Hello everyone out there. I posted a couple of weeks ago and on investigation, I have apparently done it all wrong. I should have done it by the means of a "NEW POST" so my apologies if I stepped on any toes by tacking mine on to someone elses post, so here goes.
I had a large hiatus hernia repaired with a Nissen fundoplication in 09. Recovery was quite slow afterward and I eventually had nearly 2 years of relief from it, although I did have quite a few bouts of what I gather was gastritis in between. Anyway, take some weight increase, coupled with tight clothing and heavy lifting and you have a disaster in the making. Disaster happened and I returned to the surgeon who did a endoscopy and assured me that everything was still fine as the wrap had only increased by 4mm. I was having pain under my sternum and my diaphragm, left and right side, bloating and problems using my bowels. After 2 more visits, he agreed that I had probably herniated my stomach again.
I requested a barium swallow to see what was going on and he said it was pointless and better to go in and look instead, as the pain was probably adhesions that needed sorting out and he would redo the nissen if neccesary. I had a NF redo at the end of March and had been doing ok except for and some difficulty swallowing.
He said that he had reinforced things with mesh and that the wrap itself was distorted, so he redone it. I had my follow up appointment 6 weeks after and we discussed the issue with swallowing. (my regime was 2 weeks fluid, 2 weeks puree, 2weeks soft, then a normal diet) I told him I was having trouble swallowing meat and would stay on my soft diet without meat for longer. He suggested that he may have to go in at some point and dilate the wrap a bit.
Well, 2 1/2 weeks ago I decided to try some meat without it being pureed. 3/4 through the meal I felt that things weren't going down so great and have been having problems since. Problems are still swallowing, slight regurgitation and really bad gas bloat, that's not making an exit at either end. By the end of the day I feel I could easily explode and can eat very little other than icecream and jelly in the evening. I suffer from iron deficiency also and have been getting 2 weekly injections from my GP and I told her I was having problems. She said it is not unusual to have these symptoms and gave me nexium 40mg and she will reveiw it when I have my next injection. I rang the surgeon a few days after and spoke to his secretary who said she would contact him and let him know what is going on.
She got back to me and he said that it is too far along for a problem with gas bloat to be caused by the surgery and suggested that I take lactalose( opening medicine ). He also said that if the nexium wasn't helping, then it obviously isn't reflux. I had been going to the toilet regular for the last few weeks but now that seems to be a problem, even with the lactalose and prune juice. I usually drink quite a bit of water, but having problems due to bloating. I seem to have this sensation of fluid in my gullet and have to keep swallowing. He suggested I stay on the soft diet longer as I have probably irritated my esophagus with eating the meat. My follow up isn't until the end of July and I get the feeling that he is giving me he brush off. I know in 09 when I had it done, I took a while to recover and I had flare ups with gastritis and voiced my concerns with him, which seemed to frustrate him. So still on the soft diet and only eating small amounts until I guess he reveiws me to have the wrap dialated. He seems like a good surgeon who has nothing but good reviews and appreciate everything he is done for me but it saddens me that he doesn't seem to understand that when you have been putting up with digestive problems for more that half your life, you get a little scared when things don't seem to be going so well. Has anyone experienced any of my symptoms? I am now approx 10 1/2 weeks post op.
Post Edited By Moderator (stkitt) : 6/13/2012 9:56:06 AM (GMT-6)