Stomach pain 4 months after Nissen

Ouch! You could be overdoing it but then again I'm eating and drinking normally after 13 weeks. It could be gas pain. Did you have a 360 degree wrap or 270? I'd check it out with your surgeon if you can just in case it's something else. I still get some pain from my scars if I've been doing a lot of bending or lifting so maybe that's it. Keep us posted how it goes.

Hi TheBadger,
Welcome to Healing Well! Sorry to hear you're experiencing discomfort. Of course you know best how you're feeling, and as Gritty said, be sure to ask your surgeon or GI doc about what you're experiencing.

Like Joy, when I read your post I immediately thought of gastritis/irritated wrap. When your stomach becomes inflamed, so does your wrap, as it is made of stomach.

If you have good insurance you might ask your GI doc to prescribe some Carafate Suspension, which is great for coating your esophagus, wrap, and stomach, and therefore help in healing.

It would make sense to run it by your surgeon or GI doc. Four months seems like a mighty long time, but it takes a full year for the complete healing of the wrap. It's a tricky thing for some people (me included)...if you have a reactive stomach, then you'll have a reactive wrap. Even now, 2 years post op, if I overdo it with alcohol, coffee, and other irritants, I can have a few days of stomach/wrap complaints. I always figure the things I ate were worth a little pain!

Good luck...hope you feel better soon!
Denise

That's really informative advice. Thanks guys. I'm not sure if I had a 270 or 360 degree wrap. It's quite tricky here in the UK to go back and see your surgeon but I do have a scheduled follow up anyway in early July. For now though I'll do as you say and make an appointment to see my general practioner. I may be able to see someone today. My hunch too is that ifs some kind of irritation brought on by poor diet and alcohol so I may need to lay off a bit for now - not good news as I'm off to a music festival this week :( I'll see what the doc says though.

Just to update, I saw my GP who wasn't really helpful at all. Didn't really seem to know what it was and said to eat bland foods for a while whilst giving me a prescription for Omeprazole which I'd hoped I'd seen the back of! I guess I'll try and be careful what I eat for the next few days and see what happens.

Hi TheBadger,
If your problem is caused by stomach inflammation, it'll take some time to heal. I've had gastritis that lasted a couple months before it began to heal. I was actually hospitalized with it (it was affecting my lungs--before my Nissen) and my GI group did NOTHING to help me, but change my PPI. There is no quick fix. It just takes healing time.

Now, I don't know if that's what your issue is, but if so, it will take time to get better. Whatever is causing your problem, I hope it gets better soon!
Denise

Even if your wrap is OK you can get some irritation and nausea, and a short course of a PPI can correct it. I sometimes go on them for 3-6 days for just nausea.

I sure wouldn't put up with only seeing a nurse for a visit. Doesn't your surgeon at least have residents who do some of the visits? I don't mind seeing them because at least they are seriously educated and trained and esperienced.

Hi TheBadger,

Perhaps if you put everything in writing, it would be easier to get your communication across. I'm fortunate in that I've got one of the few family doctors (PCP) who uses email to communicate with his patients. He says that his doctor friends fear that email will eat up all their time, but my doc feels it's actually saving him time, since communication through a middle-man is much more difficult.

If you typed/wrote whatever you wish to communicate, perhaps your doctors would be better at both receiving and responding to your questions and concerns.

Just a thought! Good luck with it all.
Denise