i have had my surgery done yesterday

soliver38

It is good to hear that your surgery is behind you and the post-op healing has begun.  Do talk with your Dr. re pain management.  Wishing you lots of healing thoughts and keep us posted.

kindly,

Kitt

Try some broth to keep up your strength. Sugar free jello, applesauce, and popsicles are good right now too.

thank you dencha and tnxs to the other.im trying my best with food,stll my shoulders r in pain also my throat..also cant walk for long.i dont know how much time it takes to feel better and to go outside.thank you all

What kind of surgery did you have?

i had nissen surgery for Gerd

I'm am scheduled to have a "hill" procedure in10 days and I'm getting cold feet fast. I'm not even sure I should get the surgery. I have a 4 cm hernia. I was on Prilosec twice a day for 2 years and eventually the Prilosec stopped working. I primarily had lpr symptoms. Now I am on nexium 40 mg once a day and I am virtually symptom free. If I skip a couple of days of the pill, it all comes back and it's brutal. Is getting off of ppi's reason enough for the surgery? My scope showed a beat up esophagus but no Barretts. But I know that long term these pills are bad. I dont want to do anymore damage to my esphagus and get barrets. I'm also really worried about the recovery and the future. I'm 44 and very active. I workout all the time, ski,etc.. Am I going to be limited in these activities 4, 6 12 months or more later? Or the rest of my life? Will I be able to drink a beer with friends and have that manly funny giant burp? I guess what I'm wondering is this. After recovery, is life like it was before the surgery (minus the gerd) ? Or is there somewhat of a handicap and limitation of activities? Do you ever forget that you had a wrap and it's an afterthought like a kidney stone or is it with you daily and you just learn to live with it? Thanks for any help. Brian

Hi Solivar,

I hope you're feeling a bit better with your recovery these days.  It takes time, but things will heal and you'll begin to notice a big difference.  Please stick around the forum and ask whatever questions you might think of.

Glad you've joined us!

Brian,

I wrote you a long post yesterday and when I got ready to send it my internet connection had disappeared and I lost the whole thing.

I had a Nissen surgery in February 2009, and I'm extremely glad I did.  If you'd like to read a little about my recovery, check out my forum journal in which I describe the first 19 days of recovery.

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=45&m=2183443

I had my surgery done because the acid reflux was affecting my lungs and making them very unhealthy.  I have asthma and my lungs are extra sensitive.

You asking yourself whether or not to go forward with the surgery, and these are good questions.  Actually, you are the only one to make that decison.  In my case I'd been trying not to have it for about five years and during those years my lungs because more and more unhealthy.  Finally I didn't think I had a choice.  I was on 40mg Protonix twice a day and 300mg Ranitidine at bedtime.  Still I was having trouble.

I do not think this is a surgery to have unless there is a very good reason.  Some have extreme reflux, with quantites of acid and food refluxing into their mouths, others have a burned esophagus or the reflux has caused strictures and they can't swallow well.  Some have very bad hiatus hernias that allow a large quantity of their stomachs to enter their chest cavity.  There are some who have severe reflux and are allergic to or get severe side effects from PPIs.

I assume you have had a PH monitor.  What was your DeMeester score?  Mine was very low, but that's not the reason I had the surgery...small amounts of reflux can cause havoc with lung tissue. 

In my humble opinion not wanting to take PPIs is not a good enough reason to have the surgery.  But I'm not you.  If I had been able to control my reflux enough to keep my lungs healthy I wouldn't have had it done.  That doesn't mean that it's not enough reason for you to get the surgery.  That might be enough for you.

Your activity level will be reduced for a few months.  You didn't mention weight-lifting.  I do think that's more affected. It would be something to discuss with your surgeon.  Many people get back into their normal exercise routine quickly.  I remember one member here when I first started posting a few years ago went on some huge bike ride by the second week.  I believe he went mountain climbing early on as well.  Everyone is different.

The Hill procedure is looser, and you may be able to burp at will.  I had a Nissen, and though I can burp, I can't make myself burp.  It just happens when it wants to.  I am a beer drinker and even with the tighter wrap I can drink beer easily.  I stay away from soda which has a much more aggressive carbonation.

I suggest that you start your own thread on the main page.  You might want to just copy and paste your post below to save yourself some time.  That way you will be able to reach more people and get more responses.  Here's the link:GERD - Heartburn

Good luck with your decision!

