Pre and post Nissen, my experience.

Hi All,

RE-EDITED - I am now two weeks post op. So this is more of a before and after journey through the whole process of the Nissen procedure.

Currently I am at the recovery stage.

EDITED POST - Actually now down to 4 hours to go people.

Thats tomorrow. I am having it happen, tomorrow! Wowzer....

 

As the title proclaims, I have started my countdown. 21 days!!

And I just don't know how to feel about it.

Went to my enterologist yesterday, and he said that it's time. Things are only getting worse in there. My valve is totally open - thus absolutley no barrier between stomach and esophagus. All as a result of hernia!

So - how am I supposed to feel about it...?

On one hand, I'm excited. Knowing that in a couple of months I may be able to live a semi normal life. Heck, let's be honest here, I am actually hoping for the best! The kinda life where I can eat pizza, have a beer, or have a Sunday afternoon lunch followed by a snooze with the rest of the family.

Will settle if need be for some semblance of normalcy.

On the other, have never had any "procedures" performed upon my person! So to say that I'm a little stressed about it is an understatement. Mix the normal common aprehension with the fact that I have had a history of anxiety and panic attacks, well... I'm not looking forward to it that much at all!

So that's my conundrum at this junction.

Overall - I have managed my anxiety very well over the past years almost to the point where I would like to say that I'm cured! But always there lurks that doubt, and I guess it is more prevelant, obviously, when it comes to health related issues. As anyone with anxiety may be able to attest. So I am very positive about it and am going to do it! It's just that that nagging fear of what it's going to be like afterwards that haunts me. Like, will I freak out when coming to because I've had objects within me. That there's peculiar pains at my core! That my inards have been shuffled like some deck of cards. That my normal functioning, like swallowing, burping etc has been altered.

I know. It's just worries, and other people have survived it all and gone through the pain. So why couldn't I?

It's like - Man Up! Just Do it!. Concentrate on the positive outcomes in the long run. Get it over with. I am. I'm going for it. There are no but's. I shall venture where many of you have braved before.

I guess, I am just asking for some support from you kind and already forthcoming people. Some advice, reassurance. Tips from your wisdom.

Also. Am Idoing the right thing? I believe I am. My throat lining is raw and just short of Barretts (I hope). I have an reaction to PPI's. Ulsanic sort of works margianlly. But I do believe I need a long term solution. So am I doing the right thing. Eish.... I believe so!?

One just wants to know they're doing the right thing and what to expect. There are no garuntees, only hope and good expectancies that might just be the difference between a miserable from now and always, or an amazing success blessed with many pain free meals, drinks and sleeps in my future.

There's no turning back. All that's going to happen when it happens, is going to happen! Good and bad. I just wish to know how I'm meant to approach this thing. How I feel about it.

Well. Promise you I will keep you posted. Hopefully - and as far as possible, daily! Pre and post op! For all you especially that may be in the same boat as I in the future. Part of me wants to not think about it. Worry only about it a couple of days before the procedure. But I guess, like many of you reading this, I'm just not wired like that. I want to know and understand what I'm going through. So best if I could interact with the likes of you that have the experience, may be experiencing, and may yet experience all that goes with this horrible affliction. For it is you that best understands.

21 days. Three weeks. Not long to go.

So.... the countdown, it has begun.

Stressed anticipation.

Darryl

Post Edited (Darryl) : 9/22/2011 5:13:52 AM (GMT-6)

Lol, thanks Ash - I have just finnished reading it just before seeing your response! I had to thank her for exactly that. It really is reasuring!
Thanks so much!!

You'll feel how you feel, not long now, try not to worry about worrying, that's a trap I know too well. well done for going for it. I was worried about the op and recovery too, never mind the end result?! I slept flat on my back last night for the first time in years....and I slept! That's made it all worth it! I had my op Monday, just finished day three post op. Its still early days but I have hope.

yes denchas journal was a big help to me too. Hang in there, your feelings are similar to mine. I still dont know my end result and I did not like the general anesthetic one bit but I would not change it. Stay sane
Kevin

Thanks Darryl for posting. I am exploring surgery for my gerd.
I have struggled with moderate to severe persistent asthma for 3 1/2 years and after all the allergy shots, Xolair, Singulair, antihistamines, long acting and short acting bronchodilators, doubling up on steroid inhalers, adding prednisone, etc. it has become apparent that gerd is my primary cause of asthma. PPIs and H2 agonists haven't helped very much. I also have anxiety and I completely relate to what you posted. I find in the gerd-asthma-anxiety triad that each one worsens the other and all have troubled me to some degree since I was in high school. I am 44.
I will be following your progress and I wish you well!
I'll also be looking into dencha's posts.
One question I have is how much weight do most people lose in the post op weeks. My pulmonologist is alway after me to gain weight and losing weight won't be a desirable effect for me.
Thanks.

