Posted 5/19/2011 2:50 PM (GMT 0)
At around 5 weeks I posted about some problems I was having since my TIF surgery in February. Mainly I was having the same painful esophageal burning sensations that I had before the surgery, and I was sure that the TIF had not worked. Since then I have had the barium swallow test and 24-hour PH test, and both showed good results. That my surgery was intact and there was no acid washing up into my esophagus. At first I didn't understand the results, but now I see that I just needed to give it more time.
I am posting this because I felt panicked shortly after the surgery and I feel there are probably plenty of others out there who feel the same.
Here at 13 weeks I have gone on the hearburn pain scale from a 10 to about a 2, and half the time I feel no pain at all.
After my post-surgery tests my doctor attributed the pain to residual "stuff" that lingers in my esophagus - food, liquid and such that hadn't quite worked its way past the new valve. If I feel pain, to relieve it I take a Reglan before a meal, and the medicine helps "move" everything through the system, thus relieving the burning.
At first I took it before nearly every meal, but now I am down to just taking a Reglan every couple of days.
Also, my pain gets a bit worse under stressful conditions - the doc says in those circumstances I am prone a bit of an esophageal spasm. So he prescribed a tiny dose of anxiety medicine to take each day (I don't even feel any different). Voila! Now between these 2 meds I am nearly pain-free again. The doc says that he thinks that in a month or two I won't need any more meds at all.
I am just putting this out there for anyone who is suffering post-surgery or is worried about having the TIF surgery. This has been my experience. It hasn't been a quick-fix like I thought it would be, but I think I now see the light at the end of the tunnel.