HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Having the Nissen Fundoplication this Thursday!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Part 1 of 2

Support Forums
>
GERD & Acid Reflux
✚ New Topic locked
1 2 3 4 5 6 78 9
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 12/7/2011 3:07 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Floridagirl,

Welcome to the Healing Well GERD forum!  You've definitely come to the right place.  I can understand your fears, because I had them firsthand.

I had my Nissen in February 2009, after over four years of severe lung issues caused by GERD.  My reflux, though not extreme, was enough to get my asthma going, and I was using far too many steroids, nebulizer treatments, and was coughing constantly.

The docs couldn't get my lungs better for the surgery, so when I had it done I had been being treated for a lung infection.  It didn't clear, and consequently I coughed nonstop through my recovery.  I ended up getting Rocephen antibiotic shots, as my PCP didn't want to add antibiotics to my (normally) very sensitive stomach.

Here's a link to my posts during the first 19 days of my recovery.

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

Look, if you have a cold, you'll have to cough.  I worried endlessly, because I was coughing severely in an effort to raise mucous that was keeping me from breathing.  My husband did lung PT on me, to help raise it, but seriously, I coughed throughout my recovery.  I talked to my GI about it, and he was confident that it would be okay, but said (not very reassuringly) "What's the worst that can happen?  You'll just get a redo.  No  big deal."  Not all that reassuring, but I really didn't have a choice.

Long story short, I healed, my asthma improved dramatically by two months post op, and my wrap remained intact.  I actually had a surgeon do testing at the 2 and a half year mark at the request of my asthma doc.  (I have allergic asthma, and he wanted to rule out a failed wrap.)  Anyway, my wrap was intact and all was well.

Use a pillow against your stomach when you cough.  If it's just a throat cough, try cough syrup, or if that makes you sick to think about, try honey.  Mine was in my lungs, so none of that would work.

You may get some pain in your left rib incision area.  Ice will work well for that. 

I suggest that you start your own thread on the main page requesting information, and giving members a chance to find you and say hi.  This is a great place to get information and support from people who've gone through the same recovery you're experiencing.

Here's the link:  GERD - Heartburn

Just click the New Topic button at the top.

Again, glad you've joined us!

Hang in there.  It's very normal to have that gas bubble feeling.  Your wrap is very irritated, and swallowing makes it tired.  I remember taking a swallow of something and having it feel like I swallowed a huge bubble of air.  The early days of recovery are the toughest.  I don't know if your surgeon prepared you, but your wrap will become increasingly more swollen during the first two weeks of recovery, peaking around day 14.  Don't be surprised if your swallowing gets worse before it gets better.

Happy Healing! turn

Denise

Posted 12/7/2011 7:45 PM (GMT 0)

gruzek said...
Dave,

The most noticeable symptom I had from LPR was hoarseness. I kept thinking it was sinuses and my ENT said it was reflux. BTW, I had my wrap done nine weeks ago and I had all the sensations of reflux up to the 8 week mark including tasting acid in the back of my throat at night. I had also done some minor lifting around the 3 week mark and was sure I caused the wrap to slip. Otherwise, why would I be still tasting acid! Ultimately, I ended up getting a barium swallow and then an upper endoscopy which verified the wrap was fine and no reflux was present. They actually thought it may be too tight! Now, at nine weeks, I feel like I'm just starting to turn the corner. Healing takes a LONG time and I have a sense that as long as the surgery is done correctly, it will stand up fairly well.

Gary

Hi Gary..i have the same issue,still i feel like sour taste and night reflux.i am 5 weeks post op.i start last week feel sour taste all day i have to go next monday to barium test and endoscopy .i also think my wrap is too tigfht .
Posted 12/7/2011 10:51 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Soliver38,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing reflux symptoms.  My reflux symptoms began at the 3 to 4 week post op time and continued to get worse up through the the sixth week.  I was, and still am, on a PPI and it just seemed to quit working altogether.  I started sleeping on a wedge pillow and started using Carfate, Zantac, and Gaviscon just to sleep though the night.  My misery level peaked at the 6 week mark, and because of Thanksgiving I had to wait two weeks to get the endoscopy done.  I recovered enough before hand to stop all the medications for a week, however, I experienced some acid rebound which caused by stomach to be irritated.  So I'm back on the PPI and I'll start weening myself off when my stomach recovers. I have no reflux right now, just some discomfort from a raw stomach if I try to eat spicy food.  I suspect the area around my wrap got pretty irritated to the point where even bile was causing me trouble.  You may well have the same issues I do and as the wrap heals it will improve.  I know I'm not completely there since I still have some discomfort but it's now a 1 to 2 level of pain compared to a 6 to 7 before.