Take care,

Denise

Denise and bill, thanks for responding. I did put post on a new thread but no one responded to it. Here is my story in a nutshell. I'm 44. Three years ago I got heartburn for the first time ever. I thought it was a heart attack. I got scoped and they diagnosed me with gerd ( no hernia, no Barrett's) and put me on prilosec which worked great for a couple of years. Then I went through a very stressful time and started having lpr symptoms. So I started investigating further. I read this board a lot and ended up going to the same dr that couchtater went to. That was last may. He said I had a 4cm hernia and no Barrett's and told me I needed the surgery. During this time I switched from Prilosec to nexium. Nexium works great for me as long as I don't skip more than a day. I decided that if I was going to get the surgery it would be in the fall/winter because I didn't want to be recovering over the summer when I'm most active. Im one of those that has to work hard to keep weight on and the idea of no exercise and no food didn't appeal to me. Now that the time is here I'm very nervous and wondering if it's necessary. I mean I have friends that take ppi's for years and never get scoped and don't think anything about it, yet I'm terrified of getting cancer and probably worry way too much . But the
bottom line is this to me. Are pills just as effective as the surgery at keeping Barrett's , etc.. At bay? Does no pain mean no harm? I rarely have symptoms now. I still reflux food sometimes but it doesn't hurt at all. Are the pills supposed to stop reflux or just make the reflux non acidic? I guess you can't stop it with a hernia. I'm more afraid of destroying my esophagus than I am of the surgery, but pills may be just fine. I just don't know the answer. I have only suffered with really bad symptoms for probably 3 months total out of the past 3 years, yet my dr said that the bottom of my esophagus was calloused. Does that mean there is damage happening even when there is no pain? Or is that fairly normal for 44 year old. I've read that nexium and surgery are equally effective at preventing Barrett's, but I also read that nexium doesn't stop bile, which may be worse than acid. Right now I'm erring on the side of staying with the pills but the decision is torturing me. I dont even know if this is something i need to decide on quickly or not. Do i have time or does barretts, etc. take years to form? I may be making more out of all this than is necessary. Take the pills, stop stressing and shut up? Brian

Hi Brian,

The fact that your surgeon has not ordered the proper tests is a big red flag for me.  Highly qualified and experienced Nissen surgeons never, and I say NEVER do the surgery (whether a full or partial wrap) without doing the following tests:

endoscopy, barium swallow, 24hr PH monitor (that's where you get the DeMeester score), manometry, and possibly even a stomach emptying test.

I know that Joy has been very happy with her surgeon and surgical results.  I do know that she had all the typical testing before she had her surgery. 

A fine, fine surgeon who was checking me to see if I needed a redo surgery, said that the testing would help him deterimine if I'm a good candidate for the surgery.  If a surgeon does the procedure on someone who is not a good candidate can cause that person lots of long-term problems.  Having a surgeon who is extremely experienced and skilled in this particular surgery is essential.  A great surgeon isn't enough.  It has to be a great surgeon with lots of experience doing the wrap procedure.  Most people go by the rule of thumb that a surgeon should have 300+ successful procedures in a small city, and in a larger city the number should be 1000+.  Often people travel to large medical centers to take advantage of the extra experience and skills of surgeons there.

This surgery is not something to take lightly.  It's not something to do simply because a surgeon or doctor "doesn't like the medications".  You will face lifelong changes from this .  For people who have a real need to have the surgery, those changes are well worth the effort.  I, for one, would not want to deal with these issues if I didn't have a very good reason.  That said, I'm one of those people who gladly deal with the quirks created by the surgery to be free of the serious damage the reflux was doing to my lungs and therefore my entire body (because of the high doses of steroids I was forced to take.)

My first GI doc said that they rarely do the surgery now because the PPIs are so effective.  They do protect you as well as surgery.  There are some who need surgery because  the PPIs aren't working.  If at this time you feel that the Nexium you're taking is doing the job, you really don't have to worry about it.  Originally long term use of PPIs was not accepted practice, but it now is.  They've been used for decades and have been deemed safe.

I don't think you have to rush at all to make this decision. 

Hopefully others will be by soon to offer additional thoughts.

Good luck!

Denise

 

Good luck, Brian!

As they say, to a carpenter with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.  Surgeons do surgery.  Your idea of going to a GI doc and getting a second opinion is a great one. 

Take care,

Denise

sometimes i feel when i drink water that its come back into my mouth,or if i try to eat bread..maybe its to early to go solid food....my throat still irritated ,just 5 hours after surgery when i took some apple juice i felt a pyrosis...today i drive my car for 2 hours on the highway,i donno if its not recommended.anyway i dont know if i need bravo test to be sure that the reflux is gone..im now in my 7th day postop....

soliver-

It's way too early for bread and solid meat like beef. The wrap area swells after surgery and sometimes may take a a few weeks to go down. You can still have reflux while the area is swollen. Please don't be alarmed yet.

This recovery does take time, please be patient.

Take care,
Bill