I finally had the courage to get the Nissen in February 2009. I waited far too long to get the surgery, even though my family and asthma doctors both pushed me in that direction for a long time. This forum was the only place I ever found where people were realistic, but positive about the surgery. The fine people here supported me though the decision, surgery, and recovery.

My asthma was terrible for about four years before the surgery. By the last year, I was using my nebulizer several times EVERY day. Also, I was on way too much inhaled steroids along with intermittent oral prednosone. Not good. In the end I began having adrenal insufficiency due to the steroid usage. You're right--asthma meds aren't particularly good for us. It's fine in reasonable dosages, but high dosages are a danger. I actually am now suffering with a very difficult side effect of the steroids--my skin is extremely thin and fragile...If I just hit my leg or arm on something, my skin tears. I also bruise incredibly easily.

I was frightened by all the really negative posts I saw on the internet. Many people warned against the surgery, and blamed all their problems on it. Also, my GI docs weren't particularly encouraging about having the surgery. I changed GI docs because the first one didn't give me any help at all. My second GI doc sent me for testing, and didn't think my GERD was bad enough to cause my asthma. At the same time, my asthma and family docs (who know me the best) were certain that it was the cause of my asthma dive.

Finally, my family doc just gave up--he and my asthma doc said that they couldn't do any more for me. I was nebulizing, taking peak doses of inhaled steroids (and Serevent), coughing up gallons of gunk constantly, wheezing, and just feeling terrible. My doc made me an appointment with a surgeon. I went to him, had another endoscopy and barium swallow, and the surgeon (who took the opinion of my family doc seriously) recommended the surgery.

I then went back to the GI doc, and had him look at the test results. He added another 24 hr PH monitor, and decided that although the results were borderline, I might benefit from the surgery. He said I could go to a surgeon he recommended highly if I'd like. I did decide to go...I just couldn't stand living that way anymore. Also, my doc said that my GERD/asthma was life threatening.

I had a lung infection when I had the surgery, and afterwards as well. My lungs were in terrible shape, and it took a while for them to heal post surgery. By May, during peak allergy season, my lungs suddenly improved, and I no longer needed my nebulizer and lung PT. Yay!

Now, I do have allergic asthma, but NOTHING NOTHING NOTHING like the GERD. I never need my nebulizer (knock wood), and am in control with normal doses of meds. My docs hope that if they can get my allergies in better control, I will be able to lower my meds further.

I have a bad cold right now, and I'm coughing and have really bad sinus problems due to the virus. Even with that, I'm not taking anything extra other than Albuterol before my inhalers, so I'm sure I cough up the gunk before taking my Serevent and steroid inhaler. I'm breathing fine (now if the cold lasts a long long time, there's no guarantee that my asthma won't kick in but what a difference compared to pre-surgery. I would have been nebulizing and wheezing like mad.

I would be more than happy to discuss the asthma/GERD surgery issue with you. I will try to get on the forum as much as possible to check posts.
Bill mentioned the posts about the Nissen recovery. I'll try to find the URLs and post them for you.
I was ready for a horrible recovery, but it wasn't horrible at all. I am so thankful that I had the surgery. It's not perfect--I have some side effects that will be with me for life--but in comparison to what I suffered with before surgery, they're so worth dealing with! I would have the surgery again in a minute if something happened to this one. I'm so thankful that my asthma doc and family doc kept nudging me until I finally found this forum and made the decision to go forward with the Nissen.

Good luck making your decision. Feel free to ask any additional questions!
Take care,
Denise

Dr told me I could drive as long as I'm not taking the pain meds.

I think the anti nausea you're talking bout is zofran. I was told that's what they give chemo patients. It's a small disolvable tablet that they had me put under my tongue. It tastes like bad strawberries, which is why they told me to put it there. Less taste. They gave me an anti nausea and zantac right before I went it.

A couple more days Joy!! How exciting!

My stomach is feeling better today. I guess going bland diet for three days and going off of my supplements helped. I didn't take my fish oil, calcium, or Align for three days. I took only my perscriptions. I wonder how long will it be before I can take my oil again? The capsules are huge!

My nerves seem better today... I feel calmer. Three days 'til pre-op tests...then the next day surgery. A little flipping of my stomach, but okay.
I told my friends and students I can't have chocolate for awhile after the surgery and they piled the chocolate on me for Christmas presents! I got several large boxes of chocolate. Only three students gave me presents I couldn't eat...a scarf, a snowman candle holder, and an ornament.

Joy

My GI was like that, Bill.
He made it up to be a horrible surgery with a long recovery.
That's what scared me so about it.

Joy