Gary

Posted 12/7/2011 11:17 PM (GMT 0)
Did any of you have LPR symptoms, like constant throat irratation, vapor gas like coming up to the mouth affecting tongue, teeth, gums, etc. This is kinda of what I'm going through. I don't feel a liquid reflux but more of a vapor. I can sleep flat, inclined, upside down...doesn't matter lol. That's why I'm looking into surgery to hopefully fix this......I'm considering the LINX.......
Posted 12/8/2011 2:18 AM (GMT 0)
Maximus -- more like vapor gas filling my lungs, making me feel like I couldn't breathe. Also wheezing and coughing. It was horrible. The thing is, I still get that feeling sometimes now that I'm 3 weeks post op. It may be from a chest cold I have, for which I've been taking antibiotics and mucinex (so I don't cough much at all anymore).....could that explain this old reflux feeling I have again?

I hope so.

But one thing is for sure -- I can eat sooooooo much easier now than before.

I think I'll start to try and eat food a little tougher and more normal than cheese. I've been eating a lot of cheese.
Posted 12/8/2011 2:21 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks Dave, this gives me more confidence in my Nissen surgeon. I was thinking of pursuing the linx in italy but the cost and troubles to go there is a lot. My main symptoms is a sore throat and mouths and gastritis pains. I hope Nissen helps with this. I can't wait too long....thanks
Posted 12/8/2011 2:31 AM (GMT 0)
My throat would also get so tight and sore that I couldn't speak correctly. Not sure if that was from reflux or just some weird kind of anxiety. Maybe anxiety caused by reflux. Who knows. All I do know is I dealt with it for many, many years.

I really hope this surgery works. I'm at 3 weeks post op and I swear I feel reflux, that old feeling in the lungs like gas vapor filling my bronchial tubes, suffocating me even though I know I can breathe....just miserably...

Gotta be from the cold I have -- symptoms seem so far gone because of the medicine I'm taking.....so the feeling in the chest doesn't immediately feel connected to a cold.....it's gotta be that....

I have faith in my surgeon and also in the strength of the wrap, after all, Denise had coughed a lot and hers is fine. And I didn't lift a huge amount, though sometimes I do lift more than 15 lbs (laptop to and from work, backpack and whatnot). It can't be helped. I hope that isn't a big deal as I don't carry the stuff too far. Other than that I significantly limit all lifting, bending over, etc, but sometimes it can't be helped.
Posted 12/8/2011 8:36 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Max, Hi Dave.
I am now 31 days or 4½ weeks post op. I had the Nissen fundo for the exact same symptoms as you describe.
I am still on PPI's but up until Tuesday this week I was actually starting to feel like the symptoms where slowly decreasing. However since Tuesday it has flared up again and I actually have a bit of stomach pain as if my stomach was irritated again.
I have also had a lot of trouble swallowing and food getting stuck. again that seemed to get better until Tuesday. Since then it has been worse again.

Overall I am still quite confident that this going to be good. I was told that for our symptoms Nissen was the best option but that the results could take a while before showing.
Regarding the recovery I feel very blessed compared to some of the stories you read. I have been running for a couple of weeks and have never had trouble with being bloated and burping is not an issue either. Actually my IBS has totally stopped too.

Whether to go for Nissen or not should be an individual choice. If you like me have felt you were missing out on life for the past 1½ year. If you have experienced friends you rarely see asking you “what has happened?”, then the choice gets easy.
Whether this becomes a big or small success, or not, I am happy I did it. I couldn’t live the way I did and had to try something. Again it is easy for me to say since I have had an easy recovery.
Posted 12/8/2011 8:40 PM (GMT 0)
Jasper,

So you had lpr symptoms and stomach pains as well?
Posted 12/8/2011 9:01 PM (GMT 0)
Yes, LPR symptoms.
The stomach trouble is a full chapter on its own :) but it wasn't painfull. More like very anoying but tolerable. And more anoying at times.
Posted 12/9/2011 12:11 AM (GMT 0)
I am 3 weeks post op today, and at work I have been feeling that suffocating lung reflux, as well as stomach pain.

