Dave's Nissen Fundoplication Part 2 of 2

I think it may have been food caught at the wrap site. Based on info from this site, I swallowed a tall glass of water, and then it forced me to burp (or expel air, I should call it). That opened things up to let the food pass and then I felt better.

I just started swimming again. I hope it's ok to swim, but swim to the point of exertion. I wouldn't think that would be harmful to the surgery, would it? I'm not lifting weights (yet - I'll do that after the 6 month mark), but has anyone ever heard of swimming hard hurting the surgery?

As always, its good to consult with your surgeon to be cleared for physical activity. In my case, at week 8 my surgeon told me I was free to exercise however I wanted. I am not really a weights guy, but I have swam, rode by bike and jogged. No problems at all. Feels great.

Hi Dave!

I am three months out since my Nissen 360 and I too have trouble with my wrap and stomach. A couple of days ago I ate too fast, and maybe a bit much, and the suffering afterwards was horrible. Felt like cramp and severe pain, couldn´t even walk straight. The day after that I ate some cookies and other "normal" stuff and was not beeing very careful about my wrap... Not smart. Since then I´ve had som pain and refluxy feelings around my chest and wrap, BUT I´m still on my PPIs, so don´t think it´s actual reflux. Just pain and a sore wrap site. I mean, my surgery was performed by some of the greatest bariatric surgeons in in Sweden AND I am still in PPIs, what are the odds of reflux? At least I hope so... And did I mention I still have LPR symptoms? But I´ve had that since the second I came out of surgery, and it has lessen over time.

Had a barium swallow in late january and it showed an abnormal amount of air in my stomach, guess that comes from not beeing able to burp properly? It also showed that I had 15 cm (6 inches?) of barium lingering in my esophagus, but it all went away after/within a minut afterwards. That beeing said, liquids and food obviosly takes a longer time to swallow/get down and my guess is that food also (still after 3 months) can get stuck and ferment. No barium sneaking out of stomach though during X-ray - good thing.

After I got these results back I started to take some pills for bloating, like Gas-X (Imogaze in Sweden), thinking my LPR problems and reflux symptoms could come from having too much gas.

Things have been better and even symptoms in my throat has cleard up a bit after taking these pills on a regular basis for a couple of weeks now. Just to make clear, I haven´t even felt bloated at all during my whole recovery, but clearly these pills does something to make my condition better. Maybe they eaze the pressure on my wrap? Maybe the pressure from that air beeing stuck in my stomach has caused all these weird post op pains reminding me of reflux and LPR? I´ll guess time will tell. So my tip is to all of you post-ops, try it out.

Hi maximus!

My diet is kind of far from "normal" I would say, eating much smaller portions and I chew, chew, chew. I also don´t eat spicy food and red meat. My diet is mostly potatos (all shapes and forms), avocados, qourn (vegetarian dish) fish, bananas and crispy bread (very common in Sweden). Don´t mind watching my food intake for a while, if this surgery turns out great in the end - it was all worth it. So I´m beeing careful and thinking recovery will take up to a year. Tried some red wine last weekend, but I got this burning feeling in my stomach right away. Never had that before surgery, has anyone else experienced this after Nissen? Remeber I´m still on my PPIs 60 mg/day.

Don´t know if I have a tight or loose wrap, but I´ll have a 360 one. When I had my barium swallow (3 months after surgery) everything looked normal, but the barium stayed in my esophagus longer than before, but the surgeon said that this will resolve over time and it´s because of the surgery and swelling.

I can burp some (I´ll guess?) but only when I drink something, maybe a forced tiiiny burp ones in a while. But nothing like before. I do not feel bloated, but after hearing that I had abnormal amounts of air in my stomach, I decided to use some anti-gas pills, thinking it couldn´t hurt.

I too have a sore throat, thats why I´m still on my PPIs. My throat was kind of okay before surgery, but right after I had this horrible sore throat and earlier LPR problems back. My throat has slowly become better over time, and this weird pressure that I had has lessen when I started taking anti-gas pills.

So, I am still on PPIs AND had surgery, so hopefully all these weird pains and GERD/LPR symptoms is a part of a looong healing process.

My surgeon told me he thinks everything will turn out great in the end, but it will take time. And he scheduled me for a PH-test in late april, because I asked for one. Want to sort this out, hoping everything will show no reflux.

Now the wrap site is sore. It is quite sore.

I'mn not going to take any multivitamins or any big pills tomorrow. No coffee, either. Nothing that I need to chew really well.

I'm going to take it back a few steps.

Could swimming hard have damaged the wrap???

Yeah, I'm not sure what is going on. It's a bit concerning, though I'm going to take it easy for a couple days.

My surgeon said that he highly doubts the wrap is damaged from swimming.

But when I do things, I do things strong. I swim like the Hulk! even though I'm extremely skinny now. Once I started swimming it felt so freaking good that I could not stop. I know you know what I'm talking about Maximus.

I felt great that day, and the day after, so what is going on now? Could it have been from all that eating too fast? I hope so.

It's on and off. I've just eaten a yogurt, and am drinking tea. No multivitamins or anything difficult to swallow. i will drink an Ensure or Boost for lunch. Possibly have some oatmeal. No coffee today or tomorrow (possibly no more at all). Tonight I will have what I had yesterday -- some salmon and lobster dip with some Ritz crackers.

My surgery site is sore, on the inside. It is a strong soreness. And it is radiating to my back, at the same spot. I don't know what is going on. Is that normal? The reflux symptoms from yesterday and when I woke up have me alarmed. I had been much, much more liberal with my eating, so I am thinking (hoping) that this is what is the cause.

I am going to be much stricter with what I consume, and no more swimming for me until I feel better.

Any insight any of you can share would be most, most, most appreciated.

I got some of those Gas-X strips like Non mentioned above....even though I feel no gas whatsoever, I will use them today and tomorrow and see if that helps anything.

I'm just concerned that, at 12 weeks, is all of this normal????? Or is it a sign of something bad? I really hope I didn't ruin anything by swimming powerfully about 5 days ago.

Placing a Gas-X mint strip in my mouth now.

How many of those per day would you recommend? What worked for you? How often did you take them?

Whatever it takes to feel better as this newfound pain is really a major concern for me.

I am just hoping I didn't ruin anything by power-swimming or lifting more than 15 lbs. At 12 weeks I figured it wouldn't be an issue.

Hi Dave!

I´ll take one after every meal, about four a day. I am not familiar with the strip ones, I´ll have the regular pills.

To respond to your earlier question about food: I´ll go back to my earlier food habits (post op habits) all the time. If I feel any discomfort some day, I´ll have soup or soft meals a couple of days. And I am pretty far from my normal eating habits, both in terms of meals and quantity. But as I said earlier, if this turns out great in the end- it was all worth it.

Can being slightly congested cause feelings of reflux in the chest? It feels worse after I just had my Ensure drink.

Can someone please advise.

Dave I remember getting congested after meals post op. I never really felt reflux as one of my symtoms so I can't say if it felt like reflux but it was a nuisance. It got better as days went on. My symptoms
Pre op was a burning sensation from my stomach to my mouth. It has gotten better since surgery but not at 100 percent yet. My throat and mouth still heals and I think it will take time. I need learn how to be more patient....

Can anyone advise?