Hi Darryl

Ditto on the anxiety bit; pre-op and otherwise. Regular anxiety can drag you down big time but anxiety AND GERD can make a blithering idiot out of you - I know it did of me. My LES was wide open and I had a hernia too.

I'm so glad - if you're going to have to have this surgery - that you're having it while you're young. I should have had it many years ago but in the area I live in I don't know that anyone would have known about it.

I had NF soon to be 3 weeks ago now and I'm already taking it for granted that I don't have reflux anymore. That nasty acid can do so many things to your whole body and not just to your esophagus.

I did everything I could for over 30 year to manage/control the acid and I finally just decided in the last 11 years at some point that I just had to grin and bear it and that's when, even with meds etc, that I began to go downhill.

I've had two babies, gall bladder removal, hysterectomy, and last year tonsils, adenoids removed and sinus reduction and deviated septum repair all to try to keep from wearing a CPAP breathing machine which I just MAY be wearing due to swelling from the GERD. Also the surgeries were for the constant ever-lovin' sinus drainage and sore throat that was actually coming from GERD frying my sinuses at night. Surgery didn't help it at all - it just kept right on draining.

When the GI blew out my last esophageal stricture and the "acid from hell" descended upon me I finally saw my GI again in his office and told him I had no quality of life and I had to have a better answer than medication. His answer was "Well, it may be time for Nissen Fundoplication". After 11 years of torture and the last 3 years of living like a hermit I was ready for it.

Scared? Nervous? Yep - even after all the other procedures on my old bod I was a bit scared because this was a procedure I'd never heard of till about 10 days before I went under the proverbial knife.

I call myself "Rita the Whiner" and it's a badge I wear proudly. I am who I am and that's just the way it is.

So, "man-up" like I did. March into surgery in that awful gown that opens down the back, wake up from the surgery wondering if you "did the right thing" and enjoy your first night of no acid in a very long time.

I will not be the one to tell you that it is easy. It may be my age but the tonsil, sinus and nasal repair were not easy on this old lady but this surgery was and continues to be "different". Your recovery will feel strange, your taste buds and taste may change, you may lose some weight and you may not.

But, three weeks post-op and all the anxiety I've had recovering I'd still do it again because I HAD NO LIFE at all when the acid got so bad.

I'm here for you in all my "whiny-ness" and anxiety and doubt and up-and-down recovery experiences but I'd still do it again. Just be yourself - stressed out and all - and as we said in the 70s' "let it all hang out"

I could never write a daily recovery journal because I'm so negative and "need to know everything" that I'd probably get kicked off the forum for scaring people but I'd have to be honest if I had ever written one. I think the surgery and recovery might be easier on folks without pre-existing anxiety problems. Just my opinion.

As it is, I've come and checked in and picked brains and took the good parts that helped me and ignored the people whose recovery has or is not going the way mine is.

Keep in mind that I'd do it again but it has not been easy so far for me due to my normal level of anxiety and my issues with sleep apnea.

You're young and healthy and this will hopefully be much easier on you than it has been for me. I like to eat and I don't mean noodle soup. I know one day my diet will be more normal but at my age I don't know that it will ever reach a pre-surgical level.

Still I'd do it again in a NY minute.

Keep us posted and hang in there!
Rita

Darryl-
I am down to 4 days now! Can't wait! I'm on my 3rd Nissen in5 years because of other issues. My second was absolutely perfect, but ruined to repair my esophagus. I have a bit more anxiety this time because it will be an open surgery, but I know I have to get it done or live miserable. I know what it feels like to reflux free and I want that again badly. 20 days will fly by.

Take care,
Bill

19 days.....

Hey All.

Today I am in a great mood! I am peace with what's going to happen. Yeasterday I wasn't so... I was thinking - isn't there something else I should try first. I read a post on Motilium, and my imediate thought was that perhaps that is my answer. Perhaps that would save me from the table!

But you know what, I think I've hung on to every other hope, and tried every other little natural or medical remedy, alas, they were all not to be. I guess we're all different. Things worked for others, doesn;t mean they'l work for me. In the end, we all have different levels of this condition. And therefore require different treatments in the end to solve it.

I know believe my answer lies with the op. I am running out of time to experiment and try different avenues. Every day that goes by brings up more and more acid. I don't even feel the burning that much anymore, because the esophagus is scarring so much. And therein lies the problem. I think I am at the starting stage of Barrets. So I can't play around here anymore by trying in the just to get some relief from the symptoms! I got to sort this b**t*h out!

