Before surgery question

Hi there - I'm brand new to the forum but I was hoping to get some feedback and/or advice!
I'm a 36 y/o female and this all began a year ago for me... I started having severe gallbladder attacks where I would be violently ill every two or three weeks. I would throw up and wretch horribly for hours and finally had my gallbladder removed 10 months ago. 6 weeks post op I was awoken in the night again having what felt like a gallbladder attack - this continued every week to two weeks - I wouldn't throw up but felt the pain radiating into my back so terribly and could only go back to sleep when I'd taken a pain pill and would pass out. I returned to my surgeon who sent me for an ultra sound thinking maybe they had left some stones in me - that showed I had a rupture ovarian cyst and to give it time. I waitRed another month or two and continued with the pain and went to my family dr - she said a cyst wouldn't bug me for that long so I returned to the surgeon. I had an endoscopy which showed a hiatus hernia and inflamed stomach as well as the flap in my esophagus was open. I hadn't had any of the typical gerd symptoms that I noticed so he sent me for a 24 hr ph study and manometry test as well as the barium swallow. The barrium was normal but both the others showed a problem - he said the manometry showed I had little to no muscle working at the bottom of the my esophagus and the ph showed I had extreme reflux even though I was on omeprazole (which somewhat helped the pain - though didn't make it disappear). So now he is suggesting surgery as he thinks I have lived with reflux my whole life - my parents thought I was a colicky baby and had bad regurgitation - he thinks I've had reflux my whole life and leant to live with it for the most part until the extreme pain came along which he thinks was aggrevated by my gallbladder attacks. I do find that I clear my throat a lot - burp a lot (always have) and have always been able to throw up on command if I ate too much - never had an eating disorder though... I'm going to go see my family dr but my surgeon is pretty adamant that the only answer is surgery - so my question is just is it possible that I've had other symptoms my whole life and never noticed and will see an improvement on many levels if I do have surgery? While on the omaprazole I don't have the severe attacks but seems to jut feel pain more often - its just not debilitating, so do those who have been thru this think the survey will help me?? The last thing I wanted was another surgery - but I also don't want to be on drugs for the rear of my life....I appreciate in advance any comments!

Thanks for your reply Alcie!! He's told me he's done over 600 of this surgery and has a 90 to 95% success rate so I am pretty comfortable with him - you just read so much on the net that it freaks me out!! I'm going to see my family dr next week so hopefully she can settle my mind as well. I appreciate your response though it does definitely help!! Have a great weekend!!!

Yes

I hate hearing that a doctor is telling patients that he has a 90-95% success rate. What is his success rate after 5 years? 10 years? The average failure rate goes up dramatically as time goes on.

To be very blunt, fundoplications fail - it is just a matter of time. I would strongly advise that you ask him about his experience re-doing the procedure, and how long he has been doing this surgery. (If he's only been doing it 5-10 years, his patients are not coming back yet.)

I still advocate FOR the surgery (days away from my third), as it increases quality of life and reduces the risk for certain types of cancer. But, you should be skeptical of what surgeons tell you -- they make their livings cutting people open, and will sometimes just tell you what you want to hear.