My Nissen Fundoplication Recovery Journal

Jesper,

Did you start this nice menu after the 2nd week post-surgery? My instructions from my doctor is to start soft foods after the end of the 2nd week, although many foods/drinks are still prohibited (tomato sauce, alcohol, coffee, chocolates, fried food, spicy foods, hard cereal etc.).

I actually started this as early as day 4 and was advised to do it by my surgeon.
Obviously the meals where very, very small and I chewed until the food was like a liquid in my mouth. When I had pasta there where almost no pasta but a lot of sauce. The potatoes however became my friend from day one(or 4  ), with lots of gravy.
The oatmeal was a real life saver for me. I sometimes had it for snacks in the afternoon and evening too with honey.

If your doctor have told you to stay on liquid for 2 weeks, I would definitely follow that. There is probably a good reason why.

I am now day 5 post-op. My doctor advised me to begin on soft foods on day 3. Scrambled eggs never have tasted so good! I have had cream of wheat cereal, puddings. Pancakes this morning left me a little queasy though. Mac and cheese was good. I felt stronger, eating real food. And today is the first day that I have not been on pain meds all day. I have been running, on some days, a low-grade fever and I still feel pretty tired. I have asked my friends and family ( except my kids) not to visit me for another week. I was told that showering was ok, but not to take any baths!

One of my biggest complaints, that I have not seen mentioned, is that the skin all over my stomach area, not necessarily where the incisions are, is very painful to the touch. It almost feels like a sunburn, though it is not red or infected looking. I have tried every lotion that I own to make the pain less. Any suggestions??

Maximus,

Thank you SO MUCH for doing this recovery journal. I started showing symptoms of LPR about a month ago and honestly am still a little freaked. I've had intermittent heartburn and major indigestion most of my life (starting around age 12) but started getting constant burning in my throat rather suddenly. I know I have many options to try but it's so nice to hear that if all else fails, surgery might actually fix it. There are so many varying opinions on what does and does not work for LPR that it can be pretty panic inducing sometimes. So, again: thanks! I know I may not have to deal with this for the next 5 decades (I'm 28 too). You make this a million times easier.

Day 7:

FOOD:
Ok, I know I said I was going to stick with liquids for two weeks....but me and fiance went to Safeway to stock up on some groceries and there was no soup :( Fyi, Safeway has awesome soups for those post Nissen recovery people. The only thing they had was Mac n Cheese. I use to love Mac n Cheese when I was in college and I knew it was on the soft side so I decided to try it. To my surprise, it actually went down pretty well. I think the wrap is healing and the foods are going down much easier. I'm not getting as much mucous and hiccups as I did the first few days post op. So we stocked up on Boost (I love this drink....much better than Ensure), Pudding, Soups from Safeway, Mac n Cheese, and Mash Potatoes. I'm feeling a little adventurous and maybe will try the Mac n Cheese and Mash Potatoes one night ;) One thing I have to be careful is not to drink from a straw. Whenever I'm out and get a drink, I always have to remember to use no straw, take the cover off and drink....it's no biggie.

PAIN:
The only pain if I feel is in my throat. It's a lot better from Days 1-3 but I hope this gets better. I know the LPR did a lot damage to my throat and mouth and this is one area I hope to see some improvement. I remember my ENT telling me that the throat takes a long time to heal....months....so I'll be patient. The pains are tolerable a lot better from pre op but I thought I was wolverine for a minute because stomach pains are basically gone. It's amazing how fast you can heal from a surgery like this. I was joking with my fiance that I had a paper cut this morning that hurt more than the surgery incisions. I can bend down and get up with little pain and sleep on both sides with also little pain. The first few days after surgery I had a very hard time even getting up. I remember Tony saying his Day 2 was the hardest and boy was he right.

ACTIVITY LEVEL:
Today I was pretty active as I a got a good rest the night before. For those of you who are thinking of getting surgery, rest is key! One night I had only 4 hours and I was struggling the next day. When I get 8 hours it makes a huge difference. That is when the body is recovering. I did some laundry today but not lifting the loads just transferring clothes into the dryer....geeze that's not even doing laundry right? My fiance is helping me out a lot. She's going to be very strong after this lol. We did shopping at Safeway and Sam's Club mainly stocking up on the foods I will be eating over the course of the next few weeks. Typically I would carry the bulk of the shopping bags and I did that today without thinking. It definitely over 5lbs....at first I was like "what I'm doing....I shouldn't be carrying this" but decided to do it anyway. I did hurt anything but I have to learn to be more careful. It just feels awkward cause my mind is telling me to do it while I know I shouldn't be.

