Heartburn worse after Nissen

rumman,

i know you feel great then whammo. did you say you are getting rflux symptoms still and its normal. thats what others are saying. i just started getting all that saliva in my moth yesterday and today. are you getting this.

rummaan, you sound like me after eating Butter Chicken a few days ago... what a mistake!!! Three hours of misery was not worth it. Your experiences sound pretty similar to my own. I'm sure we'll both get through this fine... this healing period SUCKS and was not my experience with the first wrap... oy.

hi rumann. just had lap nissen don 8 weeks ago and still feeling massive heartburn. did you get to the bottom of yours. Dr. did a barium swallow test and it showed no reflux.  my body tells me different. i have been eating more tums and maalox than i ever did before. he has me taking a med called carafate and is not helping. tired of feelin tired and sick.let me know if you have any input.

 

thank you denise. i wish my doctor would have given me that information. that gives me hope that i'm gonna feel better. instead he decides to run more tests. i do have some days that are better than others. totally makes sense. thanks again!

Well, I wish I'd read this thread about 2 weeks ago. I think it's the most informative post-NF thread I've read and it seems to be exactly what I'm going through now.

I had several strictures in the last 8 years or so and the symptoms were pretty much as they are now post-NF in that it seems that the saliva collects in my esophagus just above the wrap site much as it did with the strictures which were very large.

I'm guessing that in my case the saliva that ferments overnight in my esophagus is greater than before the surgery and the sour taste makes me feel as if I have acid reflux again.

Like Rummaan said in his early posts about what his surgeon told him my heart beats fast first thing in the morning and that's what wakes me up and not the other way around.

I probably wouldn't have related to this post at all before surgery or the first week following surgery because I was so hopeful of an easy recovery beforehand and because I did so well the first week after surgery.

I'm not young at 64 and I don't think that's in my favor. I think my recovery whatever it turns out to be will be very slow. I'm just sitting here trying to figure out and process everything I've gleaned from this one very informative thread and it does give me hope about the saliva pooling.

As soon as I sit up in the morning after waking up I conjecture that the saliva is able to make its way down further to the wrap site and eventually through the wrap site. And I do have enough saliva to float a battleship.

I had the worst early-morning awakening with nausea, pain and a mouth full of saliva than I've had since the last stricture was stretched a couple of months ago.

Why? I think because I had too much "real people" food yesterday and last night. I had Chicken Lo Mein and steamed rice but it was just too much "for me" - too much. I also believe the possibility that not all of it went down through the wrap and that it may have laid in my esophagus all night and collected with the pooled saliva and made me really sick.

These are all guesses on my part and I'll be testing out this theory tonight in this manner: I'll eat correctly and eat earlier and then at bedtime set my clock to wake me about the same time or a little before my regular early-morning awakening by what feels like acid making my heart beat fast and making me sick at my stomach.

It can't hurt anything and it might just help.

It gets so easy to get discouraged when you've lived with GERD as many years as I have and at my age trying to recuperate from a surgery as strange as this one was and continues to be.

I'm also going to post this on the thread I just started that wasn't as positive as I'd like it to be. It's all true however and it is what it is.

Thanks for listening,
Rita

Catwoman,

I'm 8 weeks today and still am experiencing the symptoms which I had the NF for in the first place only now the "reflux" is waking me up at 2:30 am and then again around 5 am so I'm getting at the most about 4 hours of sleep and it's not good quality.

My nose and sinuses burn and my head hurts most of the time and I also have lots of "watery phlegm" in my esophagus which I cough up all the time and can't talk when I wake up in the morning. The hoarseness comes and goes all day according to what I eat and I still can't eat much. Can't do dairy and spices burn my already burnt tongue and throat and I've lost 34 lbs now.

Is there really a big improvement for you from week 8 to week 13+ as you indicated above and how in the world did you make it that long. Not sleeping and not being able to eat much without a lot of reflux and pain and nausea is really the hardest thing I've done in a long time. I was like this before the surgery but now with the stresses of recovering plus the old symptoms still being there it is not very much fun.

A word back from you would be helpful.
Rita

Hi Rita,

I'm so sorry to hear you're still having trouble. I haven't had the Nissen yet so I'm just spitballing ideas.

Are you eating any triggers? I know you SHOULD be able to, but Denise's doctor told her that the esophagus is a dumb organ and interprets all pain as heartburn. Maybe if you are eating triggers it's irritating the wrap/sensitive areas still? The tummy doesn't get a lot of rest in any of us so maybe it's taking longer to heal.

about the dairy problem... I recently went vegan (because of the GERD) and my symptoms stopped COLD! Today, I had ONE Werther's Original (the little butterscotch candies) and I had reflux for about 20 minutes. I have never known that lactose intolerance was a possibility for me since I've always had such a strong stomach, but apparently it is. I know you're not getting much as it is, but maybe try cutting out dairy?

I love me some cheese, and it killed me to give up dairy, but now that I have I couldn't be happier to be literally symptom-free.

I was just wondering about you today, I'm sad to hear it's not going well for you :( What does your doctor say? I know you've said in the past that you don't want to keep going back, but if you're still truly suffering, it's time to let him know.

Best of luck to you! Hope you're better soon :)
Ashley