I don't know what's going on.....I stopped coughing, and I'm taking antibiotics for a cold, but this feeling in my lungs doesn't feel like mucus at all. It feels like that suffocating reflux.

This waiting and feeling bad all over again is really, really discouraging. It feels like my reflux is worse than ever. Or maybe it's from getting over this cold. AAAAHH, it's so annoying!!! I felt like I couldn't breathe at work today, for the entire day!
Posted 12/9/2011 12:43 AM (GMT 0)
It was that genuine feeling of acid vapor suffocating my lungs.
Posted 12/9/2011 12:53 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Dave,

Are you taking PPIs now, or are you one who can't take them?  If you can take them, and you aren't, I would suggest considering getting back on them for a while in hopes of dealing with the possibility of errant reflux managing to find a way past your probably misshapen healing wrap.

The thing is that the damage that was done pre-Nissen will take time to improve post-Nissen.  It just takes time. 

Symptoms you have at 3 weeks mean absolutely nothing in regard to your outcome.  You're in the baby stages of recovery, and as my surgeon said, "Pretty much anything is possible at this stage of recovery."  That response was to the question of whether I might be getting reflux, as I was getting heartburn.

Don't worry if things take a turn for the worst.  I suspect you're scared that you may have done something to your wrap early on, and this is the result.  That is HIGHLY unlikely.  You have several months of heavy-duty healing ahead of you, and after that continued healing completing at one year post-op.  I found I continued to improve well into the second year.

So...try to relax.  Things will improve.  Don't stress!

Happy Healing!

Denise

Posted 12/9/2011 4:09 AM (GMT 0)
Are you sure? Because my reflux is full on right now.
Posted 12/9/2011 4:20 AM (GMT 0)
Could it be from the antibiotics? I know I can't take them or I get horrible flare ups. Are you taking any meds for the reflux? Sometimes if you have a little bit of reflux, which is normal, it can be interpreted as a lot of acid. What kind of diet are you on now? I know I will have a small amount of food that will get caught at the wrap and will feel like reflux. (I could be repeating stuff that has been said already, I haven't read all the comments) Thin liquids sneak right through my wrap but mine is a huge mess that I'm waiting to get fixed....again. I get the tight throat feeling from my anxiety. Keep hanging in there! The wrap needs time to settle into position also.
Posted 12/9/2011 4:24 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Dave,

Of course, I have no way of knowing what is going on in your situation, and how you feel.  I can tell you with assurance that at three weeks it is not uncommon to have reflux symptoms.  In addition, pains in the esophagus can be experienced as heartburn.

Also, if wraps are very tight, food and liquid held back at the wrap site can act exactly like reflux.  I remember having  burps excape from my stomach, that would send liquid and liquified food up to my mouth.  It was not reflux, but it sure acted like it.  Another thing that can happen is that foods can get stuck in the wrap, thus breaking the seal and allowing acid to escape.  Also the wrap can get irritated and present as pain.

I'm just saying that anyone in the first weeks of healing can drive themselves crazy trying to second guess their symptoms.  This surgery has a challenging recovery.  Most of your healing is going to take a full six months, and the remainder of this healing take a full year.  You are likely to continue to experience improvements past one year if you're anything like me. 

You are at the very infancy of your recovery from this surgery.  You're back to work, and your incisions have healed.  Because of that, it's hard to remember that your insides have been through major surgery.  Your upper GI tract has been radically revised, and it has a lot of adjusting to do.  It will take a long time to heal on the inside, even though your outsides seem to show that the recovery is complete.

People sometimes are so fearful that their wraps have failed that they put themselves through unnecessary tests, rather than relaxing into the recovery and allowing the symptoms to progress as they will.

Could you have ripped open your wrap and are now facing a redo?  Sure.  Anything is possible.  However, the odds are against that.  You can jump around from worry to worry as you progress through this recovery, or you can give it a chance to heal and have confidence that in the end all will be well.

If you are that fearful that you've done damage, you should contact your surgeon and share your fears and why you have them.  There is no sense in living in dread.  Just call, or even make an appointment to discuss what you're experiencing and what you're worried about.  Believe me, I understand why you are concerned.  Anybody would be.  I was!  Nobody wants a failed wrap, and this recovery isn't instantaneous.  It takes a lot of patience.

I'm just trying to help you remember that you've got a lot of healing ahead, and it's common to have all kinds of GERD type symptoms at the point of recovery you're dealing with.