Overall, things are still looking bright. I can't wait to get to some good improvement in my throat but I know I suffered greatly pre op from LPR so I need lots of time to heal it. The stomach incisions are healing very good. I heard I'm suppose to leave the sterile strips on and that's what i will do. It was weird cause right after post op I gained 5lbs...which I believe was from all the IV fluids. But today I lost a total 8lbs so far. It feels great to lose some weight cause I actually forced myself to gain some weight pre op as I knew I would lose a lot. I would not recommend this. I think I knew I wasn't going to be able to enjoy a lot of the foods like Pizza's, meats, etc. so I pigged out in advance lol.

I signed up for some new tv services such as Hulu Plus and Blockbuster to help keep me occupied during this time. Any suggestions on good movies?

Take care everyone!

Day 8:

Overall felt very similar to previous days. No real big improvement...felt more or less the same. I think I might be expecting too much healing at this point. The incisions are healing great. The sterile strips are starting to fall off on its own. Stomach pain is very minimal. Only pain is in the throat which I hope gets better. My appetite is slowly increasing. Today I ate a lot of soft foods even though I was going to try liquids for two weeks. I had a baked potato which I chewed and chewed and also some mac n cheese. Both went down really nicely. However, if I drank liquids in between bites, I could feel something getting hung up. Nothing painful but just an observation. Overall, I'm doing fine. But I think I was getting overly excited of how much I improved over the first few days that I thought it would continue. It started to taper off a little. I hope one day I will be near 100%. I would say right now I'm close to 80%. Pre surgery man I probably was at 20-30%. That I should I always keep in mind.

Jesper,

Thanks for the tip. I'll remember that. Sometimes I tend to forget I went through a NF Surgery and end up eating and drinking like I did before. Big no no. I feel the liquid get caught up above the wrap. It's not really painful but an awkward feeling. If I take my time like I'm suppose to, it's not that bad.

Day 10,

Similar to Day 9. Only pains are in the throat and mouth area. Stomach pains are basically gone. Incisions are healing real nice and no pain from the incisions or from the wrap site. The only pains I feel is from the previous LPR damage. Once this subsides, it will call for a celebration. I do think operation overall improved my situation dramatically. But it's hard sometimes cause I wish my throat would heal as fast as my stomach.

Diet wise, I'm drinking Boost, Pudding, popsicles, ice cream, pasta, potatoes. Didn't try anything else yet.

Lost about 6-8 lbs so far. I thought I would lose much more. Maybe I shouldn't have binged eat before surgery lol.

Activity is good, walking quite a bit. I will discuss exercising with my surgeon when I meet with him next week. I have some exercise bands that are great for rehab and not as dangerous as weights to the wrap I believe.

Com'n throat heal already..:) Patience is key...something I still gotta learn.

Also, I'm going to be starting work next friday.

So that's a total of 18 days of rest post surgery.

Today, I when I woke up, my throat actually felt better for the first time in a while. I hope it's turning the corner ;)

Ok ok what is going on with the throat? I have been reading this waiting for a happy ending to your throat pains. I go in for fundoplication tomorrow morning for LPR and have been thankful to read your post.

Hi Max,

It sounds like you're doing great.  Remember, don't struggle against your recovery.  Relax, surrender, and let it happen.  If you're in a hurry to see results, it'll seem like 6 years, rather than 6 months as you move toward healing. 

Go with the flow.  You'll need patience and trust as you go through this healing process.  Worrying about your progress won't do anything but add stress, and you know the negative effect that can have on you stomach!

Keep up the great work!

Denise

Day 20,

Ok, so overall I'm doing ok but I think my expectations of how fast I should be feeling 100% or close to it is too high.

I saw my surgeon at about Day 18 post op and told him that I felt like I still had some LPR symptoms, burning in my throat/mouth. He said, stick to the post operative diet religiously and do not worry about it.

He says that my case is not unusual and it may take months to see a change but trust in the surgery as it will help. He said as far as the surgery, everything went perfect.

To tell you the truth, I'm not even sure if I'm feeling reflux/lpr symptoms or if it is healing. It's hard to distinguish. I was never a volume refluxer or felt liquid reflux. Maybe twice in the past year when running.

It was more of a burning vapor feeling. I did not have respiratory problems also.

One thing I do note is that before surgery, I had these uncomforatble tickling/burning feelings in my stomach almost near the LES i think. Those symptoms definitely improved. I just wish my throat/mouth would feel better.

The surgeon also said at 6 months is when you should be 90% healed from the surgery. He mentioned that the sutures only aiding the wrap and that once everything heals and settles, you should feel the full benefits of the surgery.

I know problem eating but I'm sticking with the liquid/soft food diet. I don't have any problems with gas or burping (although I can't do large burps like before but I can burp if I have to.) I have been jogging daily and doing light band exercises which feel great. I barely any pain from the surgery itself and the incisions are healing nicely.

I would say if the LPR symptoms subside, everything will be a success with no side effects.....please go away :0

Words of encouragement from experienced ones are always welcome :)