Gerd AFTER NF

You're still in the healing phase of the surgery. The swelling makes the wrap leak sometimes. Once the swelling goes down it will be better.

Are you chewing well and eating less than 1/2 cup of food a meal? Too much food can cause leaking too during the healing.

They went through your back? That's unusual...

Hi ladyinred,

Welcome to the Wrapped Club! You're in the in the thick of wrap-swelling right now.  My surgeon warned me that my wrap would become increasingly more swollen during the first two weeks.  The other thing he said (and it has been repeated often by others here) is that the esophagus is a dumb organ that interprets all pain as reflux. 

Could you be getting reflux? Possibly.  My surgeon said "anything is possible at your early stage of recovery" when I questioned him on reflux feelings I was having at about your stage. As Joy said, with the swelling, there can be some unevenness in the shape and fit of the wrap, which could allow some reflux through.

However, the "reflux" feeling you're having could simply be straight pain, which is always much worse at night.  Are you still taking the narcotic pain medication at night?  Definitely continue that.

One other thing that could be happening is food/medication getting stuck at the wrap site and irritating your wrap.  With the swelling, it becomes more difficult to get food and medication through and into the stomach, and at times it can get hung up at the base of the esophagus and slowly and gradually make it through the wrap.  In the meantime it can irritate the esophagus and cause pain that feels exactly like reflux (remember that "dumb organ").

Whatever the case, you're in the roughest stage of recovery, and it will get better with time.  We all had to go through those first few weeks, and it's not easy, I know.  Hang in there, go with the flow, surrender to your recovery and accept it as it is...it will improve with time.

Walking can help with the shoulder pain.  A very wise night nurse at the hospital clued me in on this.  She said that I should get up and walk whenever I got up to go the bathroom.  I walked in the hospital, dragging my IV pole along for the ride.  At home I walked laps around my house.  Eventually I started on my treadmill, but even if you don't have one, walking around your house regularly can be helpful.  That shoulder pain is very annoying and painful I know.  I found that the more I walked the less pain I had, and visa-versa.

Hang in there!

Happy healing,

Denise

ladtinred-

Awwwww....you had a thoracic surgeon and they used a thoracotomy. I have been through that recovery too. My last redo was by a thoracic surgeon, but he used an open belly incision since I had just had the thoracotomy 6 months prior. That will be quite a bit more painful during recovery, incision wise, than my open surgery.

Did you have to deal with a chest tube at all?

+2 of what Joy and Denise said about swelling and chewing. You are going to think it didn't work, but you must be patient and let your body heal. Think more like 6 months or more before really getting the full effect.

Take care,
Bill