So whinnig Rita, I think I have a great ass, so not going to mind the open back gown thingy so much - I will let it all hang out! I shall keep you posted as I battle my anxieties and head towards that day. You're right, you have no life when this takes over. I miss out on all my friends braais (BBQ) and parties. I may go sometimes, but I kinda get to leaving early as it's just not the same for me as it is for them. I want the life part!

Thanks for the sagely advise Sandi. I supppose young is a relative term! Right now I feel I'm 76! But that's why I need this. I think so many days I feel terrible is because there is acid sitting in my throat and not where it should be. Not even just the acid, but the volume of regurgitation is immense as my Doc puts it. So I think that's cause for many days of discomfort. By the way, do you guys out there get that too? I wake up great. Healthy and strong. I eat a small breakfast, and am thus still on the fine side of life. After lunch however my physiology begins to change. I start not feeling so nice anymore. I may not have the heartburn pain, but everything in my chest starts becoming symptomatic. I don't know how to describe it, it just begins to all feel wrong. And then especially if I do make a mistake of having a form of dinner. Then it's bad. I can only fall asleep then if I vomit. And after purging myself of whatevers in me, I actually feel so much better.

Messed up huh?

Yiou know - I could live with the vomitting bit, cause it gets rid of everything. The problem is that it is doing so much damage to my esophagus. It's something you don't realise when you're still ignorant to the details of your body. So yes, it's no way to live.

So Joy, I too want to do a little "jig" soon when I remove the bedrisers! And I shall cheers to you and all of you that have helped with encouragement. Even for those there that silently suffer with us.

Have a lekker (nice in SAfrica) day you guys!
Darryl

18 days....

Howzit all.

I don't know if I'm considering myself brave??? But I'm not stressed at all right now. I want to believe this is how I'm going to go into the whole gig, but my doubts just tell me that wait, the panic will come. Wait till a couple of days before - then we'll talk again.

Ahh well, if that be the case, we'll deal with it then. Right now, I'm not fretting so much about it.

Status update. It's been 6 whole days since I last threw up!!! Great huh?
I kind of get to thinking then, is there no way out for me that does not include the surgery??? Any ideas??
Well, the fact remains that my esophagus is in BAD shape. I am not tolerant to PPI's. And that the Ulsanic (Sucralfate?) is NOT a long term solution. In fact, I believe you stand a good chance of alzheimers!! I know I'm searching for a way out!?!?!?

Yeah Rita, in SA, and love it. But also I love traveling. I want to back the world if I could.... But with this condition - I don't think it's all that easy.

Have a lekker day all
happy healing
Darryl

Hi Darryl,

I am 19 days away from my nissen fundoplication and very nervous also. Some days are better than others. I know I have made the right decision as I cannot live with this condition anymore, I also have barretts with my hiatal hernia and repeated bouts of gastritis/esophagitis causing severe chest pain and overall feeling like I have the flu all the time. I am hopeful for the both of us that life will be great for us again after this surgery is over, well not immediately great, haha, but we will both get through it and recooperate and be stronger for it. Don't know about you, but I am looking forward to the holidays without gerd and chest pain and vomiting and complaining about it. Take care and best of luck to you. I truly am right there with ya.

Well, I do feel much better today. I actually made the bed this morning. Hubby almost fainted.

I think the surgery goes better on younger people just because they're young. I'm sure I'll be fine eventually. I waited too long to have it and that didn't help me any.

I'm glad you and others younger than I am have the opportunity to live a long Gerd-free life.

Blessings!
Rita

Ta guys,

17 days. Eish, the time fast cometh.

Yeah, at times like this I wish I had a wife.
Maybe?
So I'm hoping my mommy will be there with me that day. I'm sure she will. The folks would never not be there.

Go Rita go. Good to hear it's on the up!

Darryl

Ahhh.... Bless!

16 days.......

Yup, my parents live close by and don't doubt that one if not both will be by my side!

AND, it's mom's Birthday today!!

Darryl

Hi Daryl,

Your post-op pain won't be bad at all. You'll get morphine in the hospital, then they'll switch you over to an oral medication so you can find out if it's sufficient before you leave the hospital. At home you may only need the narcotic meds for a day or two. Sometimes they're good to take at night when everything's quiet. Sometimes something you wouldn't notice with the activity during the day hurts more at 3 AM.

Honestly, the surgery is amazingly easy. Your swallowing will be weird right after surgery, but within a few hours, you'll be drinking water with relative ease.

Just know that while it's a very manageable recovery, it is a recovery that takes patience. Your outsides recover very quickly, but your insides take time. Your eating will progress slowly, and you'll only be taking small bites. You'll want to eat small meals often, rather than trying to eat more at one sitting.

That said, once your full recovery has been achieved, you'll be able to go back to your normal eating patterns.

Good luck! We'll be here to answer your questions and provide lots of support!
Denise