Again, I urge you to talk to your surgeon, rather than worry endlessly about what might have happened to your wrap.

I'm sorry you're struggling so.  I hope things straighten around soon.

Denise

Post Edited (dencha) : 12/8/2011 9:29:57 PM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/9/2011 10:45 PM (GMT 0)

gruzek said...
Dave,

The most noticeable symptom I had from LPR was hoarseness. I kept thinking it was sinuses and my ENT said it was reflux. BTW, I had my wrap done nine weeks ago and I had all the sensations of reflux up to the 8 week mark including tasting acid in the back of my throat at night. I had also done some minor lifting around the 3 week mark and was sure I caused the wrap to slip. Otherwise, why would I be still tasting acid! Ultimately, I ended up getting a barium swallow and then an upper endoscopy which verified the wrap was fine and no reflux was present. They actually thought it may be too tight! Now, at nine weeks, I feel like I'm just starting to turn the corner. Healing takes a LONG time and I have a sense that as long as the surgery is done correctly, it will stand up fairly well.

Gary

Had my nissen on Nov-22 and hadn't logged in for a while. Still getting some mild heartburn (hoarseness my biggest problem over the years) and I'm really encouraged by what you've written here Gary...thanks.
Posted 12/10/2011 2:42 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Gary thank you...today i got barium test results..there is ineffective esophageal motility also oesophagitis,things i did not have before.the GI thinks it might be caused by the wrap maybe too tight or swelling the food stucks on top the wrap and irritate the esophage.i still have throat irritated by that reflux wich is not coming from stomach.i am so deperessed from my pain

Post Edited By Moderator (stkitt) : 12/10/2011 8:10:46 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 12/10/2011 3:13 PM (GMT 0)
Dave234

Hello and I am glad to see the great reponse you have received in your thread. May I suggest you think about starting a part 2 to this thread and we can leave a link to your part one in the new thread.

This thread is 7 pages long and sometimes people get lost trying to find what they are looking for in a thread so long.

I will leave it up to you as to what you are comfortable with.

Thinking of you and reading your thread.

Kindly,

Kitt

Posted 12/15/2011 7:19 AM (GMT 0)

Hi Badbrewin,

I saw my surgeon again today and he was happy with the test results.  He also made a point of telling me that he was going to caution patients that healing can take 6 months or more and to expect "bumps" along the way.  So, you have a ways to go yet.  I really think I helped myself by sleeping through the Thanksgiving week and I encourage you to get as much rest as possible.

Soliver38,

 

Do you have pain meds?  My surgeon gave me a liquid pain killer that I used to get through the night along with any antacids I could get my hands on.  And I slept almost sitting up.  I don't want to encourage using pain killers all the time but I didn't hold back when it got really bad. I also kept on a very mild diet.  Good luck to you and let me know how it goes.

Posted 12/15/2011 10:58 PM (GMT 0)
 Has anyone had great success with this surgery? I am 32 years old and want to have another baby, is this a surgery I would have to have after I have another baby?

 

Posted 12/16/2011 8:49 PM (GMT 0)
Dave, how are you feeling?  Im 8 days post op and scared to death! 
Posted 12/17/2011 1:36 AM (GMT 0)
Why are you scared to death, Nal?
Posted 12/17/2011 1:38 AM (GMT 0)
Everyone, I am feeling more confident with the surgery now...I know that it will take some time to really get totally better. I still get very, very mild reflux (less and less) and I imagine it will go away all on its own.

I'm at 4 weeks and one day.

I don't eat much, and I'm still eating very soft foods, like mashed potatos and oatmeal. Hey, if it help me to heal faster, then I'm all for it.

However my stomach (at the wrap site, and to the left, at the left incision) is more sore now than before. It noticeably hurts. Any advice? It is sore.
Posted 12/17/2011 3:13 AM (GMT 0)
Dave. I am Scared I did the wrong thing. My surgeon tells me I should be doing much better by now (8days out)and I had another ct today that was normal but I don't feel it. My stomach bloats so fast. I still have back pain. My dr is worried I'm not getting enough nutrition. Did your swallowing improve? At what point did things start to get better? Any advice?

Btw, you said your left incision hurts more? Did the dr check it? Did you have a hernia repair? I've been told that can cause it. Let's hope for better days right?
✚ New Topic locked
123456789