David's Nissen Journey ~Surgery 11/1 Part 2 of 2

Hi Diaaz,

Glad to hear that you're having a good day! It takes time, but you'll get to the point when you feel back to normal. This recovery is challenging, but very manageable, if you have patience and a positive attitude. It is all much easier to cope with when you just surrender to the process, and go with the flow.

Your body will heal in its own sweet time. It takes time for your upper GI tract to adjust to the changes, but it will. Acceptance of what is, is the key!

Trust that it will all come together. Believe it or not, I even found fine-tuning improvements into the second year!

Happy healing,
Denise

Update: 11 weeks, Barium swallow test today.

Today I had the barium swallow test. They had me swallow in a lot more positions than they had me do before. When I drank the barium, my whole esophagus from top to bottom ballooned, and eventually the liquid would go down, but you could see obvious resistance with liquids getting down. It takes several seconds for liquid to get past the wrap while in the upright position.

Not so in the laying down position. When I lay down, on my back or my side, no liquid at all gets past the wrap. Every last drop of what I drink balloons in my esophagus and does not get past the wrap, at least until I sit up again.

It would appear that I need gravity to get things past my wrap. Eating has still gotten slightly easier, but I did throw up some of my food again during lunch.

On the other hand when I got to work today, I was feeling so good physically that I felt some of the best improvements of my GERD to date. For a while I didn't even realize what was going on, but at some point when I was working at my desk, I realized that I was feeling pretty good. (The last few weeks weren't the greatest.) Enough to the point where there was no need to clear my throat or cough. I always have a huge difficulty concentrating, and caffeine is always a double edged sword in that it helps me concentrate and be more productive, but also makes my symptoms come back with a vengeance. After drinking some coffee, some of those symptoms did come back, but not as bad as usual. We will continue to see how long the periods of no acid reflux last. Of course I inflicted some of it on myself with that coffee. I was so much more productive working with it though.

Post Edited (Diaas2) : 1/17/2014 11:28:25 AM (GMT-7)

Yeah, it will be very interesting to hear what my surgeon says. I will visit him tomorrow at 9am.

During one of the barium swallows, you could see some liquid refluxing, going in the wrong direction, especially as my esophagus would balloon as liquid would get stuck trying to go down.

I'm glad to have way less reflux, I'd be concerned that dilation could cause some of those symptoms to return? I'll clear my throat and spit up phlegm into the trashcan at my desk at work right after I clear my throat each time. The phlegm attaches itself to the side of a hanging paper towel and wont even slide down the towel with gravity. It sticks right to the side of it as the towel hangs.

Then again, maybe its the difficulty for foods/liquids to get down that contribute to some of those symptoms.

Have people had dilations done without causing symptoms to return?

That's interesting about the mucous production, it does make sense. Maybe that mucus production is because the wrap is too tight?

I saw the surgeon yesterday. When I told him of my eating problems, he was a bit surprised. "Really?" He said.

He said that he could go back in and adjust one of the sutures. But that by doing so, would allow more acid to rise.

I wasn't sure that I wanted to allow any more acid to rise, although from what you are saying about the mucus being produced to battle the irritation in the esophagus near the wrap site, maybe it wouldn't hurt to adjust the sutures.

He noted that it could have to be a life style change that I need to sit upright when I eat, because he noticed how in the x-ray/barium swallow that nothing goes down unless gravity is there to help.

I told him I'd be okay with waiting it out for a while to see how things go, so he agreed to see me in two months again.

I'd like to see what kind of improvements more healing can bring, and I'm also hoping that through time and eating, that my wrap will loosen up a bit so it's not so darn hard to eat. Every bite is a challenge sometimes. But I love the improvements in my symptoms.

It's a double edged sword. Whatever it is I do, I want it to be for the best. It's hard to know what's for the best right now.

Overall, I'm very happy. The eating does suck though. I guess we will see how things go.

Hey Stephanie! I probably should. I didn't want to jump the gun on any of that until I had more time to heal. I figured the responses I'd get would be, "we can't really figure out what's going on until some of that swelling has gone down, and you've healed a bit."

I'm still hoping I'll see improvements in the next two months too, when I see my surgeon again.

How are you feeling? about five months out, right?

Edit: I saw your last post. I'm glad you're doing so well.

Post Edited (Diaas2) : 1/23/2014 1:11:38 PM (GMT-7)

>>>>The only issues I had with the Holiday is that I ate too much and paid the price for it with stomach pain.

I ate sensibly all day today, then had a second slice of fruit cake this evening. I can't stand up straight at the moment.

Overeating seems more binary than a gradual process now. One mouthful I'm comfortable, the next I feel bloated and in pain.

Stephanie,

I know what you mean about the quantity of foods.. I'm finding I can eat more and more all the time. I bet you had fun in Cali. That makes sense about feeling so good and then eating quick. I'm glad you came back to post some more again.

ldrunner,

I'm glad I can help! Despite all the things you read on here, I'm actually feeling pretty good! Just a little bit of difficulty with the eating. I'm sorry if all this stuff sounds negative.

My goal has been to be completely honest, while being positive at the same time. Truth be told, despite some of the eating difficulties, I feel way better than I have for as long as I can remember. Sometimes, despite all this whining about eating, I need to remind people about that too. It's all been completely worth it!

Thanks Denise, it's no problem!

I started working out a bit today. I was doing Tracy Anderson's Transform muscular structure workout this morning. I got it for free on the Xbox One.

That girl can do all kinds of body movements and makes it look perfectly easy. I don't plan on overdoing it. Although I'm not looking for excuses why not to work out either.

Hi Dave,
It's good to hear that your swallowing is feeling better! Take it easy with the hamburger. If you're anything like me, the burger might be irritating to your wrap. Give it a try and see what happens! Just don't worry if you get some irritation. It's not forever.

Probably a great quality burger might work better, but in my experience, it's hard to get it chewed to a creamy consistency, and it seems to maintain some of the "ground" quality. My wrap always bothered me a bit after eating hamburger in the early months. Now...no problem!

That's the thing to always remember...just because you feel a certain way in the first year, doesn't mean that you will feel that way forever. It takes time for healing and for your upper GI tract to adapt to the changes.

Raw veggies and salads were rough on my wrap for the first year or so. Now I can eat them with abandon...no trouble at all. It just takes some time and patience. It'll happen!

Thanks for posting your progress!
Happy healing,
Denise

Happy belated birthday Diaas2! You sounds like you are doing great!

I wish I could say the same for myself. My nissen came apart at some time, don't know when or how. I need a redo. I'm upset, but not afraid as I was before. I assume they will use some mesh to strengthen the area on my redo.